Well, it’s another week where we’re relying on the album chart for activity. But first…

1. LF System – “Afraid to Feel”

That’s eight weeks. Still not the longest run of the year – Harry Styles’ “As It Was” stayed at number 1 for ten weeks. It’s holding off “B.O.T.A. (Baddest of Them All)” by Eliza Rose & Interplanetary Criminal, which spends a second week at number 2, and “Green Green Grass” by George Ezra, which has been hovering in the top five for ten weeks now, and gets its fourth (non-consecutive) week at number 3.

6. Aitch & Ed Sheeran – “My G”

And the prospect of a top 40 with no Ed Sheeran songs in it recedes just a little further. This is the release-week single from Aitch’s debut album “Close To Home”, which enters at number 2. That’s the sort of very technical “debut album” that follows two mixtapes that both made the top 10 in 2019 and 2020… but okay.

Being an Ed Sheeran collaboration, this is Aitch at his most sentimental, but then in fairness, it’s a song about his 12-year-old sister Gracie, who has Down’s Syndrome. She is, apparently, a big Ed Sheeran fan.

The album is being pushed as the first NFT to enter the UK album chart, but that’s not really true – what he’s doing is bundling an NFT with some copies of the physical album. In theory, the chart rules do allow actual NFT albums to chart, but it’s a completely marginal thing. Muse’s new album is available in NFT format, for example, but in a limited edition of 1,000; that’s just a gimmick.

22. Blackpink – “Pink Venom”

One of their higher-placing singles in the UK, though they’ve made it as high as 17 in the past. It’s the lead single from their second album, and the video is the sort of ludicrous spectacle that K-pop does so well. Blackpink have previously been very much a fanbase act who get a week in the mid-chart and plunge in week two, but it’s been a couple of years since we last saw them, so you never know.

40. Fred again.. & Swedish House Mafia featuring Future- “Turn On The Lights Again”

A second minor hit for Fred again.. (yes, with two full stops), who had a number 36 hit last spring with the Covid-themed single “Marea (We’ve Lost Dancing)”. The Swedish House Mafia are a bigger name but this doesn’t really bring their sound to mind. It’s quite good, in fact. If it doesn’t progress further, this will be the smallest SHM hit by a mile – they’ve never previously charted below number 15.

This week’s climbers:

• “I Ain’t Worried” by OneRepublic climbs 6-5.
• “Super Freaky Girl” by Nicki Minaj climbs 15-10, and that is a surprise. Nicki Minaj hasn’t had a top 10 hit as a lead artist since 2014.
• “Big City Life” by Luude & Mattafix climbs 16-11.
• “Snap” by Rosa Linn climbs 26-23. I haven’t mentioned this since it entered at number 26 four weeks ago, but it’s been hovering in the low 20s since then, and its second life is a remarkable thing for a track that started as the Armenian entry to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
• “Under the Influence” by Chris Brown climbs 32-24.
• “Sunroof” by Nicky Youre & Dazy climbs 33-29.f

There are three new entries this week, plus re-entries for Tom Grennan at 38 and the Glass Animals at 39. The five records making room for them:

• “Alien Superstar” by Beyoncé was an album track that got to number 16 and hung around for a couple of weeks.
• “Don’t Forget My Love” by Diplo & Miguel, which never got above number 30 but still spent 12 weeks in the top 40 – five of them at number 40.
• “Big Energy” by Latto, Mariah Carey & DJ Khaled, another track which hung around forever (17 weeks) without ever making the top 20. Just. It spent three weeks at 21.
• “Massive” by Drake entered at number 8, and while it’s been drifting slowly down ever since, it did manage three weeks in the top 10 and nine in the top 40.
• “Jimmy Cooks” by Drake featuring 21 Savage has a similar record; it peaked slightly higher at 7, it only made one week in the top 10.

On the album chart:

1. Steps – “The Platinum Collection”

Sure, why not. That’s the demographic still buying albums, apparently. Also, since Aitch is at number 2, it means that H has beaten Aitch, which is charming. This late-period Pete Waterman project were huge in Britain in the late 90s, having 14 top ten singles between 1998 and 2001, the two male members being almost totally inaudible on the lot of them. It’s their fourth number 1 album – two of the previous ones also being greatest hit collections.

The Official Chart Company’s news article offers this baffling sub-headline: “They become the first British, mixed-gender group to achieve Number 1 albums across four consecutive decades – and join a very exclusive group including The Rolling Stones, Stereophonics and ABBA.”

2. Aitch – “Close To Home”

We’ve covered that.

3. Madonna – “Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones”

It’s a remix album. Hold on, I hear you cry. Since when has Madonna had 50 number ones? Well, she has… on the US Billboard Dance Club Songs Chart.

5. Panic at the Disco – “Viva Las Vengeance”

Their previous album gave them a genuine late-career hit in “High Hopes”, but no such luck this time. Still, it’s their fourth consecutive top 10 album.

6. Oasis – “Be Here Now”

25th anniversary reissue of the 1997 number 1 album that got autopilot five star reviews on release, and has since been reappraised as a bit dull really.

7. Demi Lovato – “Holy Fvck”

Well, it’s a fifth consecutive top 10 album, at least. It’s a pop-rock album.

16. Hot Chip – “Freakout / Release”

That’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. They’ve been releasing albums every 3-4 years but Hot Chip have definitely fallen off my radar. This is their lowest placing album since their 2006 debut, though not by very much – their previous four albums all placed between 11 and 14. The single’s quite good.

19. Five Finger Death Punch – “Afterlife”

Their last three studio albums made the top 10, so this is a definite decline.

39. The Fisherman’s Friends – “One & All – OST”

The group that were doing sea shanties long before, and indeed long after, it was fashionable. This is the soundtrack to the second film about them; their previous three albums charted at 9, 29 and 26, so draw your own conclusions.