BILLIE EILISH ROARS TO NO.1 WITH HAPPIER THAN EVER!
Plus: The Weeknd returns to the Top Ten!
Billie Eilish collects her second No.1 album on L.dK Weekly, as Happier than Ever opens atop the tally with combined sales of 94,000 units. It scores the third-largest debut of the year, behind Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club (29 March – 160,000 units) and Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR (31 May – 111,000).
Happier is Eilish’s first studio effort since 2019’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? which peaked at No.2 on the chart dated 08 April 2019. The album became the 26th most successful record of 2019 and has sold just over 470,000 units to date.
Overall, Happier is the second No.1 album of Eilish’s career after her debut EP don’t smile at me reached the summit on the chart dated 09 September 2017 – that EP ranked as the 27th biggest hit of 2017 and has since sold over 300,000 copies.
Of the album’s impressive debut, 74,000 sales stem from first-week sales, while a further 22,000 units are pre-sales derived from singles released prior to the album.
Happier earns almost triple the next most popular album of the week: Taylor Swift’s folklore retreats to No.2 after notching a seventeenth week in charge. The album sold 32,000 copies, dipping twenty-two percent from the prior frame.
Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club descends 2-3 – moving 28,000 copies (down seven percent) – after spending nine weeks in pole position!
Swift crops up twice more in the Top Five: her thirteen-week-leader evermore remains at No.3 selling 27,000 units (even with last week) and her three-week-ruler Fearless (Taylor’s Version) lifts one spot to No.5 on sales of 23,000 copies (down eight percent).
Outside the Top Five: Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts edges 7-6 (16,000 units – down six percent) and Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR slides 5-7 (15,000 units – down seventeen percent).
The Weeknd soars back into the Top Ten this week as his No.3-peaking collection The Highlights bursts 19-8 (14,000 units – up 133 percent) amid the glow of the singer’s newly released single. His 2020 chart-topper After Hours re-charts further down the list at No.23 with 5,000 sold.
Capping the Top Ten: London Grammar’s Californian Soil dives 4-9 (13,000 units – down forty-six percent) and Hayley Williams’s Petals for Armor repeats at No.10 (12,000 units – up twenty percent).
Onto Next Week: Billie Eilish’s Happier than Ever should easily hold atop Contemporary Albums for a second week; it is currently on track to sell over 60,000 units.
Notable Moves on Top Contemporary Albums!
No.25 – Friends in the Corner EP / Foxes nabbed her first Top Ten hit earlier this year, and this week the EP returns to the Contemporary Chart at No.25 selling 4,000 copies. It has now charted for a total of nine weeks; and with sales of 60,000 units it has now been certified Silver!
TOP CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS
LANA DEL REY RETURNS TO NO.1 ON TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS!
Norman Fucking Rockwell! logs nineteenth week at the apex; Del Rey’s Born to Die: the Paradise Edition & Stevie Nicks’s Rock a Little celebrate new achievements.
Selling 23,000 copies this week (even with last week), Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! commands the Catalogue Albums Chart for a nineteenth non-consecutive week.
Among all albums, NFR! is the second-longest-running number-one ever:
- Twenty weeks – Blue , Joni Mitchell
- Nineteen weeks – Norman Fucking Rockwell! , Lana Del Rey
- Seventeen weeks – folklore , Taylor Swift
- Thirteen weeks – evermore , Taylor Swift
- Twelve weeks – A Star is Born – OST , Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
Del Rey’s debut full-length – Born to Die: the Paradise Edition – also places in the Top Ten this week, rising 10-7 in its sixty-sixth turn on the chart. Born has now become Del Rey’s fourth record to sell in excess of 1 million copies! It follows NFR! (4.28 million); Lust for Life (2.69 million); and Chemtrails Over the Country Club (1.26 million).
Del Rey is just the second artist – alongside Stevie Nicks – to have four or more albums shift upwards of 1 million copies. Nicks has achieved this with the following six records: Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks (1.82 million); Bella Donna (1.74 million); The Wild Heart (1.18 million); Rock a Little (1.17 million); Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks (1.16 million); and The Other Side of the Mirror (1.13 million).
Joni Mitchell’s Blue rebounds one position to No.2 after earlier this year spending a record-breaking twenty weeks at number-one. The seminal album sold 21,000 copies this week (down five percent).
Stevie Nicks’s Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks ascends 4-3 as it swells by twenty-five percent to 20,000 units sold. Crystal previously spent five weeks at the top spot!
More Nicks: 1981’s Bella Donna tumbles to No.6 after finally reaching No.1 for the first time last week – in its 150th showing on L.dK Weekly! Nicks’s debut solo effort sold a further 14,000 units this week (down forty-seven percent).
Nicks’s third studio album Rock a Little retreats 8-10 (10,000 units – down twenty-five percent) as it clocks a rare 100th turn on L.dK Weekly! The LP – which peaked at No.2 in 2017 – is only the eleventh album to achieve this feat:
- 151 weeks – Bella Donna , Stevie Nicks
- 131 weeks – Diva , Annie Lennox
- 125 weeks – Sweetener , Ariana Grande
- 116 weeks – Rumours , Fleetwood Mac
- 116 weeks – Glasshouse , Jessie Ware
- 112 weeks – 25 , Adele
- 109 weeks – The Whole Story , Kate Bush
- 107 weeks – A Star is Born – OST , Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
- 102 weeks – She’s so Unusual , Cyndi Lauper
- 101 weeks – Norman Fucking Rockwell! , Lana Del Rey
- 100 weeks – Rock a Little , Stevie Nicks
Two compilation albums complete the Top Five: Kate Bush’s No.3-peaking The Whole Story ticks 5-4 with sales of 15,000 units (on par with last week); and Kelly Clarkson’s Greatest Hits – Chapter One bolts 7-5 after peaking at No.2, selling 15,000 copies (up seven percent).
Outside the Top Five, two former number-one albums complete the Top Ten: Annie Lennox’s Diva bursts 12-8 (10,000 units – up eleven percent) and Fleetwood Mac’s Greatest Hits sails 11-9 (10,000 units – even with last week).
Onto Next Week: Both Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! and Joni Mitchell’s Blue are likely to sell over 20,000 copies; either could claim the No.1 spot!
TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS
Industry Sales
Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 422,000 units this week (up 31.4%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 365,000 units (down 22.2%). Contemporary accounted for 53.6% of all sales this week; versus 46.4% for Catalogue.
Total industry sales stand at 787,000 units for the week, decreasing by just 0.4% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 875,000 albums were sold), consumption is down 10.1%!
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.
Certifications: Silver (60,000); Gold (100,000); Platinum (300,000); Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.); Diamond (3,000,000).
L.dK Music 