You are reading the famous weekly guide to the Official UK Charts. The longest-running British music column online.
Read about this week's Top 40 charts and the stories behind the biggest new hit singles. Plus browse the complete archive of the last 27 years of pop charts analysis, a resource of over 1300 articles documenting over a quarter of a century of popular music history.
Frustration! Anger! Betrayal! The mother of all rows erupts as nobody can make up their mind just what kind of album the Children In Need charity collection is. Happily, Dua Lipa is far too lovely to upset anyone in that manner and is back to inject some sparkly disco into all our lives.
This could so easily have been Selena Gomez' week, but even she wilted in the face of the Dance Monkey. We delve into the thorny issue of just how old Toni Watson really is and deal with Kanye West's new-found spiritual vibe. He's not Number One either. These guys are instead.
The singles chart goes to sleep, but we had a genuine ding-dong battle to be king of the albums. After missing out by the narrowest of margins in the spring, Foals record another album and this time strike it lucky.
There's always something worth paying attention to when Harry Styles makes the Top 40 solo. Extraordinarily this is only the second time he has done so. Never in with a chance of topping the charts, it is still the biggest of a wave of new Top 10 arrivals as the clearout we've been longing for finally takes place.
