15.02.2021 – L.dK Weekly

TAYLOR SWIFT’S EVERMORE STILL NO.1; HAYLEY WILLIAMS & THE WEEKND DEBUT AT NOS. 2 & 3.

Taylor Swift, Hayley Williams & The Weeknd all double up in the Top Ten!

Taylor Swift’s evermore stays at No.1 on Top Contemporary Albums, selling 102,000 copies (down 8 percent).

The album – so far the only record to reach the top spot on the Contemporary Albums list – logs a ninth consecutive week at the helm.

evermore surpasses Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia to become the fifth longest-running number one album of all time!

As previously reported, evermore is Swift’s second album to rule for at least nine weeks; it joins folklore which tallied fifteen weeks at No.1 in 2020.

This week: folklore slides 2-4 with sales of 57,000 units (down 5 percent). This ends Taylor Swift’s eight-week streak of having the top two albums on Top Contemporary Albums and the discontinued Weekly Top 50: dating to evermore’s No.1 debut on the chart dated December 21st.

folklore has now sold 2,711,000 copies in the 29 weeks since its release in July last year. The album is just the third record ever released to be certified 9 x Platinum (denoting sales of 2,700,000 units).

Currently, only two albums have recieved higher certifications than folklore: Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! (12 x Platinum) and Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born (11 x Platinum).

folklore adds another feat this week: the LP has now lived inside the Top Five for 29 consecutive weeks! It’s a figure only bested by two records: NFR! (41 weeks) and Star (31 weeks).

Hayley Williams roars onto Top Contemporary Albums at No.2 this week with her new release Flowers for Vases / descansos.

The album – Williams’s third Top Ten hit in as many tries – debuts with first week sales of 83,000 units. It marks the largest bow of 2021 to date!

Williams celebrates both her highest sales week, and highest debut on L.dK Weekly. Previously, the singer launched at No.8 with Petals for Armor I, and her debut solo album Petals for Armor in 2020.

With a No.2 debut, Flowers becomes Williams’s highest-peaking album to date, after Petals for Armor reached a high of No.3 on the Weekly Top 50 last year. It also achieves Silver status after just a week (60,000).

Petals is up 8-7 this week in its 40th charting term. The triple-platinum certified album moved 22,000 units (up 83 percent) this week.

The Weeknd celebrates a big week following his Superbowl performance, as new best-of set The Highlights bows at No.3 and After Hours endures in the Top Ten.

The Highlights starts at No.3 selling 64,000 units in its debut week. Already Silver-certified, Highlights is the second Top Five album for The Weeknd. It follows 2020’s After Hours which this week bactracks 7-10, although up 7 percent to 14,000 sold, after peaking at No.1 in March last year.

The Weeknd is the first male artist to double up inside the Top Ten. One of the most successful male artists in L.dK Weekly history, The Weeknd’s After Hours is the bestselling album of all time by a male soloist with sales of 1.35 million copies to date.

Rounding out the Top Five: Miley Cyrus’s two-week number-one Plastic Hearts drops 4-5 with 44,000 in sales (on par with last week).

Celeste’s Not Your Muse slides to No.6, dropping 49 percent to 24,000 sold, following its No.3 debut last week. The album has now been certified Silver for selling over 60,000 copies.

Ariana Grande’s three-week chart-topper Positions dives 5-8 with 21,000 sold (down 25 percent); Lana Del Rey’s seventeen-week ruler NFR! tumbles 6-9 in its record-furthering 69th week in the Top Ten, shifting 18,000 copies (down 6 percent).

Onto Next Week: Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia could make a return to the Top Ten after the release of its Moonlight Edition. The former No.1 hit could sell upwards of 20,000 units this week. Taylor Swift’s evermore could be bound for a tenth week at the top spot with around 100,000 units again.

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary

No.12 – Fine Line / Harry Styles’s sophomore record debuted at No.1 in December 2019 and has spent all but one week on the chart ever since. The album (which finished No.6 on the 2020 Year-End Chart) has now been certified Quadruple Platinum for exceeding sales of 1,200,000 copies. It is just the second album ever by a male artist to reach the sales milestone!

Top Contemporary Albums

1. [=/9] evermore – Taylor Swift (9)
2. [NEW] Flowers for Vases / descansos – Hayley Williams (1)
3. [NEW] The Highlights – The Weeknd (1)
4. [-2] folklore – Taylor Swift (29)
5. [-1] Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (11)
6. [-3] Not Your Muse – Celeste (2)
7. [+1] Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (40)
8. [-3] Positions – Ariana Grande (15)
9. [-3] Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (76)
10. [-3] After Hours – The Weeknd (47)
11. [-2] What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (33)
12. [=] Fine Line – Harry Styles (61)
13. [=] Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (29)
14. [-4] Nectar – Joji (20)
15. [+1] Album No.8 – Katie Melua (17)
16. [-2] Piano Sketches – Birdy (14)
17. [=] Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (46)
18. [-3] Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (43)
19. [+1] Ungodly Hour – Chloe x Halle (35)
20. [-2] Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (15)
21. [=] DISCO – Kylie Mingoue (14)
22. [=] Chromatica – Lady Gaga (37)
23. [=] Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (28)
24. [=] Love Goes – Sam Smith (15)
25. [-14] Compilation 1.1 – Celeste (13)

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

STEVIE NICKS CLAIMS FOUR SPOTS IN TOP TEN ON TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS!

Plus: Carole King reclaims No.1 for a fourth week!

Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection rises 2-1 to claim a fourth overall week at No.1 on Top Catalogue Albums. The compilation album sold 20,000 copies this week (up 17 percent).

Stevie Nicks claims four places inside the Top Ten this week: Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks slips 1-2 (19,000 units – down 14 percent), Bella Donna jumps 10-7 (9,000 – down 10 percent), The Wild Heart plummets 3-8 (9,000 – down 44 percent), and Rock a Little surges 24-10 (8,000 – up 100 percent).

Nicks equals her own record for the most albums simultaneously in the Top Ten: she placed four records in the region in multiple weeks in 2017.

In non-Nicks related news: Kate Bush’s The Whole Story returns to its peak of No.3 (up from No.5) selling 1,5000 copies (on par with last week).

Annie Lennox’s No.1 hit Diva rises 6-4 (12,000 – even with last week) and Alanis Morissette’s The Collection surges 8-5 after reaching No.2 for ten weeks (11,000 – on par with last week).

Florence + the Machine populate the last two spots in this week’s Top Ten: the band rise 9-6 with their No.1 record High as Hope (9,000 – down 19 percent) and lift 11-9 with the No.3 peaking How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (8,000 – even with last week).

Onto Next Week: Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection could tally a fifth week at No.1 with around 20,000 copies.

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue

No.19 – Glasshouse / Jessie Ware’s third album Glasshouse may no longer be her highest-charting album (that honour goes to What’s Your Pleasure? which debuted at No.1 last year) although it remains her greatest success. It has sold over 1.4 million units since its release in 2018, and now clocks its 100th week on the tally, settling at No.19. It is one of less than ten albums to spend 100 weeks on L.dK Weekly.

Top Catalogue Albums

1. [+1/4] A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (34)
2. [-1] Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (49)
3. [+1/2] The Whole Story – Kate Bush (84)
4. [+2] Diva – Annie Lennox (106)
5. [+3] The Collection – Alanis Morissette (44)
6. [+3] High as Hope – Florence + the Machine (6)
7. [+3] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (126)
8. [-5] The Wild Heart – Stevie Nicks (82)
9. [+2] How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + the Machine (43)
10. [+14] Rock a Little – Stevie Nicks (79)
11. [+4] Sweetener – Ariana Grande (108)
12. [=] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (88)
13. [=] Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (64)
14. [-7] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (60)
15. [+1] True Colors – Cyndi Lauper (25)
16. [+2] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (113)
17. [+8] Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (39)
18. [+1] Heart – HEART (41)
19. [-2] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (100)
20. [+1] Medusa – Annie Lennox (80)
21. [re] 25 – Adele (108)
22. [re] Back to Black – Amy Winehouse (87)
23. [-1] thank u, next – Ariana Grande (55)
24. [re] A Different Kind of Human – AURORA (47)
25. [re] Dancing Queen – Cher (90)

Industry Sales: Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 554,000 units (up 20.6%) while Catalogue Albums generated 242,000 units (down 1.3%). Contemporary accounted for 69.6% of all consumption this week; versus 30.4% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales are up by 12.2% to 796,000 units sold this week. This marks the best weekly performance of 2021 to date, topping the second week of the year when 779,000 albums were sold. It is also the best-performing week since the final week of 2020 which generated sales of 865,000 units. Compared to the same week last year (when 500,000 album were sold), consumption is up 59.2%!

Contemporary sales reach a new peak this week, passing the 548,000 albums sold in the week ending January 4th.