Still here, then?

1. Noah Kahan – “Stick Season”

As the number one in waiting throughout Christmas, I figured this would hang on long enough to get a couple of weeks after the festive rush. But no, here we are in February and week five. He’s seen off Ariana Grande; his biggest challengers right now is “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims, climbing to 3, and “Murder on the Dancefloor” continuing its revival run at number 2.

It’s a quiet week for new entries in the top end of the chart, so we move on to…

20. YG Marley – “Praise Jah in the Moonlight”

Debut hit. YG Marley is the grandson of Bob Marley, and the son of Lauren Hill, which is quite the pedigree. “YG” stands for “Young God”, apparently – his first name is Joshua. The song is partly based on “Crisis”, a 1978 album track by Bob Marley & the Wailers. We don’t get much reggae on the singles chart, but this is pretty appealing quite aside from the family name. It’s already been number one in New Zealand and made the Dutch top ten.

Assuming we don’t count Lauryn Hill, he’s the fifth Marley to have a hit single – the others being Bob himself, his sons Ziggy and Damian, and his grandson Skip (who guested on Katy Perry’s “Chained to the Rhythm” in 2017). Naira Marley, who appeared on a J Hus track last year, is not an actual Marley, but a Nigerian singer who named himself after Bob Marley.

22. The Last Dinner Party – “Nothing Matters”

Another debut. The Last Dinner Party won the Brits Rising Star award in December, and the BBC’s Sound of 2024 poll. Their debut album will be charting next week. This single, though, was their debut from last April – it’s not their current single, but it’s the one that they’ve been pushing on the TV circuit, and it’s been climbing from the lower reaches for a few weeks now. It’s good, in a theatrical but radio-friendly way.

31. Megan Thee Stallion – “Hiss”

Every year since “W.A.P.” was number 1, Megan Thee Stallion has had one hit single, and every year it’s peaked in the 30s. Here’s 2024’s! We’ll see if it can do any better than that next week.

32. Skepta – “Gas Me Up (Diligent)”

Skepta’s last hit was “Can’t Play Myself (A Tribute to Amy)”, which got to number 28 last year, but he was a producer on that – this is the first time in a couple of years that we’ve had him as a rapper. Circa number 30 seems to be about his standard in the last few years.

I rather admire the audacity of putting out a video which is less than three minutes long and still devotes an entire minute to the closing credits. During the song.

37. Justin Timberlake – “Selfish”

Wow, that’s a slow start for his first solo single since 2018. Back then he was still routinely getting songs into the top 10. He did sometimes climb from the lower reaches, though, so I wouldn’t write this off. It’s not bad in itself, but it feels like a very safe, very cautious choice of single for the return.

38. Michael Marcagi – “Scared to Start”

Debut hit. He’s from Cincinnati, and this has been climbing from the lower reaches for a few weeks. It’s big on TikTok. Good time to be a slightly folky American songwriter, I think.

This week’s climbers:

• “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims climbs 6-3.
• “Popular” by the Weeknd, Playboi Carti & Madonna climbs 14-10. That’s a 15th top 10 hit for the Weeknd, the first for Playboi Carti and… hold on, Madonna? In 2024? This is her 64th top 10 hit, but the previous one was “Celebration” way back in 2009.
• “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone climbs 18-11.
• “Never Lose Me” by Flo Milli climbs 17-15.
• “Alibi” by Ella Henderson featuring Rudimental climbs 26-24.
• “Whatever” by Kygo & Ava Max climbs 39-27, for some unfathomable reason.
• “Toxic” by Songer climbs 32-29.

There are six new entries this week. The tracks leaving the top 40 are:

• “Never Be Alone” by Becky Hill & Sonny Fodera, after a single week at 34.
• “Runaway” by Kanye West featuring Pusha T, with a post-Christmas run of 4 weeks, peaking at 23.
• “Perfect (Exceeder)” by Mason & Princess Superstar had four weeks in this run, peaking at 26.
• “Water” by Tyla peaked at 4 back before Christmas, and had another four weeks after the holidays.
• “Eagle” by D-Block Europe & Noizy got a single week at 33.
• “Skin and Bones” by David Kushner got a single week at 36.

The longest-running song on the top 40 is still (of course) “Greedy” by Tate McRae, currently at number 7. It entered in the top 10 in September and apart from two weeks at the very height of the Christmas period, it’s been in the top 10 ever since. It may never have got above number 3, but it really is a massive hit.

Over on the album chart:

1. James Arthur – “Bitter Sweet Love”

The 2012 X Factor winner is still around after twelve years. He stopped having hit singles two albums ago, but his albums have yet to dip below number 3. This is his second number one; the other was his 2016 album “Back From The Edge”.

2. The Reytons – “Ballad of a Bystander”

Their fourth album. Last year’s “What’s Rock and Roll” was their first number 1, a big jump up from its predecessors, which got to 27 and 11 respectively. They don’t quite repeat it here, but close enough.

3. The Smile – “Wall of Eyes”

The Smile are a Radiohead side project which includes both Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood. Their previous album, 2022’s “A Light for Attracting Attention”, reached number 5; this is slightly better.

5. Tom Odell – “Black Friday”

The title track got to number 12 last month. All six Tom Odell albums have made the top 10; all but one of them (the last one) made the top 5.

7. Future Islands – “People Who Aren’t There Anymore”

This is their seventh album – or eleventh, if you count the four self-released albums by their previous incarnation Art Lord & The Self-Portraits. It’s only their fourth to chart in the UK, and they make the top 10 for the first time.

10. Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes – “Dark Rainbow”

Their fifth album – though again, that’s assuming you mean specifically Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, because there’s another Frank Carter solo album, plus two that he made as a member of Gallows. Four out of the five have made the top 10.

22. Gruff Rhys – “Sadness Sets Me Free”

His eighth solo album (to which you can add nine by Super Furry Animals and two by Neon Neon). His chart positions are all over the place – the previous album got to number 10, the one before that got to 81. The two before that got to 23 and 24, though, so I guess this is his baseline level.

31. New Model Army – “Unbroken”

Their fifteenth album. Another act with weird erratic chart positions – the previous album got to 13, but that seems to have been an outlier (and it was five years ago). Normally they make the lower end of the top 40, sometimes they miss it entirely.