It's Their Third Moment
Ophelia's fate is to spend just the three weeks at No.1, at least for now. Having chipped away at Taylor Swift's lead for the past few weeks (and with rival single Man I Need now out of the picture having tumbled to ACR) the door has now opened for the song of the summer to start the winter in a familiar place. Golden by Huntr/X is once again top of the charts.
This is now the KPop Demon Hunters single's third spell at No.1, the first single to achieve this in a single chart run since Blinding Lights by The Weeknd enjoyed a similar trifecta of spells at the top of the charts in 2020. Happy by Pharrell Williams, Despacito by Luis Fonsi and What Do U Mean by Jusin Bieber are the only other singles in chart history to pull off the trick, meaning Huntr/X are the first group of any kind (real or fictional) to have a single top the charts three times in a row. Honourable mention of course goes to Last Christmas by Wham! Which is to date the only single to go to No.1 four times, but that occurred during four separate chart runs during four of the last five Christmases.
As I've noted so many times before, what once was unusual is now commonplace. Golden is effectively the fourth single this year to return to the top of the charts, hard on the heels of That's So True, Ordinary and Manchild. To do so after a four week break is however rather more unusual. The last single to spend so long away from No.1 only to return during the same chart run was Adele's Easy On Me which had a further moment of glory in January 2022 after making way for a parade of Christmas hits. The modern day record is held by George Ezra whose Shotgun crawled back to No.1 in August 2018 after a five week break, although nobody has yet to come close to the record breaking stretch of She Loves You by The Beatles which had a second spell at No.1 fully seven weeks after its first.
Having equalled one record during its last spell at the top, Golden now shatters it. It is the single's ninth week in total at the top of the charts, making it the most successful single ever by a cartoon or fictional act. With the movie back in the cinemas again this weekend to mark Halloween and with merchandise slowly but surely creeping into the shops, the phenomenon of the movie just refuses to die down. Huntr/X alas can't enjoy the spoils of three simultaneous Top 10 hits, their other two singles refusing to advance with How It's Done easing down a place to No.10 and What It Sounds Like alas unmoved at No.13. You'll note both would probably have enjoyed a chart rise, but for an abundance of other new entries.
Golden isn't going anywhere any time soon either. 65,000 chart sales this week compares to 62,000 a week ago. That ACR clock just keeps getting reset over and over.
Don't Call Him Colin
As we get into the final throes of everyone flinging their albums out prior to the holiday season kicking in this week was characterised by a set of very talked about albums. The ultimate winner though by some considerable distance is Dave whose new full length LP The Boy Who Played The Harp charges straight in to the top with what is now becoming his traditional colossal sale of almost 74,000. This is one of those occasions where you get to spin up your own benchmark, Official Charts spinning it as making him the "first British rap act to debut three albums at No.1". Unusually for such an album, Dave's record sold rather well on vinyl too, moving 15,500 copies on black plastic to again land the made up accolade of "the fastest selling rap album on vinyl this century". Which at least gives everyone else something to aspire to. However it also sold 15,600 on cassette. Few of which are actually likely to be played, let's face it.
One thing Dave does notably do however is place three singles inside the Top 40, something only Stormzy has achieved in the past as a British rap act. Raindance is the biggest of them all, the Tems collaboration slamming in at No.5. Listen to it and you understand why, the piano-led track another example of why Dave is as renowned for his musicality as much as his lyrical flow. Man tells a story that you can't help but be sucked in by, regardless of your appreciation of the genre as a whole. History is the next track in line at No.9 with Chapter 16 unlucky to miss out at No.11.
Alright, Still
But let's face it, this week if you weren't talking about Dave's album you were talking about the Lily Allen one. We last heard of the always endearingly entertaining British star back in 2018 – or at least theoretically we did. Her album No Shame was largely labelled "no interest", enjoying a one-and-done chart run in the Top 10 and spawning no hit singles at all. Following that she all but abandoned music and turned instead to a rather successful stage career for which she was garlanded with as many awards as she had been for her earlier more successful musical recordings.
But then this week out of nowhere she returned with something quite startling. Written in 10 days last December, West End Girl is a true concept album. A narrative cycle of songs detailing what she confesses is a slightly embellished take on the breakdown of her latest marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour. Over the course of its tracks she details her move back to London from New York to star in a play, his request for an open marriage while they are separated and the emotional journey she goes on both in processing this arrangement and then discovering his inability to keep to the defined terms. It is a digital only album for now, a physical version following in the new year, but the attention it garnered has been enough to propel it to No.4 and for three of its songs to also invade the singles chart.
The Parade is led by Pussy Palace in which our heroine takes her exes effects to his apartment and discovers well, it isn't for me to spoil the surprise. It charts at No.12, Lily Allen's biggest chart hit since Air Balloon reached No.7 back in 2014. The album's glitzy title track West End Girl is No.17 - that single an extraordinary affair in itself given it is two minutes of song and two minutes of one half of a telephone conversation between her and her man. Finally Madeline, the discovery of his emotional infidelity arrives at No.19.
Part of the fun of hearing Lily Allen track is noting just who she is paying tribute to. She has always been an extraordinary listen, a musical jackdaw who borrows elements from other artists and styles to leave you going nuts trying to place just who and what she is carefully paying tribute to. So Pussy Palace sounds like something you have heard before, even though it actually isn't. And people have indeed been driving themselves wild trying to work out what it is. I'm convinced the chorus is Benson Boone's Mystical Magical sped up, but your mileage may vary.
Reach For The Skyes
It is an album, or shall we say an EP which accounts for most of the other new chart singles of the week. Skye Newmans SE9 – Part 1 may only have debuted at No.19, but its tracks pepper the singles chart to the fullest extent possible. FU & UF leads the charge at No.18, Family Matters (originally a No.5 hit back in May) is close behind as it returns at No.25 and My Addiction brings up the rear at No.50. The rising British star has now charted five hit singles, all of them since the start of the year. Start the betting for a BRIT award now, you know she's sweeping up everything that Olivia Dean isn't eligible for.
Darkness Falls
The week's final new entry is another golden oldie, although not an unexpected or unwelcome one. The calendar has been slightly unkind this year with Halloween falling on a Friday at the very start of the chart week, meaning spooky-themed hits don't get to properly benefit from the several days of buildup AND party soundtracks on the day itself in the same chart survey. So the one and only October classic to chart is Michael Jackson's Thriller, returning for its annual chart run at No.33, its best showing since it popped up at No.20 in 2022. That's a genuine placing by the way, the track RUTHed back onto SCR for the occasion. The classic's best showing of the digital era was the No.12 it climbed to in 2019 (X Factor helping a little there), just shy of the No.10 peak that it reached when first issued as a single in November 1983. The likes of Ghostbusters and Monster Mash are almost certainly milling around, but none make the Top 100.
This does I'm afraid, mark the beginning of the end for chart normality in 2025. Week 44 (this week) is traditionally the last week the Top 100 is devoid of Christmas hits. With the imminent arrival of a certain pair of festive standards it is formally time to re-debut the Yule Log. Chart Watch's week-by-week tally of just how many Christmas songs feature on the singles chart each week is available from the menu above (or to the side if you are on mobile). Don't be scared. We can all get through this together.
