Gosh, an actually busy week.

1. Sam Smith & Kim Petras – “Unholy”

Four weeks. The whole top 5 is static, so we’re waiting for something to break through as a challenger. In the meantime, Todd in the Shadows’ review of this track is worth a watch.

7. Stormzy – “Hide & Seek”

This, apparently, is the lead single from his next album. Not to be confused with “Mel Made Me Do It”, which reached number 12 just three weeks ago – but isn’t on the album. “Hide & Seek” is one of his gentler tracks, with an obvious Afrobeat influence that seems to be the trend this year; the uncredited singers include Oxlade.

17. Central Cee – “One Up”

This is the lead track from his EP “No More Leaks”, and it’s pretty good, actually. Central Cee has a rather weird chart record – mostly tracks lying in the high 20s with the occasional really big hit as an outlier.

23. Southstar – “Miss You”

Ah, now we mentioned this last week. It’s a track sampling “Jerk” by Oliver Tree which reached the top ten in Germany earlier in the year (it also got to number 3 in Lithuania). An identical version, credited to Oliver Tree & Roger Schulz, entered last week at number 28 and climbs this week to number 9. Schulz continues to hint at there being some excellent reason for this which he is apparently either unable or unwilling to disclose.

26. Lil Baby – “California Breeze”
36. Lil Baby – “Real Spill”

Lil Baby is a serial guest rapper, but this is only the second time that he’s charted as the lead artist – the other was “Drip Too Hard”, which scraped the top 30 in 2018. Both tracks from from his album “It’s Only Me”, which enters the album chart at 3. He’s had more luck over on that chart, with his last three albums all making the top 10; this is the biggest. The sample on “California Breeze” is from “Gwen” by Coco O, so someone’s been earning their money in hunting for samples – the track comes from an album that reached number 27 in Denmark last year. I prefer the source material, to be honest. “Real Spill” goes for a more straightforward sample: “The Big Unknown”, a Sadé track from the soundtrack to Widows.

29. The 1975 – “Oh Caroline”

From their fifth album “Being Funny in a Foreign Language”, which enters the album chart to maintain a clean sweep of number 1s. They’ve never spent more than a week at number 1, but they generally do stick around in the upper reaches for a couple of weeks at least. The previous single “I’m In Love With You” re-enters at 34.

30. Lil Yachty – “Poland”

This weird little fragment only seems to have got a full release because it got leaked. It’s really just a half-formed demo but it would probably have been worth working up into something finished. “Poland” here is apparently Poland Springs, a brand of mineral water, but to the extent the lyrics are about anything at all, they’re mainly about Wockhart cough syrup and its fortuitous availability as a source of codeine.

Lil Yachty gets his first top 40 hit as a lead artist, but he has charted as a guest twice before – on a Charli XCX track from 2016, and on Kyle’s “iSpy” the following year.

31. Blink-182 – “Edging”

Now that is a reunion I would not have expected to produce a top 40 single. Blink-182 have never disbanded, but this is the first track in a decade or so with original singer Tom DeLonge. They haven’t had a top 40 hit since 2005, when “Not Now” reached 30.

35. Dean Lewis – “How Do I Say Goodbye”

Dean Lewis is an Australian songwriter who had a number 11 hit with “Be Alright” in 2018 and never followed it up until now. He’s done better at home, of course.

This week’s climbers:

• “Psycho” by Anne-Marie & Aitch climbs 9-6.
• “Miss You” by Oliver Tree & Robin Schulz – kind of – climbs 28-9.
• “Messy in Heaven” by venbee & Goddard climbs 20-14.
• “Calm Down” by Rema climbs 17-16.
• “Kiss Me” by Dermot Kennedy climbs 39-33.

That’s nine new entries, plus the re-entry for the 1975. The ten records leaving the top 40:

• “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All)” by Omar Apollo, after a single week at 31.
• “Warm” by K-Trap, after a single week at 34.
• “Star Walkin'” by Lil Nas X, after a single week at 40.
• “Mel Made Me Do It” by Stormzy, which lasted three weeks – not bad for a fairly niche release. It peaked at 12 in its first week.
• “Let’s Go” by Tion Wayne featuring Aitch, after a single week at 30.
• “Ferrari” by James Hype & Miggy Dela Rosa, which got seven weeks in the top 10, peaking at 6.
• “Atlantis” by Seafret, which has been hovering in and out of the top 40 for a few weeks now, never getting above 38.
• “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush has been on the chart since June.
• “Doja” by Central Cee, which got to number 2.
• “All These Nights” by Tom Grennan, after a single week at 37. That’s not meant to happen to artists like him.

On the album chart, number 1 is the 1975, but we’ve had them.

2. The Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Return of the Dream Canteen”

This is the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ thirteenth studio album, and their second of 2022. They were both recorded in the same sessions, so basically it’s something that could have been released as a double album. But they’re both about 75 minutes long, so that might have been pushing it a bit. All this might sound like an alarming lack of quality control, but the reviews are generally positive.

Number 3 is Lil Baby, so we move on to…

6. Alter Bridge – “Pawns & Kings”

Their seventh studio album; the last five have all made the top 10.

9. The Big Moon – “Here Is Everything”

Third album; their debut was shortlisted for the Mercury in 2017 but didn’t chart, and the follow-up got to 19 in 2020. The single above is really good.

11. Rimzee – “Cold Feet”

London rapper. He’s been around since 2012 but a lengthy jail sentence basically forced him to start from scratch in 2019. This is his first appearance on the singles or album charts.

14. Dexys Midnight Runners – “Too-Rye-Ay”

Remixed commemorative reissue of the 1982 album, which reached number 2 at the time.

16. The Lightning Seeds – “See You in the Stars”

This is the first Lightning Seeds album since 2009, though they’ve remained active as a touring act. The Lightning Seeds were always more of a singles act – their greatest hits album got to number 5, but their highest position for a studio album was number 11 for 1996’s “Dizzy Heights.”

26. The Unthanks – “Sorrows Away”

Folk music. This is the same position as they got for 2015’s “Mount The Air”, which was the last time they were in the chart; they’ve released a few side projects since then, but this is the follow-up studio album.

30. The Vamps – “Ten Years Of”

Career retrospective. The Vamps were initially promoted as a kind of boy band with guitars, and had five top ten hits on that basis in 2013-14, but morphed into a respectably enduring albums act; their last two studio albums reached number 1 in 2017 and 2020. The track above is the only one of their big hits that they included in the track listing.

32. Brian Eno – “Foreverandevernomore”

Eno is a big name but his albums are hardly what you’d call radio friendly easy listening. His album chart positions are erratic – his last album, 2017’s “Reflection”, only got to number 78, while its predecessor “The Ship” reached 28.