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.


Better believe it: Robbie Williams equals The Beatles’ No.1 record


n BY ALAN JONES I


t’s a ‘fab’ week for Robbie Williams, whose Better Man debuts at No.1 on the artist album chart, putting him equal with The Beatles at the top of the all-time list of acts with most No.1s. His 15th such excursion to the chart summit since he left Take That in 1995, Better Man is the soundtrack to the biographical musical depiction of Williams’ life. The soundtrack includes fresh versions of material originally recorded by Take That and by Williams solo, as well as new material. Despite it being credited to Williams, much of the album is sung by others, principally Adam Tucker as ‘young Robbie Williams’, with additional vocals from Tom Bales, Carter J. Murphy, Kayleigh McKnight and Steve Pemberton. It qualifies as a Williams album as Robbie provides some vocals for all but one track – Feel, on which he plays a mellotron throughout. Available digitally since last month without charting, Better Man’s No.1 debut was fuelled by consumption of 43,238 units – the highest tally for a No.1 for eleven weeks. The newly released CD contributed 21,266 sales, with digital downloads accounting for a further 117 units and sales equivalent streams for 541 – but the surprise here was how spectacularly the two £8.99 cassette variants (same songs, different artwork) contributed, with a combined sale of 21,314. Better Man thus secures the highest weekly sale for an artist cassette since the week before Christmas 1999, when Shania Twain’s Come On Over was No.1 with sales of 277,894, of which cassettes accounted for 25,684.


On top of his considerable solo success, Williams has also topped the chart with Take That, being a full member of the band when Everything Changes (1993) and Nobody Else (1995) were No.1, and rejoining them for 2010 chart-topper Progress. He also contributed to most tracks on their 1996 No.1 compilation, Greatest Hits and some on subsequent (2018) hits package, Odyssey. He could therefore be said – depending on how strictly you interpret his presence on the hits sets – to have had 18, 19 or even 20 number one albums. The higher total is beaten only Paul McCartney (23, including those 15 Beatles titles).


Williams’ career album sales as a soloist top 20 million, with his top titles being Greatest Hits (2,683,271 sales), I’ve Been Expecting You (2,624,317 sales) and Swing When You’re Winning (2,459,517 sales). Of those sales, 17,096,439 have occurred in the 21st century, making him the No.1 artist of the era, with Coldplay (15,591,555 sales) as runners-up.


Its consumption falling 6.77% week-on-week to 9,404 units – the first time it has dropped below 10,000 units – Short N’ Sweet, is nevertheless No.2 for the fifth week in a row, and the 16th time in 22 weeks since its release for Sabrina Carpenter.


Achieving its highest chart placing since it debuted 30 weeks ago at No.1, The Secret Of Us increases consumption 89.55% week-on- week to 9,347 units, and jumps 14-3 for Gracie Abrams, following its release on expanded deluxe CD and vinyl editions.


No.1


Robbie Williams – Better Man OST (Columbia) This week’s sales: 43,238 | Physical: 42,580 | Downloads: 117 | Streams: 541 | Total sales to date: 45,880 |


Tape expectations: Robbie


Williams’ Better Man has secured the highest weekly sale for an artist cassette since the week before Christmas 1999


The rest of the Top 10: SOS (4-4, 7,807 sales) by SZA, The Highlights (6-5, 7,277 sales) by The Weeknd, +-=÷× Tour Collection (5-6, 7,224 sales) by Ed Sheeran, The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess (1-7, 6,784 sales) by Chappell Roan, 50 Years: Don’t Stop (8-8, 6,023 sales) by Fleetwood Mac, Diamonds (7-9, 6,001 sales) by Elton John and Stick Season (10-10, 5,613 sales) by Noah Kahan. Five days after what would have been his 33rd birthday, rapper Mac Miller’s second posthumous release since his death in 2018, and seventh album in all, Balloonerism debuts at No.16 (4,756 sales). It is his fifth chart album and third Top 20 entry. David Gray’s 12th studio album, Dear Life, debuts at No.25 (3,629 sales) for the 56-year-old singer/songwriter. While Hozier’s 2014 BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge cover of Arctic Monkeys’ Do I Wanna Know? belatedly becomes his fourth Top 20 hit, his eponymous 2013 No.3 debut album – on whose expanded edition it is a track – enjoys a new nine year high, jumping 35-27 (3,556 sales).


The box office success of dramatized Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown sparks interest in Dylan’s 2013 No.16 compilation, The Very Best Of, which jumps 98-30 (3,274 sales), securing its highest chart placing for more than 11 years. The soundtrack to the film Wicked is No.1 on the compilation chart for the ninth week in a row on consumption of 7,037 units (724 CDs, 398 vinyl albums, 191 digital downloads and 5,724 sales- equivalent streams).


Overall album sales are up 2.32% week-on-week at 2,473,944 units, 6.92% above same week 2024 sales of 2,313,821. Physical product accounts for 298,248 sales, 12.06% of the total.


PHOTO: Leo Baron


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