LANA DEL REY’S CHEMTRAILS OVER THE COUNTRY CLUB RULES CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS FOR EIGHTH WEEK!
PLUS: Taylor Swift places three albums within the Top Five!
Lana Del Rey spends an eighth non-consecutive week in the top spot on Top Contemporary Albums with her latest smash Chemtrails Over the Country Club. The LP sold 36,000 copies this week (down eight percent).
This week, Chemtrails surpasses MARINA’s LOVE + FEAR to become the joint-seventh longest-running number-one album of all time!
The list of longest-running number-one albums is as follows:
- Twenty weeks – Blue , Joni Mitchell
- Seventeen weeks – Norman Fucking Rockwell! , Lana Del Rey
- Sixteen weeks – folklore , Taylor Swift
- Thirteen weeks – evermore , Taylor Swift
- Twelve weeks – A Star is Born – OST , Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
- Eleven weeks – Lust for Life , Lana Del Rey
- Eight weeks – Future Nostalgia: Moonlight Edition , Dua Lipa & Chemtrails Over the Country Club , Lana Del Rey
Lana Del Rey is the only artist to feature three times on the above list!
Rising back to No.2 is Taylor Swift’s former number-one Fearless (Taylor’s Version) on the strength of 33,000 sales (down six percent). The album has sold just over 610,000 copies to date, making it Swift’s fifth effort to be certified Multi-Platinum!
Fearless (TV) isn’t the singer’s only album to attain a new certification this week: their juggernaut folklore passes sales of 3.6 million units as it climbs 6-4 with 31,000 copies sold (up ten percent).
Currently, folklore is just the second album in history to be certified 12 x Platinum or higher, joining Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! which has gone Platinum fourteen times over! More on that later…
Swift’s evermore meanwhile caps the Top Five (holding at No.5) selling 30,000 copies (down four percent).
Taylor Swift’s highest-certified albums are as follows:
- 12 x Platinum – folklore
- 8 x Platinum – evermore
- 5 x Platinum – Lover
- Double Platinum – reputation & Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
- Silver – 1989
Between Fearless (TV) & folklore: London Grammar’s Californian Soil pushes 4-3 to return to its peak in its thirteenth charting week. The album sold 32,000 units this week (up three percent).
Five former number-one hits follow outside the Top Five: Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR slides 3-6 (29,000 units – down twenty percent); Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts jumps 8-7 (18,000 units – up five percent); Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia: Moonlight Edition ticks 9-8 (15,000 units – down seven percent); Birdy’s Young Heart falls 7-9 (15,000 units – down seventeen percent); Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure?: Platinum stays put at No.10 (12,000 units – up nine percent).
Onto Next Week: Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club looks set for a ninth week at the top spot, with sales of over 35,000 copies.
Notable Moves on Top Contemporary Albums!
No.17 – Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land / MARINA’s second number-one album slides 13-17 in its fifth charting week. The record has certainly underperformed in the shadow of it’s predecessor LOVE + FEAR – that album spent seven weeks on top in 2019 and has sold 1.9 million copies to date. However, Ancient goes Gold this week, denoting sales of over 100,000 units.
Top Contemporary Albums
Certifications: Silver (60,000); Gold (100,000); Platinum (300,000); Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.); Diamond (3,000,000).
JONI MITCHELL CROWNS CATALOGUE ALBUMS FOR RECORD-PADDING 20TH WEEK!
Mitchell’s Blue extends its record for most weeks at No.1!
For a twentieth successive week, Joni Mitchell’s Blue convincingly ranks as the most popular album on the Catalogue Format!
Selling 28,000 units this week (down fifteen percent), it becomes the first album in history to spend twenty weeks at number-one on L.dK Weekly!
Mitchell’s 1968 debut is also present in the Top Ten this week: down 5-10 with 9,000 sold (down twenty-five percent).
Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! bullets at No.2 selling 23,000 copies (up four percent) as it becomes the first album ever to be certified 14 x Platinum for selling over 4.2 million copies.
In L.dK Weekly history, only three albums have been certified Diamond, for selling over three million units!
- 14 x Platinum – Norman Fucking Rockwell , Lana Del Rey
- 12 x Platinum – folklore , Taylor Swift
- 11 x Platinum – A Star is Born – OST , Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
Compilation albums from Stevie Nicks & Kate Bush are next in the Top Five: Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks holds at No.3 after five weeks at No.1 (15,000 units – down six percent) and The Whole Story keeps at No.4 after peaking at No.3 (14,000 units – down seven percent).
Capping the Top Five is Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection which rises 6-5, moving 11,000 units (down eight percent). The best-of set previously spent six weeks at the top of the Catalogue Albums Chart!
Outside the Top Five: Lorde’s No.2-peaking Pure Heroine rebounds 9-6 (11,000 units – even with last week); Alanis Morissette’s No.2-peaking The Collection lunges 10-7 (10,000 units – even with last week); Annie Lennox’s former number-one Diva keeps at No.8 (10,000 units – on par with last week); Lorde’s five-week-leader Melodrama sinks 7-9 (10,000 units – down nine percent).
Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue & Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! are both tracking to sell around 25,000 copies in the upcoming tracking week, so either could be bound for the No.1 spot!
Notable Moves on Top Catalogue Albums!
No.19 – Born this Way / Lady Gaga’s sophomore album has now been certified Silver for selling over 60,000 copies.
No.24 – A Star is Born – OST / Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper achieved the biggest album of the 2010’s decade with Star, and the album has now spent a full two years (104 weeks) on L.dK Weekly!
Top Catalogue Albums
Industry Sales
Contemporary Albums generated sales of 353,000 units this week (down 5.2%) while Catalogue Albums recorded sales of 272,000 units (down 9.7%). Contemporary accounted for 56.5% of all sales this week; versus 43.5% for Catalogue.
This week marks the worst performance of the year on the Contemporary Format, dipping below the 372,000 sold in the dated 12 July.
Total industry sales stand at 625,000 units for the week, diving 10.2% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 879,000 albums were sold), consumption is down 28.9%!
625,000 is the lowest sales haul of 2021 to date, falling below the week dated 01 February when 671,000 albums were sold. Overall, it’s the lowest industry level since the week dated 19 October 2020 when just 598,000 albums were consumed.
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 