18.01.2021 – L.dK Weekly

TAYLOR SWIFT’S EVERMORE RULES FOR FIFTH WEEK!

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As evermore continues to dominate, folklore reaches a new sales milestone.

Taylor Swift’s evermore tallies a fifth straight week at No.1 on Top Contemporary Albums. It’s currently the longest-running No.1 album since Swift’s own folklore dominated the Weekly Top 50 for fifteen weeks in 2020.

evermore moved 172,000 units in the latest tracking week (up 14 percent): gaining in the first full week after the album’s deluxe edition was released, including two new tracks.

Still on Swift: holding at No.2 on Top Contemporary, folklore sells a further 82,000 units (down 7 percent). The juggernaut has sold 2,457,000 units to date since its release in July last year, making it only the fourth album in history to top the 2.4 million sales mark.

• Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (3.6 million)
• A Star is Born – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (3.3 million)
• Lust for Life – Lana Del Rey (2.49 million)
• folklore – Taylor Swift (2.45 million)

Notably, this marks the fifth week in a row that Taylor Swift has concurrently held the top two spots: including two weeks on the Weekly Top 50, and now three on Top Contemporary Albums.

A trio of former No.1 hits follow in the Top Five: Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts (44,000 – down 9 percent) and Ariana Grande’s Positions (33,000 – down 16 percent) retain their ranks from the previous week. Rising from No.6 to No.5: Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! adds a record-padding 39th week inside the Top Five (22,000 – down 5 percent). NFR! also scores a record-extending 65th frame in the Top Ten.

Rina Sawayama’s No.4 peaking SAWAYAMA falls 5-6 with 20,000 sold (down 17 percent); Joji’s No.2 hit Nectar ticks 8-7 (19,000 – up 18 percent) swapping places with Fiona Apple’s No.4 hit Fetch the Bolt Cutters (15,000 – down 12 percent).

Returning to the Top Ten for the first time since last August, Jessie Ware’s sole No.1 album What’s Your Pleasure? sails 11-9 with 14,000 sold (up 16 percent). The set has now spent seven weeks inside the Top Ten.

Capping the top tier: Harry Styles’ is down 9-10 with his former chart-topper Fine Line (13,000 – down 14 percent).

Onto Next Week: ZAYN’s new solo record Nobody’s Listening could bow inside the Top Ten with around 20,000 units. Taylor Swift should be clear for a sixth week at No.1 with evermore: the LP is tracking for around 130,000 units.

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary

No.15 – Piano Sketches / Birdy’s EP lifts one spot to No.15, reaching another new highpoint, moving 9,000 copies this week. The EP has sold 80,000 to date.

No.25 – Infinite Things / Paloma Faith’s latest effort bowed inside the Top Ten last year, and now sits at No.25 on Top Contemporary Albums in its ninth charting week. The album has now been certified Gold with sales of 101,000 units.

Top Contemporary Albums

1. [=/5] evermore – Taylor Swift (5)
2. [=] folklore – Taylor Swift (25)
3. [=] Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (7)
4. [=] Positions – Ariana Grande (11)
5. [+1] Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (72)
6. [-1] SAWAYAMA – Rina Sawayama (6)
7. [+1] Nectar – Joji (16)
8. [-1] Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (39)
9. [+2] What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (29)
10. [-1] Fine Line – Harry Styles (57)
11. [+2] Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (25)
12. [=] Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (42)
13. [-3] Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (36)
14. [+1] Album No.8 – Katie Melua (13)
15. [+1] Piano Sketches – Birdy (43)
16. [-2] After Hours – The Weeknd (43)
17. [=] Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (11)
18. [+1] Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (24)
19. [+4] Ungodly Hour – Chloe x Halle (31)
20. [-2] DISCO – Kylie Minogue (10)
21. [-1] Chromatica – Lady Gaga (33)
22. [-1] BE – BTS (8)
23. [+1] Love Goes – Sam Smith (11)
24. [-2] Map of the Soul: 7 – BTS (47)
25. [=] Infinite Things – Paloma Faith (9)

Certifications: Silver (60,000), Gold (100,000), Platinum (300,000), Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.), Diamond (3,000,000)

CAROLE KING RECLAIMS CATALOGUE CROWN WITH A BEAUTIFUL COLLECTION!

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Beautiful spends a second week at the summit; Ariana Grande’s Sweetener celebrates a new achievement.

Selling 20,000 copies in the latest tracking week (up 5 percent), Carole King’s compilation set A Beautiful Collection rises 2-1 for a second week atop Top Catalogue Albums. With two weeks at the top, it is the first multi-week leader of the year on the Catalogue Chart.

Last week’s No.1 hit – Florence + the Machine’s High as Hope – slides to No.2 with 18,000 units (down 49 percent). The Machine feature again in this week’s Top Ten: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful inches 9-8 with 10,000 sold (up 11 percent) after hitting No.3 in 2020.

The Top Five is completed by a trio of compilation albums: Alanis Morissette is steady at No.3 with her No.2 peaking The Collection (15,000 – up 15 percent); Stevie Nicks is up 7-4 with her chart-topping Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks (14,000 – up 27 percent); and Kate Bush keeps at No.5 with The Whole Story (13,000 – up 8 percent) which hit No.4 in 2018.

Annie Lennox’s former No.1 hit Diva springs 8-6 with 12,000 units (up 20 percent). Fleetwood Mac’s No.1 best-of set Greatest Hits slides 4-7 with 10,000 sold (down 17 percent).

Falling 6-9 with 9,000 units (down 19 percent) is Stevie Nicks’ No.3 peaking Bella Donna.

Ariana Grande’s Sweetener caps the Top Ten for the third week in a row, shifting 7,000 units (down 13 percent). The album has now spent a massive 104 weeks on the weekly charts: 101 of them on the Weekly Top 50.

Sweetener is Grande’s first album to spend two years on L.dK Weekly. It is just the fourth album overall, following Stevie Nicks’ Bella Donna (122 weeks), Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (109 weeks) and Adele’s 25 (106 weeks).

Onto Next Week: Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection could earn a third week at the top with around 20,000 units once again.

Top Catalogue Albums

1. [+1/2] A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (30)
2. [-1] High as Hope – Florence + the Machine (2)
3. [=] The Collection – Alanis Morissette (40)
4. [+3] Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (58)
5. [=] The Whole Story – Kate Bush (80)
6. [+2] Diva – Annie Lennox (102)
7. [-3] Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (60)
8. [+1] How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + the Machine (39)
9. [-3] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (122)
10. [=] Sweetener – Ariana Grande (104)
11. [=] thank u, next – Ariana Grande (51)
12. [+2] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (109)
13. [=] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (84)
14. [+2] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (96)
15. [-3] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (56)
16. [+1] 50 Words for Snow – Kate Bush (8)
17. [+4] A Star is Born – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (97)
18. [+4] Rock a Little – Stevie Nicks (76)
19. [re] Crystal Visions: the Very Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (45)
20. [-5] Back to Black – Amy Winehouse (86)
21. [-3] Medusa – Annie Lennox (76)
22. [+3] True Colors – Cyndi Lauper (21)
23. [-3] Heart – HEART (38)
24. [-1] Dancing Queen – Cher (89)
25. [-6] Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (35)

Industry Sales: Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 534,000 units this week (down 1.5%) while Catalogue Albums generated 228,000 units (down 3.8%). Contemporary was responsible for 70% of all sales this week; versus Catalogue’s share of 30%.

This week marks the lowest figure to date for Contemporary Albums. The first week of 2021 generated the most sales, with 548,000 units.

Total industry sales are down 2.2% from last week, to 762,000 units this week. Compared to the same week last year (when 603,000 albums were sold), consumption is up 26.3%.