LANA DEL REY SETS RECORD FOR MOST WEEKS AT NO.1 ON L.DK WEEKLY!
Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club commands Top Contemporary Albums for fifth week; Arlo Parks debuts at No.3 with Collapsed in Sunbeams.
Topping the Top Contemporary Albums Chart for a fifth cumulative week, Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club shifted a further 74,000 units this week (down 1 percent). The LP has now been certified Double Platinum for exceeding sales of 600,000 units.
Chemtrails is Del Rey’s fifth album to achieve Multi-Platinum status: her 2019 studio album Norman Fucking Rockwell! is the bestselling album of all time, and has been certified 13 x Platinum to date (3.9 million); Lust for Life (8 x Platinum – 2.6 million); Born to Die: the Paradise Edition (2 x Platinum – 855,000); and Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass (2 x Platinum – 811,000).
Including the five-week reign of Chemtrails, Del Rey has spent a record-breaking thirty-three weeks atop L.dK Weekly. She has topped the charts with Lust for Life in 2017 (eleven weeks) and Norman Fucking Rockwell! in 2019 & 2020 (seventeen weeks).
The list of artists with the most weeks at No.1 is as follows:
- 33 weeks, Lana Del Rey – Lust for Life (eleven weeks); Norman Fucking Rockwell! (seventeen weeks); Chemtrails Over the Country Club (five weeks to date).
- 32 weeks, Taylor Swift – reputation (one week); Lover (one week); folklore (sixteen weeks); evermore (thirteen weeks); Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (one week).
- 18 weeks, Stevie Nicks – The Other Side of the Mirror (five weeks); Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks (three weeks); Trouble in Shangri-La (one week); Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks (five weeks); 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault (four weeks).
- 18 weeks, Lady Gaga – A Star is Born with Bradley Cooper (twelve weeks); Chromatica (six weeks).
- 9 weeks, Fleetwood Mac – Rumours (five weeks); Tango in the Night (three weeks); Greatest Hits (one week).
- 9 weeks, Joni Mitchell – Blue (nine weeks).
Taylor Swift takes up three spots in the Top Five this week: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) stays at No.2 in its third week, selling 50,000 copies (down 22 percent); thirteen-week leader evermore rises 5-4 on sales of 33,000 units (up 3 percent); her sixteen-week ruler folklore slips 4-5 moving 32,000 copies (down 6 percent) as it celebrates a 40th consecutive week inside the Top Five! folklore is currently the second longest-running Top Five record of all time, and ranks __ among Top Ten albums.
The list of the longest-running Top Five albums are as follows:
- 50 weeks – Lana Del Rey, Norman Fucking Rockwell
- 40 weeks – Taylor Swift, folklore
- 34 weeks – Carole King, A Beautiful Collection
- 32 weeks – Stevie Nicks, Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks
- 31 weeks – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born – OST
- 30 weeks – Lana Del Rey, Born to Die: the Paradise Edition
- 28 weeks – Alanis Morissette, The Collection; Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
- 23 weeks – Annie Lennox, Diva
- 21 weeks – Adele, 25
The list of longest-running Top Ten albums are as follows:
- 80 weeks – Lana Del Rey, Norman Fucking Rockwell!
- 56 weeks – Stevie Nicks, Bella Donna
- 52 weeks – Annie Lennox, Diva
- 50 weeks – Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
- 44 weeks – Lana Del Rey, Lust for Life
- 43 weeks – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – A Star is Born – OST
- 41 weeks – Stevie Nicks, Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks; Alanis Morissette, The Collection; Dua Lipa, Future Nostalgia
- 40 weeks – Taylor Swift, folklore
Between Swift’s albums, at No.3 is Arlo Parks’s debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams. The disc bows with sales of 34,000 units.
Outside the Top Five: London Grammar drop 3-6 with their now-Silver-certified Californian Soil (27,000 units – down 51 percent); Celeste’s No.3-peaking Not Your Muse retreats 6-7 (20,000 units – even with last week); Hayley Williams’s No.2-peaking FLOWERS for VASES / descansos slips 7-8 (20,000 units – even with last week); The Weeknd’s The Highlights steps down 8-9 after peaking at No.3 (18,000 units – down 5 percent); and Miley Cyrus’s two-week leader Plastic Hearts descends 9-10 (17,000 units – down 6 percent).
Onto Next Week: Two albums should start inside the Top Ten this week. The first – Birdy’s Young Heart – could vault to No.1, as it looks set to sell upwards of 100,000 units in its first week. The latter – Amy Shark’s Cry Forever – may make the Top Five with over 30,000 sold.
Notable Moves on Top Contemporary
No.14 – Piano Sketches / Birdy’s four-track EP reached its peak of No.12 over two months ago, and this week soars from No.23 back up to No.14, selling 8,000 copies, in anticipation of the singer’s upcoming album Young Heart. The EP has sold 188,000 copies to date, and is Birdy’s longest-charting effort, with twenty-five weeks on the ranking.
Top Contemporary Albums
Certifications: Silver (60,000); Gold (100,000); Platinum (300,000); Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.); Diamond (3,000,000).
JONI MITCHELL LEADS TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS FOR NINTH WEEK!
Blue extends its rule; Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die: the Paradise Edition celebrates a whole year on L.dK Weekly!
For a ninth successive week, Joni Mitchell dominates the Top Catalogue Albums Chart with her hit 1971 album Blue. The LP recorded sales of 57,000 copies this week (down 25 percent).
Blue is now the sixth longest-running number-one hit of all time on L.dK Weekly, passing Dua Lipa’s eight-week ruler Future Nostalgia. The list of longest-running albums ever is as follows:
- 17 weeks – Lana Del Rey, Norman Fucking Rockwell!
- 16 weeks – Taylor Swift, folklore
- 13 weeks – Taylor Swift, evermore
- 12 weeks – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – A Star is Born – OST
- 11 weeks – Lana Del Rey, Lust for Life
- 9 weeks – Joni Mitchell, Blue
Lana Del Rey occupies four spots in the Top Ten this week, led by Norman Fucking Rockwell! remaining at No.2 with 24,000 sold (down 4 percent) as it logs a record-padding 50th week inside the Top Five and record-extending 80th week in the Top Ten.
Born to Die: the Paradise Edition slides 5-7 on sales of 10,000 copies (down 29 percent) as it becomes the thirty-eighth album to spend a full year (52 weeks) on L.dK Weekly. Two of Del Rey’s other releases have managed this feat as well: Norman Fucking Rockwell! (eighty-seven weeks) and Lust for Life (eighty-two weeks).
Honeymoon meanwhile regresses to No.9 from No.8 after hitting No.4 earlier this year (9,000 units – down 10 percent); and the chart-topping Lust for Life rebounds 11-10 (9,000 units – up 12 percent).
Steady at No.3 for a second week is Florence + the Machine’s High as Hope, on sales of 19,000 copies (up 11 percent). The album debuted at No.1 in January.
Stevie Nicks follows at No.4 with her five-week chart-topper Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks on sales of 19,000 copies (up 11 percent); it holds above Kate Bush’s The Whole Story which sails 5-7 on sales of 11,000 units (up 10 percent) after hitting No.3 earlier this year.
Outside the Top Five: Annie Lennox’s former-chart-topping Diva holds at No.6 (10,000 units – on par with last week); Alanis Morissette’s No.2-hit The Collection jumps 10-8 (9,000 units – even with last week).
The latter album makes history this week as it becomes the first compilation in history to be certified 7 x Platinum denoting sales of over 2.1 million units. The album – which holds the record for most weeks at No.2 without hitting No.1, with nine – reaches the mark in its fifty-fifth week on the charts, and is just the seventh release to sell as many copies.
Onto Next Week: HEART could score a second Top Five hit with their 1978 album Dog & Butterfly. The set is currently aiming to sell 20,000 copies in its first week.
Notable Moves on Top Catalogue
No.16 – WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? / Billie Eilish’s debut full-length album re-enters Top Catalogue Albums at No.16 following the announcement of the singer’s upcoming second studio album Happier than Ever – due out July 30th. WHEN sold 6,000 units this week (up from a negligible figure last week) and has sold over 430,000 copies to date; it debuted and peaked at No.2 in 2019 behind MARINA’s LOVE + FEAR and now marks its 27th appearance on L.dK Weekly. Eilish’s debut EP don’t smile at me – which hit No.1 in 2017 and is certified Platinum – returns at No.21 on sales of 5,000 copies.
Top Catalogue Albums
Industry Sales
Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 453,000 units this week (down 10.1%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 324,000 units (down 10%). Contemporary accounted for 58.3% of all consumption this week; versus 41.7% for Catalogue.
Total industry sales stand at 777,000 units this week, falling by 10.1% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 907,000 albums were sold), consumption is down by 13.8%.
L.dK Music 