19.04.2021 – L.dK Weekly

TAYLOR SWIFT SCORES RECORD-TYING FIFTH NUMBER ONE ALBUM WITH FEARLESS (TAYLOR’S VERSION)!

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) earns Swift her record-extending thirty-second week at No.1, as she places three albums in this week’s Top Five!

Taylor Swift flies onto Top Contemporary Albums at No.1 with her new re-recording of her 2008 hit Fearless – Fearless (Taylor’s Version). The album – the first in an upcoming series of re-recordings from the star – bows with a total of 89,000 copies, including 84,000 pure sales and and a further 5,000 units derived from pre-sales.

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is the sixty-third album in L.dK Weekly history to reach No.1, dating to its inception in March 2017.

Five Number Ones: Counting the debut of Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Swift has now logged a record-tying five chart-topping albums across L.dK Weekly: her four previous leaders all spent time atop the discontinued Weekly Top 50.

The singer has topped L.dK Weekly with reputation (2017 – one week); Lover (2019 – one week); folklore (2020 & 2021 – sixteen weeks); evermore (2020 & 2021 – thirteen weeks); and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (2021 – one week to date).

Currently, Stevie Nicks is the only other artist to send five collections to the top of the charts: The Other Side of the Mirror (2017 – five weeks); Trouble in Shangri-La (2017 – one week); Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks (2019 & 2020 – three weeks); Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks (2018 & 2021 – five weeks); and 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault (2019 – four weeks).

Interestingly, Swift’s folklore and Nicks’s Crystal Visions are to date the only albums to reach No.1 on multiple charts. folklore spent fifteen weeks atop the Weekly Top 50 in 2020, and earlier this year hit No.1 on Top Contemporary Albums where it spent a single frame; Crystal Visions notched a three-week stay atop the Weekly Top 50 in 2018, and earlier this year would crown Top Catalogue Albums for two weeks.

Thirty-Two Weeks at the Top: Across her record five chart-topping albums, Swift has now commanded L.dK Weekly for thirty-two weeks. The No.1 start of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) breaks her out of a tie with Lana Del Rey, who has racked up thirty-one weeks at the apex.

More Swift: Not content with just the No.1 spot this week, Taylor Swift places two more albums inside the Top Five. Her Diamond-certified juggernaut folklore sinks 2-3 on sales of 40,000 copies (down 18 percent), and its sister record evermore dips 3-5 with 34,000 units (down 17 percent) as it surpasses 1.9 million copies sold.

Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club retreats to No.2 after spending its first three weeks at No.1. The Platinum hit sold 87,000 units this week (down 18 percent).

Hayley Williams holds at No.4 with her No.2-peaking FLOWERS for VASES / descansos, moving 35,000 copies (down 3 percent); the Paramore-front-woman is also steady at No.9 with the No.3 hit Petals for Armor, shifting 16,000 units (even with last week).

The Weeknd backtracks 5-6 with The Highlights after it debuted and peaked at No.3 over two months ago (26,000 copies – down 19 percent); Celeste’s Not Your Muse is unmoved at No.7 after hitting No.3 (22,000 – down 8 percent); Miley Cyrus’s two-week-leader Plastic Hearts sinks 6-8 (21,000 – down 16 percent); and Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia dives 8-10 (15,000 – down 32 percent) after spending eight weeks at No.1 in 2020.

Onto Next Week: Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club could return to the top spot, as it looks set to sell roughly 75,000 units in the new tracking week. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and London Grammar’s new Californian Soil will both compete for No.2, with both sets likely to sell upwards of 50,000 copies. Foxes is also primed for a Top Ten debut with the Friends in the Corner EP: the eight-track project could start with over 20,000 sold. Irish singer-songwriter Imelda May could also make the Top Ten with her third studio album 11 Past the Hour which should start with around 20,000 units also.

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary!

No.15 – Fetch the Bolt Cutters / Fiona Apple scored one of the twenty biggest albums of last year with the alternative Fetch the Bolt Cutters. The set debuted at No.4 – which would become its peak – and has sold consistently since, having now moved just under 900,000 units. As Fetch picks up a spot to No.15 on this week’s list, it celebrates a whole year on L.dK Weekly (or fifty-two weeks)! It is the thirty-sixth album to complete a full year on the tally!

No.17 – Album No.8 / Katie Melua’s eighth studio album reached No.2 last October, and has not left the chart since. The atmospheric, chilled effort has now sold 306,000 units since its release, and thus has been certified Platinum.

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

JONI MITCHELL’S BLUE BECOMES LONGEST-RUNNING NO.1 IN CATALOGUE ALBUMS HISTORY!

Mitchell makes history; Stevie Nicks’s The Other Side of the Mirror blasts back into Top Five!

Blue has now surpassed Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection as it logs a seventh week in charge of Top Catalogue Albums, and becomes the longest-running number-one in the chart’s history!

Overall, Blue is tied with MARINA’s LOVE + FEAR as the seventh longest-running chart-topper ever. The record for the longest reign is held by Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! which commanded the Weekly Top 50 for seventeen non-consecutive weeks between 2019 and 2020.

Mitchell’s iconic set sold 56,000 copies this week (up 3 percent).

Lana Del Rey takes up four spots in the Top Ten this week: Norman Fucking Rockwell! leads the pack, steady at No.2 for a fourth frame, selling 26,000 copies (down 21 percent); Lust for Life drops 3-6 after eleven weeks at No.1, moving 13,000 copies (down 24 percent); Born to Die: the Paradise Edition descends 6-7 after hitting No.2, shifting 12,000 copies (down 20 percent); and the No.8-peaking Ultraviolence slips one place to No.9 on sales of 11,000 copies (down 15 percent).

Stevie Nicks’s Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks hikes 5-3 on sales of 17,000 units (up 6 percent). The best-of set previously ranked at No.1 for a total of five weeks.

Nicks’s former-chart-topper The Other Side of the Mirror re-enters the chart just one spot further down the list (at No.4), following its episode of discussion on Nicksology: the Stevie Nicks Podcast. Mirror – originally released in 1989 – made its chart debut on L.dK Weekly in 2017, and quickly made history. It became the fastest-selling album ever at the time (194,000 copies in its first week); in just three weeks, it became the bestselling album ever at the time; and in its fifth week at the top, it became the longest-running number-one hit ever at the time.

Mirror has since lost all of the records it once held, but remains a hugely successful record. This appearance at No.4 marks the albums tenth frame in the Top Five; twentieth showing in the Top Ten; and fifty-fifth week on the ranking overall.

Mirror moved 17,000 copies this week (up from a negligible amount the week before) and has sold 1.07 million copies to date.

Florence + the Machine’s former-chart-topper High as Hope lunges 7-5 to return to the Top Five for the first time since February, shifting 14,000 copies this week (up 7 percent).

Beyond the Top Five: Kate Bush’s The Whole Story springs 11-8 (11,000 units – down 8 percent) and Annie Lennox’s Diva retreats 9-10 (10,000 units – down 17 percent).

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue looks set to sell another 50,000 units, which would earn the album an eighth straight week on the throne!

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue!

No.25 – Glasshouse / Jessie Ware’s biggest hit became one of very few albums to live on the charts for at least 104 weeks (or two whole years) earlier in the year. This week, it officially reaches sales of 1.5 million copies, earning it 5 x Platinum certification! It is just the twenty-first album to sell as many units!

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 481,000 units this week (up 2.7%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 356,000 units (up 7.5%). Contemporary accounted for 57.5% of all consumption this week; versus 42.5% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales stand at 837,000 units this week, marking an uptick of 4.7% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 1,013,000 albums were sold), consumption is down by 17.4%.