chartsanalysis week 17 Albums number 1
Ed Sheeran ÷
BY ALAN JONES O
verturning a significant initial deficit to Steps’ Tears On The Dancefloor album, Ed Sheeran’s ÷ managed to pull well ahead by the end of the week and thus secures its eighth consecutive week at No.1 on sales of 53,809 copies. Equalling the opening run atop the chart of his last album (2014’s X) ÷ needs to remain atop the chart for a further three weeks to match the 21st century record of 11 straight weeks at No.1 set in 2011 by Adele’s 21.
A total of 18,433 of ÷’s streaming sales occurred in the latest frame, and without them it would be Steps who would be No.1 this week, with their fifth studio album Tears On The Dancefloor securing a superior paid-for sale of 36,525 but only 1,099 sales from streams for a combined tally of 37,624. Thus debuting at No.2, it nevertheless represents a major triumph for the late 1990s act who split in 2001 and reformed a decade later. Their previous comeback album, Light Up The World, was received far less enthusiastically debuting and peaking at No.32 on sales of 7,365 copies in 2012. Their 2011 compilation The Ultimate Collection is back in the Top 20, surging 51-17 (4,944 sales). Irish singer/songwriter Imelda May’s fifth studio album Life Love Flesh Blood becomes her third straight Top 10 album here, debuting at No.5 (16,783 sales) exactly three years after its immediate predecessor, Tribal, set a career benchmark by debuting at No.3 (14,380 sales). Like Steps, Texas have three No.1 albums to their credit and also saw their peak around the turn of the century but the Scots band never formally split, only going on hiatus, albeit for an extended period. Their latest album, Jump On Board, is their ninth studio set and debuts at No.6 (12,214 sales) nearly four years after immediate predecessor The Conversation debuted and peaked at No.4 on sales of 18,028 copies. It is their eighth Top 10 album.
Sheffield metalcore band While She Sleeps score their first Top 10 entry with third album You Are We debuting at No.8 (7,316 sales). Now on CD, Kendrick Lamar’s Damn nevertheless falls 2-4 (17,855 sales). Fellow rapper Drake’s More Life is thus once again the only album in the Top 75 without a physical release and drifts 4-7 (11,207 sales). Making up the Top 10 are Human (3-3, 20,637 sales) by Rag’N’Bone Man, the Moana soundtrack (7-9, 6,839 sales) and X (8- 10, 6,749 sales) by Ed Sheeran. Newcastle alt-rockers Maximo Park came to prominence in 2005 and their sixth studio album,
MUSIC Week
Risk To Exist, maintains and extends their record of making the Top 15 with every release, opening at No.11 (6,545 sales). Kinks leader Ray Davies’ new solo album Americana is an autobiographical album written and arranged by Davies and based on his experience of America over 50 or more years. Debuting at No.15 (5,397 sales) it is his first release since 2010’s See My Friends, which reached No.12. All of his previous nine Top 20 albums came with The Kinks. At 73, Barry Manilow is a year older than Davies, and he too returns to the chart with a US-themed album. In his case, This Is My Town: Songs Of New York, which debuts at No.26 (3,315 sales), becoming Manilow’s 32nd Top 75 album 24 of which have made the Top 40. Brad Paisley has had 13 chart albums in his native America since his 1999 debut but the 44 year old country singer has only recently got into his stride on the UK charts, with 2013 album Wheelhouse reaching No.69 and 2014 follow-up Moonshine In The Trunk reaching No.34. He makes it three in a row with Love And War debuting at No.33 (2,547 sales). 8 is indeed the eighth album by Californian
band Incubus. It is set to become their fifth straight Top 5 album in The USA but falls short of becoming their fourth Top 20 album here, debuting at No.35 (2,334 sales).
The sales impact of Record Store Day is dealt with in more detail below, but vinyl-only releases of Cracked Actor (No.20, 4,432 sales) - a previously unreleased Los Angeles concert recording dating from 1974 - and BowPromo (No.38, 2,189 sales), a single-sided seven song album - make posthumous debuts for David Bowie. The only other album to make the Top 75 on vinyl alone this century is Transience, which reached No.59 for prog. rocker Steve Wilson in January 2016.
Now That’s What I Call Music! 96 has seen its sales fall at an almost unprecedented rate for the series, and its third week tally of just 46,299 sales - although enough for it to remain atop the compilation chart - represent the lowest week three haul for a regular Now! album since April 1994, when Now! 31 sold 38,561 copies. Overall album sales are up 8.86% week-on-week at 1,736,744, 5.84% above same week 2016 sales of 1,640,975. Streaming accounted for 735,997 sales – 42.38% of the total. Sales of paid-for albums are up 13.18% week-on- week at 1,000,747, 11.02% below same week 2016 sales of 1,124,642. With the majority of 2017’s Record Store Day releases on vinyl, sales of that format jumped 151.88% week-on-week to 127,349 - 12.73% of paid-for sales. Both the number of vinyl sales and its percentage of overall paid-for sales were 21st century records.
For unabridged Official Charts analysis each week, visit
MusicWeek.com MAY 01 25
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