I Got A Blank Space Baby
Do you ever get those feelings of staring into a void?
I did the "what to do when there's nothing to write about" story last time out as well, meaning there's even more creative work here. Welcome to the 2025 post-Easter chart where the holiday weekend and a four day week appears to have prompted the music industry to take the week off. Precious little of any consequence was released this week, the number of new hits surfacing has slowed to a trickle and even the albums market appears to have ground to a halt.
That, however, is not the reason why of all people Taylor Swift has the No.1 album this week. Never one to pass up an opportunity to squeeze more out of her alarmingly dedicated fanbase, the American superstar this week dribbled out a special one year anniversary edition of her Tortured Poets Department album. This time with the CD personally signed. So it is a collectible more than anything else, but if you are a dedicated Swiftie you naturally have little option but to purchase once more something you may well have purchased several times already. And sure enough, most of the album's 29,000 chart sales this week come via the almost 25,000 CDs that she magically sold out of nowhere.
So it is that in its 53rd week on sale the album rockets back to the summit of the Official UK Albums chart. This is now its sixth visit to the top of the charts, its first since December last year, and marks its 11th week in total at the top.
I don't defend this kind of drip feed marketing. It clearly works and helps to give a product the kind of shelf life most albums struggle to achieve in this day and age. But there does come a point where you wonder if she or her management is just taking the piss.
Ordinary -2
The singles market isn't exactly static, only six of the Top 20 singles actually hold their chart positions from last week, but the top end appears once more to have settled into a consolidated state giving us all an opportunity to properly appreciate them. The biggest hits of the spring are clearly going to be around for a little while longer.
The table is topped once more by Alex Warren's Ordinary as it enjoys a sixth week at the top of the Official UK Singles chart. That's the longest consecutive run at No.1 since Sabrina Carpenter lasted nine weeks with Taste last autumn, and the longest-running No.1 single by a male soloist since Noah Kahan clocked up seven weeks with Stick Season starting in January 2024. Consumption of the track is off once more though, down to around 66,000 sales. So that's two ticks of the ACR clock. Mark them off.
Warren leads an unchanged Top 3, meaning a fifth straight week at No.2 for Pink Pony Club and a third at No.3 for Ed Sheeran and Azizam (bless you). Sheeran pulls off the fun trick of a No.3 chart double, as he also occupies the third rung of the long players chart with his +-- Divide X - Tour Collection edition.
Appreciate Them
We may as well appreciate the rest of the Top 10 while we are here. WizTheMC and Bees & Honey hit a new peak as Show Me Love advances to No.4, this at the expense alas of Doechii's Anxiety which reverses to No.5 to occupy its lowest rung since release. Similarly bumped is Tate McRae's Sports Car, entering reverse gear back to the No.6 position it has occupied for five of its 13 chart weeks so far.
Two more non-movers account for positions 7 and 8, they being Benson Boone's apparently unkillable Beautiful Things and Sabrina Carpenter's Busy Woman respectively. Then finally we have Ravyn Lenae advancing a single place with Love Me Not at No.9, swapping places with the similarly extended life Bad Dreams from Teddy Swims. This column kind of owes the Teddy Swims track an apology, the first single from his second album I've Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2) was mocked on these pages after being outsold and outperformed at first by the existing hits from his previous album but which has over the past seven months established itself as a long running hit single to match the likes of Lose Control and The Door. Future music historians retrospectively reading up on the charts of the mid-20s will marvel at the way the burly American soul star managed the same kind of long standing musical stranglehold as Sabrina Carpenter. All achieved without waving his spangle clad bum around on stage.
Roaring Twenties
The song that should have been a one-week novelty is now turning into anything but. The shortest hit single ever clearly withstands extended repeated plays - Steve's Lava Chicken sizzles to a new peak of No.11 for Jack Black. It couldn't go Top 10 next time around could it?
Sombr's brace of hit singles are clearly on course to eventually break past the glass ceiling and go Top 10 themselves. They maintain their pace with Undressed advancing to No.13, joined in the Top 20 by Back To Friends which edges up more slowly but now a No.20 hit single in its own right.
The Lesser Spotted Highest New Entry
We do have a new arrival in the Top 40 - just the one mind. But a new hit all the same. Bursting into life at No.24 is Headphones On, the fourth chart hit and second biggest to date for Addison Rae. The American social media star reached No.10 with Diet Pepsi in December last year but has struggled to properly follow it up since, nudging No.45 with Aquamarine and No.69 with High Fashion. Taken, like all her other hits, from her forthcoming album Addison the new single is distinctive enough to have legs and perhaps is overall a better track than Diet Pepsi. Slowly but surely she appears to be developing her own style and own niche. Will that be enough to help her stand out amongst the mass of rather intense female solo stars of note? But someone is backing her to be big so there's clearly a project in progress here. The song is four minutes long too. Jack Black, have a word with her will you?
Made In Her Pants
Good news: Shake it To The Max (Fly) by Moliy and Silent Addy is making good progress, jumping ten places to No.25. But as far as significant action in the Top 40 goes, that is just about your lot. Keep an eye out for one quirk though. First released on her one-woman lockdown album How I'm Feeling Now back in 2020 (although she apparently first recorded it in 2017) Charli XCX's Party 4U has been gaining Tik Tok traction for the past few weeks and now surfaces as a chart single for the very first time at No.69. Chappell Roan has proved there is no bar on five year old tracks making waves for themselves. So could this be the next? Stranger things have taken place.
