LANA DEL REY RETURNS TO NO.1 ON TOP CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS!
Chemtrails Over the Country Club leads for seventh week!
Lana Del Rey rises 2-1 to score a seventh non-consecutive week atop the Contemporary Albums Chart with Chemtrails Over the Country Club. The album sold 39,000 copies this week (up 2 percent) and has now sold over 1.1 million units to date.
Currently, Chemtrails is the second longest-running number-one album of 2021 on Contemporary Albums with seven weeks in pole position: only Taylor Swift’s evermore has spent more time at the top spot this year – eleven weeks.
Olivia Rodrigo’s three-week leader SOUR steps 3-2 on sales of 37,000 copies (on par with last week).
Last week’s number-one – Taylor Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) dives to No.3 on sales of 36,000 copies (down seven percent).
Swift appears again with evermore steady at No.5 (31,000 units – even with last week) and folklore rising from No.7 to No.6 (28,000 units – up seven percent).
Between Fearless & evermore: London Grammar’s No.3-peaking Californian Soil remains at No.4 with 31,000 units (down 3 percent).
Outside the Top Five: Birdy’s Young Heart rebounds 8-7 (18,000 units – down twenty-two percent); Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts shifts 9-8 (17,000 units – even with last week); Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia: Moonlight Edition elevates 10-9 (16,000 units – up fourteen percent); Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? rises 11-10 (11,000 units – down nine percent).
Onto Next Week: Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club could sell upwards of 35,000 copies to earn an eighth week at the top spot.
Notable Moves on Top Contemporary Albums
No.15 – Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass / Lana Del Rey’s spoken-word poetry album peaked at No.3 last year and has so far spent fifty consecutive weeks on L.dK Weekly Charts. This week, the LP becomes Del Rey’s fifth release to be certified Triple Platinum for selling over 900,000 copies. It follows: Norman Fucking Rockwell! (13 x Platinum); Lust for Life (8 x Platinum); Chemtrails Over the Country Club (Triple Platinum); and Born to Die: the Paradise Edition (Triple Platinum).
No.25 – Chromatica / Lady Gaga’s dance-pop smash topped the Weekly Top Fifty for six weeks in 2020 and was the fifth most popular album of that year. It has now roamed L.dK Weekly for an entire year!
Top Contemporary Albums
Certifications: Silver (60,000); Gold (100,000); Platinum (300,000); Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.); Diamond (3,000,000).
JONI MITCHELL RULES TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS FOR RECORD-PADDING NINETEENTH WEEK!
Plus: Alanis Morissette returns to Top Ten!
Blue – the seminal 1971 record from Canadian folk-icon Joni Mitchell – tallies a record-extending nineteenth week in command on Top Catalogue Albums. The record sold 33,000 copies this week (down six percent).
To date, Blue is the longest-running number-one album in L.dK Weekly history!
Mitchell’s 1968 debut Song to a Seagull drops 2-5 in its second week selling 14,000 copies (down forty percent).
Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! jumps 3-2 shifting 22,000 copies (up ten percent); Stevie Nicks’s Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks rebounds 4-3 with 17,000 sold (on par with last week); Kate Bush’s The Whole Story sails 6-4 on sales of 15,000 units (even with last week).
Outside the Top Five: Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection swings 8-6 (13,000 units – down seven percent); Lorde’s Melodrama holds at No.7 (13,000 units – down seven percent); Annie Lennox’s Diva ticks 9-8 (12,000 units – even with last week); Lorde’s Pure Heroine slides 5-9 (12,000 units – down thirty-seven percent).
Capping the Top Ten: Alanis Morissette’s The Collection ascends 11-10 (11,000 units – up ten percent).
Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue could become the first album to spend twenty weeks at No.1 – the record is tracking to sell roughly 30,000 units.
Notable Moves on Top Catalogue Albums
No.12 – Greatest Hits – Chapter One / Kelly Clarkson’s compilation album has now been certified Gold for selling over 100,000 copies since its retrospective release.
Top Catalogue Albums
Industry Sales
Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 372,000 units this week (down 8%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 301,000 units (down 16.7%). Contemporary accounted for 55.3% of all sales this week; versus 44.7% for Catalogue.
Total industry sales stand at 673,000 units for the week, falling by 12.1% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 930,000 albums were sold), consumption is down 27.7%.
Note
This chart reflects my own personal music consumption; 1 song = 1,000 units. Top Contemporary Albums measures the performance of albums released within the past 18 months; Top Catalogue Albums ranks the performance of albums released prior to the past 18 months.
L.dK Music 