BIRDY’S YOUNG HEART TAKES OUT SECOND WEEK ATOP TOP CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS!
Plus: Dua Lipa soars following BRIT Awards win & Hayley Williams returns to Top Ten!
Birdy holds at No.1 with her newest LP Young Heart after debuting at No.1 last week selling 93,000 units. This week, the album dips just 20 percent to 74,000 sold, and goes Gold for sales exceeding 100,000 copies.
Young is Birdy’s fourth release (in as many tries) to be certified at least Gold. Her self-titled LP & last year’s EP Piano Sketches have both been certified Gold, while her third studio album Beautiful Lies has achieved Platinum status.
Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club is a non-mover at No.2 after five weeks at No.1, selling 59,000 copies (down 13 percent).
Three former-chart-toppers from Taylor Swift round out the Top Five, maintaining their positions from last week: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is at No.3 with 40,000 sold (down 2 percent); folklore is at No.4 with 33,000 sold (down 6 percent); and evermore is at No.5 with 30,000 units (down 9 percent).
Outside the Top Five: Dua Lipa’s eight-week-leader Future Nostalgia blasts 15-6 (19,000 units – up 72 percent) after picking up the trophy for British Album of the Year at this year’s BRIT Awards. Lipa also nabbed the award for Best British Female at the ceremony.
Just beneath Lipa, Celeste’s Not Your Muse (a British Album of the Year nominee) rebounds 9-7 after peaking at No.3 in January. The album sold 18,000 units this week (up 12 percent).
Miley Cyrus’s former-two-week-leader Plastic Hearts descends 7-8 with (18,000 units – even with last week); and London Grammar’s No.3-peaking Californian Soil slides 6-9 in its third week (15,000 units – down 25 percent).
Finally, Hayley Williams’s No.3-hit Petals for Armor elevates 12-10 to round out the Top Ten (13,000 units – on par with last week).
Onto Next Week: Birdy’s Young Heart & Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club are both set to jostle for the No.1 spot, with both record currently forecast to sell upwards of 50,000 copies. Young could claim a third week in front, while Chemtrails will challenge for a sixth.
Notable Moves on Top Contemporary!
No.14 – Fetch the Bolt Cutters / Just a month after celebrating an entire year on L.dK Weekly, Fiona Apple’s smash hit Fetch the Bolt Cutters crosses sales of 900,000 units since its release. One of the bestselling alternative albums of all time, Fetch climbs 17-14 this week on sales of 8,000 copies.
No.17 – Women in Music Pt. III / Following their win for Best International Group at the BRITS, sister-group HAIM re-enter the charts at No.17 with their 2020 record Women in Music Pt. III. The album – which debuted and peaked at No.7 last year, and has been certified Silver – returns with 7,000 sold.
No.19 – What’s Your Pleasure? / Jessie Ware’s No.1-hit What’s Your Pleasure is another beneficiary of the BRITS – where it was nominated for British Album of the Year, and Ware was up for Best British Female – as it rises 21-19 to return to the Top Twenty. Currently in its forty-sixth week on L.dK Weekly, Pleasure may be aiming for a full year on the tally.
No.22 – SAWAYAMA / Rina Sawayama’s debut full-length album peaked at No.4 last December, and this week returns at No.22 after the singer’s nomination for the Rising Star Award at the BRITS. The LP sold 6,000 units this week to re-enter at No.22.
Top Contemporary Albums
Certifications: Silver (60,000); Gold (100,000); Platinum (300,000); Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.); Diamond (3,000,000).
JONI MITCHELL STILL NO.1; BLUE RULES TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS FOR ELEVENTH WEEK!
Plus: Fleetwood Mac & Carole King re-enter Top Ten!
Joni Mitchell leads Top Catalogue Albums for an eleventh successive week – moving 42,000 copies (down 16 percent) – as Blue ties Lana Del Rey’s Lust for Life as the fifth-longest-running number-one album in L.dK Weekly history.
- 17 weeks – Norman Fucking Rockwell! , Lana Del Rey
- 16 weeks – folklore , Taylor Swift
- 13 weeks – evermore , Taylor Swift
- 12 weeks – A Star is Born , Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
- 11 weeks – Lust for Life , Lana Del Rey ; Blue , Joni Mitchell
Blue is now the first album released on the Catalogue format in 2021 to sell over 600,000 copies, earning it a Double Platinum certification! As the bestselling album of 2021 in the Catalogue Charts, Blue has sold almost double that of its closest competitor – Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection on sales of 317,000 since New Years.
Three chart-toppers follow in the Top Five: Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! keeps at No.2 this week selling 22,000 units (up 10 percent); Florence + the Machine’s High as Hope bullets at No.3 with 18,000 sold (up 5 percent); and Stevie Nicks’s Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks holds at No.4 shifting 15,000 copies (down 6 percent).
Rounding out the Top Five, Kate Bush’s The Whole Story reverses course 9-5 moving 12,000 copies (up 9 percent).
Outside the Top Five: Annie Lennox’s No.1-hit Diva lifts 8-6 (11,000 units – even with last week); Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die: the Paradise Edition remains at No.7 after hitting No.2 (11,000 units – on par with last week); Birdy’s No.2-peaking Beautiful Lies drops 6-8 (10,000 units – down 23 percent).
Fleetwood Mac’s Greatest Hits re-enters the Top Ten this week for the first time since January, as the best-of set surges 20-9 on sales of 10,000 copies (up 100 percent). Hits peaked at No.1 for a single week in 2019.
Capping the Top Ten is Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection, up from No.12 to No.10 (9,000 units – even with last week), after leading the list for six weeks earlier in the year.
Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue could move roughly 40,000 units once again, and should likely earn a twelfth straight week at No.1.
Notable Moves on Top Catalogue!
No.14 – Glasshouse / Spurred on by her recent showing at this year’s BRIT Awards (where she was nominated for Best British Female and British Album of the Year), Jessie Ware’s biggest hit re-enters Top Catalogue Albums at No.14 on sales of 7,000 copies (up 75 percent). Glasshouse has sold just over 1.51 million units since peaking at No.4 in 2018 and this marks its 108th appearance on L.dK Weekly.
No.18 – don’t smile at me / Billie Eilish picked up the award for Best International Female at the BRITS, and this week both of her studio releases rank inside the Top Twenty. 2019’s WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? retreats 11-13, while 2017’s don’t smile at me EP – her only chart-topping effort to date – springs 24-18 moving 6,000 copies.
No.23 – Dua Lipa / The self-titled hit from one of the biggest artists of 2020 returns to L.dK Weekly at No.23 after selling 5,000 copies in the wake of the BRITS. The album previously peaked at No.2 in 2017 and has been certified Platinum.
Top Catalogue Albums
Industry Sales
Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 448,000 units this week (down 8.6%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 364,000 units (up 6.7%). Contemporary accounted for 55.2% of all consumption this week; versus 44.8% for Catalogue.
This week marks the greatest market share to date for Catalogue, topping the 43.1% slice it took out in the week dated 15 March. Thus, this week also marks the lowest market share on record for the Contemporary format, passing the 56.9% majority in the week dated 15 March.
It also marks the second-lowest figure to date within the Contemporary format, passed only by the week dated 1st February when the format generated sales of 441,000. Since January, Contemporary’s market-share has shrank slowly from a record high 72.5% in the first week of the year, to this week’s figure of 55.2%. Catalogue meanwhile has lifted from 27.5% to 44.8% this week.
Total industry sales stand at 812,000 units this week, dipping 2.3% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 792,000 albums were sold), consumption is up by 2.5%.
L.dK Music 