ANALYSIS


Oficial Albums Chart


The Official UK Singles & Albums Charts are compiled by the Official Charts Company, based on a sample of more than 15,000 physical and digital outlets. They count actual sales and audio streams from last Friday to Thursday, based on sales of downloads, CDs, vinyl and other physical formats and audio streams weighted using SEA2 methodology.


Optimist’s prime: Dua Lipa celebrates second No.1 album


n BY ALAN JONES


With first week consumption of 46,298 units (13,388 CDs, 16,772 vinyl albums, 4,779 cassettes, 1,414 digital downloads and 9,945 sales-equivalent streams), Radical Optimism is Lipa’s second No.1 and had a 34.62% bigger first week than its immediate predecessor Future Nostalgia. That launched in March 2020, landing at No.2 on with 34,390 sales. Radical Optimism opens with 187.92% greater consumption than her eponymous June 2017 debut, which debuted at No.5 with 16,223 sales. Both improved on their debut positions; something, of course, Radical Optimism cannot do. The current Music Week cover star’s self-titled debut album took 37 weeks to reach its peak position of No.3, doing so immediately after Lipa received BRIT Awards for British Female Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act and performed New Rules at the 2018 ceremony. Future Nostalgia rose 2-1 on its second frame, despite its consumption falling 53.24% week-on-week to 16,080 units. Its to-date consumption is 741,218 units, while Dua Lipa is on 1,032,934 units. Radical Optimism’s first frame is the second highest of the year, behind Taylor Swift’s latest, and the highest for a British female since Adele’s 30 blasted onto the chart on consumption of 261,856 units in November 2021. At No.2, Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department’s consumption of 31,897 units is still higher than that achieved by the No.1 album in 12 of the 18 previous weeks this year. No.1 last time out with FTHC, Frank Turner secures his sixth Top 10 and 11th Top 75 album with Undefeated (No.3, 15,580 sales). The 42-year-old alternative/folk artist wrote, recorded and produced the album at his Essex studio.


A


Two years after he reached No.1 for the eighth time fronting Stereophonics’ latest album Oochya!, and less than a year after he reached No.5 as a member of Far From Saints with their eponymous effort, Kelly Jones returns to the Top 10 with his second solo studio album, Inevitable Incredible. The eight song, 24-minute release debuts at No.6 (7,022 sales). Jones’ only previous solo chart foray came in 2020, when his live set, Don’t Let The Devil Take Another Day. His previous solo studio album Only The Names Have Been Changed sold 10,631 copies the week it was released in 2007, enough to earn a No.23 debut, had it not been intentionally excluded from the chart by dint of an eligibility-busting competition.


The rest of the Top 10: The Highlights (3-4, 8,367 sales) by The Weeknd, Guts (4-5, 7,845 sales) by Olivia Rodrigo, 50 Years: Don’t Stop (10-7, 6,191 sales) by Fleetwood Mac, Stick Season (9-8, 5,773 sales) by Noah Kahan, Gold: Greatest Hits (11-9, 5,689


lready home to three Top 10 hits – Houdini, Training Session and Illusion – Dua Lipa’s highly-anticipated third album Radical Optimism storms to a No.1 debut, delivering her highest weekly sale yet.


No.1


Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism (Warner Records) This week’s sales: 46,298 | Physical: 34,940 | Downloads: 1,414 | Streams: 9,944 | Total sales to date: 46,298 |


sales) by ABBA and Sour (14-10, 5,331 sales) by Olivia Rodrigo. As her UK tour continues, Rodrigo’s Sour is at its highest placing for 32 weeks. She has simultaneous Top 10 albums for the first time. More than six years after she released her first single, Rachel Chinouriri’s debut album What A Devastating Turn Of Events, opens at No.17 (4,108 sales). The 25-year-old indie artist’s most consumed track is six-year-old So My Darling (56,054 sales), though viral success All I Ever Asked (from the album) is catching up fast with a to-date tally of 40,227 units.


Fin-tastic: Radical Optimism storms to No.1 with Dua Lipa’s highest weekly sale yet


Also new to the Top 75: Promised Land (No.19, 4,043 sales), the introductory album by London-based rock quintet, The Karma Effect and Look To The East, Look To The West (No.36, 2,972 sales), the sixth studio album, and third chart entry for Glasgow indie quintet Camera Obscura. Mixtape Signed To The T (No.37, 2,965 sales) becomes the first chart entry for emerging Birmingham rapper KayMuni (Kalid Khan) and Reasonable Woman (No.59, 2,380 sales), the 10th solo studio album and sixth chart album for Sia. Chappell Roan’s September 2023 debut The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess, gets a new peak, climbing 56-50 (2,478 sales). Housing 82 tracks first released 50 years ago, Now Yearbook 1974 opens at the top of the compilation chart on consumption of 5,030 units (3,929 CDs, 841 vinyl albums and 260 digital downloads). It is the 11th regular Now Yearbook album to reach No.1. Six Now Yearbook Extra releases have also reached No.1. Overall album sales are up 0.08% week-on-week at 2,462,731, 10.24% above same week 2023 sales of 2,233,914. Physical product accounts for 317,346 sales, 12.89% of the total.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12