This week's Official UK Singles Chart

This week's Official UK Albums Chart

 

1-2-1-1-2-1-1. Not the sound of a roadie testing a microphone, but the UK chart trajectory of Justin Bieber's single What Do You Mean which this week spends its fifth week in total at Number One on the Official UK Singles Chart.

Having last week set a new record by topping the charts despite being only the seventh biggest selling single, Bieber this week lowers the bar even further. In sales terms What Do You Mean was the 8th biggest, but once more in a tight market, his 2.7 million streams were the difference maker. This past fortnight has been a pivotal moment in the history of the British charts, the moment at which the swing of the pendulum towards music that is consumed rather than owned finally changes the game forever. Bieber's continuing run at the top of the charts, long after his sales have peaked is the irrefutable proof of this.

Five weeks at Number One is enough to make the single the second longest running chart-topper of the year, one short of the six (out of seven total) that Uptown Funk spent lodged at the top in January and February.

Just behind R.City's Locked Away at Number 2 is Drake with Hotline Bling which jumps 8-3. It is the star's biggest ever chart hit as a lead artist, the second highest charting single of his career if one takes into account his co-starring role on Rihanna's What's My Name almost five years ago.

The Weeknd recently made chart history of his own in America by becoming one of only a handful of acts ever to have replaced themselves at the top of the Hot 100. The single with which he achieved the feat, The Hills, has taken its time to have a similar kind of impact in Britain, largely due to its status as a promotional track with most attention being paid to the long-running monster Can't Feel My Face. Nonetheless, it has been a chart fixture since mid-June and indeed as of last week had clocked up 292,000 chart sales despite never climbing higher than Number 23. Last week represented the single's highest chart placing to date after a performance on the Graham Norton Show the week before and this week the track finally explodes into life, jumping to Number 5 to become the Canadian singer's third Top 10 single of the year.

The most purchased single of the week is a track I flagged up in last week's column with Jamie Lawson's heart-rending Wasn't Expecting That suffering rather from a lack of traction in the streaming market, its overwhelming sales lead only enough to propel it to Number 6. The sweet folk ballad comes to the attention of the British public a full three years after it first made the Top 3 in the Republic Of Ireland, his fortunes on these shores almost entirely thanks to the patronage of fellow tender balladeer Ed Sheeran to whose label Lawson is signed. The tale of a romance that ends in tear-jerking tragedy has captivated everyone who has heard it - a fact which gives hope for the single's future chart prospects given that for now, it is only the 53rd most streamed track of the week.

The profile of Olly Murs is surely the highest it has been since his days as an X Factor contestant, thanks to his elevation to co-host of the show that first made his name. It seems only logical that he should have new material out to correspond, even if this merely amounts to a new special edition of his last album Never Been Better. The first track thus released is Kiss Me which lands efficiently enough at Number 16 as the highest new entry of the week to become his 12th Top 20 hit.

As sure as love follows kisses so Love Me follows Kiss Me as a new entry, the former being the brand new single from The 1975 which charts this week at Number 20. The first single from the group's forthcoming second album it is far and away one of the most joyfully infectious singles you've heard since the summer. If you liked past hits such as Chocolate then you will utterly adore this one, even if for now it narrowly fails to become their biggest hit to date - charting one place lower than the aforementioned 2013 single.

It is a set of 1990s veterans who storm to the top of the Official UK Album chart this week as Faithless score their third Number One album and the first since 2005 with Faithless 2.0, a compilation of greatest hits and new remixes to mark the dance supergroup's 20th anniversary together. The "2" theme continues with the second highest new entry of the week The Game's The Documentary 2 landing at Number 4. As the title suggests the album is the sequel to his debut album which itself reached Number 7 just over a decade ago.

Next week there's a true battle of the X Factor discoveries on the way. New singles from One Direction and reigning champion Ben Haenow (with Kelly Clarkson in tow)? Bring it on.

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