Behold, the first new number 1 of the reign of His Majesty King Charles III.

1. Lewis Capaldi – “Forget Me”

We haven’t heard from Lewis Capaldi since before the pandemic; he had two number 1 hits and a total of five top 10 hits in 2018-19, plus an album that spent ten weeks at number 1 and 168 weeks in the top 40 (it rebounds to 9 this week). So a strong debut for his comeback single is not a surprise. The record itself is unrelentingly middling. The blandly retro arrangement does it no favours. The video is meant to be a homage to Wham!’s “Club Tropicana”, which was nearly 40 years ago, so who knows how many people get the reference today. It was number 1 by a pretty tight margin, pushed over the edge by first-week physical sales pre-ordered by the fanbase. But you never know. It could grow – his previous hits all took a while to reach their peak.

Eliza Rose would have been knocked off number 1 after its two-week reign anyway; the main challenger is “I’m Good (Blue)” by David Guetta featuring Bebe Rexa, still sitting at 2.

We have to go a long way down the chart now before reaching a flurry of new entries at the very bottom end.

35. Rema – “Calm Down”

More Afrobeat. Rema is Nigerian, and this track has been a number one in parts of Europe. I can see why; it’s great. But it’s only taken off in the UK after the release of a version with added vocals by Selena Gomez. It’s not really an improvement (though it doesn’t do much harm either), but the name value clearly helps. That mix has its own video and is being given the main push in this country, but officially the chart still treats the original as the principal version of the track.

37. Alesso and Zara Larsson – “Words”

This has been floating around in the lower reaches of the top 100 for 12 weeks before finally charting, and it’s spent the last four weeks in the mid-40s, so I wouldn’t be particularly optimistic about it going further. Alesso was last in the top 40 with Hailee Steinfeld on “Let Me Go”, which reached number 30 in 2017; Zara Larsson’s last top 40 hit was “Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me”, which reached 34 in 2019. She’s released several singles since then which failed to chart in this country, although her chart record has held up much better in her native Sweden.

40. Seafret – “Atlantis”

Finally, this week’s unlikely unearthing from TikTok. Seafret are a UK indie duo who have never had a hit single or album, and this was their debut single from 2015.  The band are still active – they’ve released three singles this year which did nothing – and they’ll doubtless be hoping that this draws a bit of attention to their other work.

This week’s climbers:

• “Super Freaky Girl” by Nicki Minaj climbs 6-5.
• “Under the Influence” by Chris Brown climbs 14-9. That’s his 19th top 10 hit.
• “For My Hand” by Burna Boy featuring Ed Sheeran climbs 24-22.
• “Ku Lo Sa – A Colors Show” by Oxlade climbs 32-24.
• “All for You” by Cian Ducrot climbs 31-28.
• “2 Be Loved (Am I Ready)” by Lizzo climbs 38-34.

Five records leave the top 40 (thanks to the four new entries plus a re-entry for Beyoncé’s “Cuff It” at 38):

• “Staying Alive” by DJ Khaled featuring Drake and Lil Baby. Considering it’s a Drake track, I’d say that entering at 21 and dropping out of the top 40 after six weeks was underperformance.
• “Pink Venom” by Blackpink, which peaked at 22 and stuck around for three weeks.
• “Matilda” by Harry Styles, after a week at 37. Hmm. But the full promotion hasn’t kicked in yet.
• “There’d Better be a Mirrorball” by Arctic Monkeys, which peaked at 26 and had two weeks on chart. Better than I’d have predicted for a band who are principally an album act.
• “I’m in Love With You” by the 1975, after a week at 29.

On the album chart…

1. Robbie Williams – “XXV”

25th anniversary retrospective album, consisting of orchestral versions of his appropriate tracks from his back catalogue. For those of you who’ve always thought that the problem with “Angels” is that it isn’t ominous enough. His solo career actually began 26 years ago with his cover of “Freedom”, which was a number 2 hit but blatantly thrown together at the last minute, and you can see why it’s been politely ignored for these purposes. Williams is now 48 and looks alarmingly like a svelter Morrissey.

This is his 14th number 1 album, which is a record for a solo artist. If you count his number 1s as a member of a group, he’s had more number 1 albums than the Beatles (though by that same measure, he remains behind Paul McCartney).

2. Ozzy Osbourne – “Patient Number 9”

That’s his highest position with a solo album – his previous best being number 3 for 2020’s “Ordinary Man”. He did have a number 1 album with Black Sabbath, though. He’s now 73 but the consensus seems to be that the album is at least reasonably decent.

4. The Manic Street Preachers – “Know Your Enemy”

21st anniversary reissue; it reached number 2 first time round.

5. The Amazons – “How Will I Know if Heaven Will Find Me?”

Third album, all top ten, but this is the highest placing. The Official Chart Company is keen to remind you that this is the first album to be approved for chart inclusion with “NFT elements”, whatever that means. Probably something soul-withering.

22. Asake – “Mr Money with the Vibe”

More from Nigeria – it’s been a good year for Nigerian acts in this country. It’s his first appearance on either of the UK charts.

25. KT Tunstall – “Nut”

That’s her lowest placing album (except for an acoustic side project that she released in 2006). Her previous album, 2018’s “Wax”, reached number 15.

33. Toyah – “Anthem”

Re-issue of her third album, which reached number 2 in 1981. It has her first two hit singles on it, including the above, which got to number 4 as the lead track on the “Four From Toyah” EP.