Finishing more comfortably ahead of its nearest challenger than appeared likely in sales flashes, Easy On Me (67,742 sales) secures a fourth straight week at No.1 for Adele, making it the longest-running No.1 by a UK female soloist since Ellie Goulding’s Love Me Like You Do served a similar term in 2015.

Incidentally, Easy On Me is also No.1 in America for the third straight week, while Ed Sheeran’s  = debuts atop the US album chart. By my reckoning, it ...