08.02.2021 – L.dK Weekly

TAYLOR SWIFT’S EVERMORE LEADS TOP CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS; CELEBRATES TWO MONTHS AT NO.1, AND GOES 4 X PLATINUM!

In addition to another history-making week for Swift: British rising star Celeste achieves a career best, with Not Your Muse opening at No.3!

Taylor Swift’s evermore tallies an eighth overall week at No.1, and sixth atop Top Contemporary Albums (it ruled the Weekly Top 50 for two weeks in 2020).

Currently, evermore is just the sixth album to rule L.dK Weekly for at least two months: it ties Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia for the fifth longest reign in history.

In addition: with evermore’s eight-week reign, Taylor Swift adds her second album to achieve a multi-month command of L.dK Weekly. 2020’s folklore spent a staggering fifteen weeks at the summit, becoming the second longest-running Number One album in history.

Swift is the second artist to achieve this feat, joining Lana Del Rey. The latter star commanded the Weekly Top 50 for eleven weeks with Lust for Life (2017-2018) and then earned a record seventeen weeks at the top with Norman Fucking Rockwell! across 2019 and 2020.

Note: Swift has also reached No.1 with reputation (2017) and Lover. Both albums spent just a single week at the top.

evermore nabs its eighth week at No.1 thanks to sales of 110,000 units (down 12 percent). It’s total sales figure has now climbed to 1,238,000 after only two months on sale.

The set is Swift’s third release to be certified at least 4 x Platinum (denoting sales of over 1,200,000 units) following Lover (5 x Platinum) and folklore (8 x Platinum).

Speaking of folklore… that juggernaut lingers at No.2 on Top Contemporary Albums, held from the top spot by its younger sibling evermore for an eighth straight week. The album sold 60,000 copies this week (down 5 percent) and has sold 2,654,000 copies to date through its twenty-eight weeks on the chart.

Rising British star Celeste pounces onto Top Contemporary Albums at No.3 this week with her debut studio album Not Your Muse. The album bows with sales of 47,000 copies.

New Best for Celeste: This marks Celeste’s second visit to the Top Five – and her best showing to date – as her EP Compilation 1.1 debuted and peaked at No.5 in early 2020.

This week, Compilation surges 24-11 with sales of 10,000 copies. The EP has now spent 12 weeks on L.dK Weekly, and is certified Gold (100,000).

Two former No.1 records cap the Top Five: Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts sinks 3-4 (44,000 units – down 12 percent) and Ariana Grande’s Positions steps down 4-5 (28,000 units – down 13 percent).

Just outside the Top Five, Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! descends 5-6 with sales of 19,000 units (down 5 percent). The legendary album tallies a record-extending 68th week inside the Top Ten!

The Weeknd’s chart-topping After Hours pushes 9-7 this week selling 13,000 units (up 18 percent), holding Hayley Williams’s No.3 peaking Petals for Armor at No.8 for a second week with 12,000 copies sold (on par).

Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? returns to the Top Ten (12-9) on sales of 12,000 copies (up 20 percent). Pleasure? became Ware’s first No.1 record upon its release in 2020.

Rounding out the Top Ten: Joji’s Nectars tumbles from its previous rank of No.6 selling 11,000 units (down 27 percent).

Onto Next Week: Hayley Williams & The Weeknd are set to impact the Top Ten with new releases. Williams’s album Flowers for Vases / descansos could challenge for the No.1 spot with around 90,000 sold, while The Weeknd’s best-of set The Highlights should bow in the Top Five with around 30,000 units. Both artists are looking to score their second Top Five hit in as many tries, and both could double up in the Top Ten next week!

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary

No.14 – Piano Sketches / Birdy’s 2020 EP holds at its No.14 peak for a second straight week with 9,000 units sold (even with last week). The 4-track set has now been certified Gold for selling over 100,000 copies. Birdy’s other certified releases are: Birdy (Gold) and Beautiful Lies (Platinum).

Top Contemporary Albums

1. [=/8] evermore – Taylor Swift (8)
2. [=] folklore – Taylor Swift (28)
3. [NEW] Not Your Muse – Celeste (1)
4. [-1] Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (10)
5. [-1] Positions – Ariana Grande (14)
6. [-1] Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (75)
7. [+2] After Hours – The Weeknd (46)
8. [=] Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (39)
9. [+3] What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (32)
10. [-4] Nectar – Joji (19)
11. [+13] Compilation 1.1 – Celeste (12)
12. [-2] Fine Line – Harry Styles (60)
13. [=] Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (28)
14. [=/2] Piano Sketches – Birdy (13)
15. [-8] Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (42)
16. [-5] Album No.8 – Katie Melua (16)
17. [-2] Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (45)
18. [-1] Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (14)
19. [-3] SAWAYAMA – Rina Sawayama (9)
20. [-2] Ungodly Hour – Chloe x Halle (34)
21. [-2] DISCO – Kylie Minogue (13)
22. [-2] Chromatica – Lady Gaga (36)
23. [-2] Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (27)
24. [+1] Love Goes – Sam Smith (14)
25. [-3] Map of the Soul: 7 – BTS (50)

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

STEVIE NICKS EQUALS HER LONGEST REIGN AS CRYSTAL VISIONS LEADS TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS!

Nicks places three albums in the Top Ten; Tori Amos underperforms with Under the Pink!

For a second week, Stevie Nicks’s Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks takes the reins. Visions has spent a total of five weeks at No.1 between its two-week command here, and its three-week stint atop the Weekly Top 50 in 2018.

With five weeks at the top of L.dK Weekly, it ties Nicks’s 1989 album The Other Side of the Mirror as her longest-running Number One hit!

At the time of its release, Mirror became the fastest-selling album of all time (194,000 sold), and for a time would stand as the longest-running Number One among all artists, and the bestselling album ever!

Mirror has since been surpassed both in chart tenure and in sales, but has still managed to rack up an impressive 54 weeks on L.dK Weekly and sales of 1.05 million units.

In terms of sales, Visions sold 22,000 units this week (up 10 percent).

More Nicks: Returning to Top Catalogue Albums at No.3 is the artist’s 1983 sophomore album The Wild Heart (16,000 sold). Following its episode of the “Nicksology Podcast”, Heart surges back into the Top Five for the first time since January 2019.

With its re-entry at No.3, Heart achieves its second best rank ever, after it topped out at No.2 in April 2017.

Overall, The Wild Heart has now spent eleven weeks in the Top Five, thirty-eight weeks in the Top Ten, and eighty-one weeks on L.dK Weekly in total. It has sold 1.09 million units.

Heart‘s 81-week tenure on L.dK Weekly is the 10th longest stay on the chart.

Year in the Top Ten: Stevie Nicks’s Bella Donna falls 9-10 this week with 10,000 units (on par). The album has now spent an entire year (52 weeks) inside the Top Ten on L.dK Weekly. It is only the second album in history to spend so long in the region, joining Lana Del Rey’s NFR! which has lingered in the Top Ten for 68 weeks to date.

Bella Donna adds a record-padding 125th week on the tally.

At No.2 this week is Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection after three weeks at No.1 (17,000 – down 6 percent).

Kate Bush’s The Whole Story regresses from its No.3 peak to No.4 (15,000 – up 15 percent).

Tori Amos debuts at No.5 this week with her 1994 sophomore album Under the Pink (moving 14,000 copies). The album is the singer’s second Top Five hit to date, although it markedly underperforms in comparison to her last record Little Earthquakes which peaked at No.2 with sales of over 60,000 in its first week.

Earthquakes returns to the Top Ten this week (hurtling from No.20 to No.7 in its 59th week on the list) selling 12,000 copies (up 140 percent). It also becomes Amos’s first record to be certified 3 x Platinum, for selling in excess of 900,000 units.

Rounding out the Top Ten: Annie Lennox’s one-week No.1 Diva slides 4-6 with 12,000 sold (on par), Alanis Morissette’s No.2 peaking The Collection keeps at No.8 with 11,000 units (on par), and Florence + the Machine’s latest chart-topper High as Hope plummets 5-9 with 11,000 units (down 9 percent).

Onto Next Week: Stevie Nicks should be clear for a sixth week at No.1 with Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks with sales of around 20,000 units.

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue

No.24 – Rock a Little / Historic weeks are certainly common for Stevie Nicks. The singer – crowned Top Artist every year since L.dK Weekly’s inception in 2017 – adds her record-extending sixth million-selling album in the form of 1985’s Rock a Little. The rock LP re-enters the chart this week at No.24, marking its 78th apperance on the tally. Little has sold exactly 1,000,000 units to date, joining The Other Side of the Mirror (1.05 million), The Wild Heart (1.09 million), Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks (1.13 million), Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks (1.37 million) and Bella Donna (1.51 million).

Top Catalogue Albums

1. [=/5] Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (48)
2. [=] A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (33)
3. [re] The Wild Heart – Stevie Nicks (81)
4. [-1] The Whole Story – Kate Bush (83)
5. [NEW] Under the Pink – Tori Amos (1)
6. [-2] Diva – Annie Lennox (105)
7. [+13] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (59)
8. [=] The Collection – Alanis Morissette (43)
9. [-4] High as Hope – Florence + the Machine (5)
10. [-1] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (125)
11. [-5] How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + the Machine (42)
12. [+1] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (87)
13. [-3] Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (63)
14. [-7] 21 – Adele (51)
15. [-4] Sweetener – Ariana Grande (107)
16. [+6] True Colors – Cyndi Lauper (24)
17. [-2] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (99)
18. [-4] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (112)
19. [-2] Heart – HEART (40)
20. [-1] Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (61)
21. [-5] Medusa – Annie Lennox (79)
22. [-10] thank u, next – Ariana Grande (54)
23. [+1] Bad Animals – HEART (75)
24. [re] Rock a Little – Stevie Nicks (78)
25. [-2] Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (38)

Industry Sales: Contemporary Abums generated sales of 459,000 units (up 4%) while Catalogue Albums recorded 245,000 units (up 6.5%). Contemporary was responsible for 65.1% of all consumption this week; versues 34.9% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales are up by 4.9% to 704,000 units sold this week. Compared to the same week last year (when 557,000 albums were sold), consumption is up 26.3%!