All Hail The Sabz
So long Alex Warren, we long since bored of ye. As expected, Ordinary finally vacates the No.1 position once and for all as ACR status kicks in and the single dips to No.9. Yes, technically it should still be top of the charts in old money. But what's done is done. Now let us never speak of it again.
Almost as inevitably this paves the way for Good Lu Manchild by Sabrina Carpenter to skip back to the top of the Official UK Singles chart after a week away. Bizarrely it is now her third single inside 12 months to enjoy two spells at No.1, this following the strange exploits of Espresso and Please Please Please which exactly a year ago were dancing an excuse-me waltz at the top of the charts. Sabrina Carpenter has now been No.1 for 23 weeks in total over the last two years - equalling the 2020s record previously held solely by Ed Sheeran.
One thing that is different though is that for the moment the era of the No.1 single being a country mile ahead of everything else has come to an end. Manchild was a comfortable enough No.1 in the end, but its margin of victory was a mere 4,000 sales Top of the charts has suddenly become there for the taking for any single that wishes to step up. Is Lewis Capaldi going to accept that challenge?
Eau De Mark
Running it a close second at No.2 was Dior by MK and Chrystal which from a standing start is on the verge of becoming one of the biggest smashes of the summer.
More than 30 years after his first chart single (Always which made No.69 in February 1995) Mark Kinchen finally has a Top 3 hit to call his own, under his own name anyway. We detailed his transformative work on the Nightcrawlers' Push The Feeling On last week, that single giving him a Top 3 hit as a remixer in that same year, but this was to also overlook MK's most notable uncredited chart triumph. I mean I wrote a book on the year so I should really know - back in November 2013 his remix of Storm Queen's Look Right Through debuted at No.1, meaning that single should officially be regarded as the highest charting MK single so far, even if he did not receive a direct chart credit at the time.
Fortunately these kinds of anomalies have been ironed out since. Both Cheerleader by OMI (in 2015) and Roses by Saint Jhn (in 2020) were No.1 smashes thanks to remix work by others. But proper credit of this has now become routine and so Felix Jahn and Imanbek are respectively acknowledged in the chart records of the hits in question.
It should also be noted that Dior is now Chrystal's biggest chart hit to date, eclipsing the No.4 peak of The Days.
Oh Freddy
We are blessed with no less than two new entries to the Top 10 this week, one of them perhaps slightly newer than the other. Smashing its way to No.4 is Victory Lap, a track which overcomes the charts' current ambivalence to grime rap to hand the genre its first big smash hit for many months. Skepta and PlaqueBoyMax supply the machine gun rapid vocals on this rap and dance fusion (heavily based on a sample from Doechii's Swamp Bitches) which I'm told has been gestating since 2023. American streamer PlaqueBoyMax (aka 22 year old Maxwell Dent) makes his UK chart debut here, but for Skepta this is far and away his biggest chart hit for over a decade. Despite the large string of chart singles that he has amassed since he debuted in 2009 his one and only appearance in the Top 10 before today was his co-billing on Wiley's Can You Hear Me? (Ayayaya) which charged to No.3 in November 2012.
Sammy and Livvy
The other Top 10 hit this week is a track that enjoyed something of a false start last time around. Sam Fender's Rein Me In was a nondescript arrival at No.86 last week in its original form as a cut from his current album People Watching. But that was just in anticipation of the release of a new duet version which adds in new vocals from Olivia Dean, transforming it in an instant from an also-ran to a Top 10 smash. Now fully credited as a duet the single soars to No.6 to become Sam Fender's fourth Top 10 hit - but perhaps more crucially the first for the now clearly catching fire Ms Dean. Her own Nice To Each other is one of a number of mid-table hits to take a stumble this week (down two places to No.18), but after an eternity as a one to watch and the proverbial next big thing it is something of a joy to see her now established as a hitmaking star.
We get to skip past the rest of the Top 20 in its entirely as trust me, everything is going down. Stopping off only to say a cheery hello to No Broke Boys which propels Disco Lines and Tinashe up to No.26 with an 11 place climb. That then leaves room for the usual handful of hopefuls which arrive as new entries in the bottom quarter of the Top 40 - although there are fewer than the midweek flashes originally indicated.
Highs And Lows
We begin at No.33 with High On Me, a chart debut for Rossi, London-based DJ Ross McFarland. Singer on his debut hit is Jazzy, the Irishwoman here with her first Top 40 hit since her role on Sonny Fodera's Somedays at the tail end of last year (it peaked at No.5 in October).
After six weeks of doing not very much in particular Illegal from the always awesome PinkPantheress explodes into life and shoots to No.36, her second Top 40 hit of the year following No.35 hit Tonight. She's far too long overdue another smash hit, so here's hoping her Friday evening Glastonbury performance helps to redress that balance.
Back To Dressed
Sombr of the two hits now has a third as well, he's brand new at No.37 with We Never Dated, a brand new previously unheard track that on that basis has had rather a slow start. But then again both Undressed and Back To Friends were slow burners, so let's see.
That accounts for the singles INSIDE the Top 40, but it is those outside that fascinate. Despite the hype around its release Katseye's Knarly never actually turned into a large hit, making you wonder just how much of that online buzz was astroturfed. It is still kicking around, back up to No.74 in its eighth week on the Top 100, but it is now joined by the girl group's second chart hit Gabriela which narrowly misses out on a Top 40 place at No.42.
But can we talk about Jade? The former Little Mix star is still hailed as the greatest thing in pop, still viewed as the brightest star in the firmament by journalists and YouTube commenters alike, but still entirely lacking a second proper hit single to follow Angel Of My Dreams. March's FUFN was supposed to be that single, but it crashed out after debuting at No.25. Her new single Plastic Box had been similarly groomed for instantaneous success, lavish video and all. But it is this week's No.44 track and you can all but guarantee it won't be anywhere next time around. Somebody somewhere has taken a huge financial hit on the project. But how much longer will it continue?
Does Anyone Still Buy Albums?
Top of an all-new album chart Top 4 is Yungblud with Idols, his third No.1 record in a row, all of them having come since 2020. It is an impressive run of form for a British rock solo artist, although a long way short of the record as David Bowie managed three No. albums in the space of 13 months in 1974 and 1975.
The flood of new releases (Loyle Carner at No.2, Haim at No.3, Benson Boone at No.4) nearly did for Sabrina Carpenter's record, but Short N' Sweet hangs on at No.5 for its 44th straight week at the top end of the chart, equalling the 1961 chart run of Elvis Presley's GI Blues soundtrack. All-time records both for albums by solo artists.
