TAYLOR SWIFT COLLECTS RECORD SIXTH NUMBER-ONE ALBUM!
Red (Taylor’s Version) opens in pole position; Lana Del Rey reaches a new milestone with Blue Banisters; Adele surges ahead of 30 release.
Taylor Swift claims the No.1 album on this week’s L.dK Weekly Top 50 as Red (Taylor’s Version) launches with an impressive haul of 108,000 units, slightly above its projected debut of 100,000 copies.
Red is the sixth consecutive album from Taylor Swift to reach the No.1 spot on L.dK Weekly. It follows reputation (one week in 2017); Lover (one week in 2019); folklore (seventeen weeks in 2020-2021); evermore (thirteen weeks in 2020-2021) and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (one week in 2021).
With opening week sales of 108,000 copies, Red earns a Gold certification in its first seven days on sale, becoming Swift’s sixth album to sell over 100,000 units.
- 13 x Platinum – folklore
- 9 x Platinum – evermore
- 5 x Platinum – Lover
- 2 x Platinum – reputation
- 2 x Platinum – Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
- Gold – Red (Taylor’s Version)
Swift appears twice again in this week’s Top Ten: evermore tumbles 2-6 with sales of 31,000 copies (down twelve percent) as folklore falls 5-8 selling 24,000 units (down four percent).
Outside the Top Ten: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) lunges 50-32 on sales of 9,000 copies; and Lover returns at No.45 with 6,000 units.
Lana Del Rey’s Blue Banisters falls to No.2 after spending its first three weeks at the summit. The album moved a further 95,000 copies this week, sliding by thirty-three percent from the previous week’s take of 141,000 units. To date, Blue has sold a whopping 625,000 units, being certified 2 x Platinum after just a month on sale. It is Del Rey’s sixth album to attain at least Double Platinum status!
- 15 x Platinum – Norman Fucking Rockwell!
- 9 x Platinum – Lust for Life
- 5 x Platinum – Chemtrails Over the Country Club
- 3 x Platinum – Born to Die: the Paradise Edition
- 3 x Platinum – Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass
- 2 x Platinum – Blue Banisters
- Platinum – Honeymoon
- Platinum – Ultraviolence
Also from Del Rey: NFR! – the longest-running number-one album of all time (twenty-five weeks) – drops 8-10 with 22,000 sold (up twenty-two percent). NFR also logs a record-padding 109th week inside the Top Ten!
In total, the historic juggernaut has spent 116 frames on L.dK Weekly, tying it with Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours as the seventh longest-charting album in history.
- 166 weeks – Bella Donna / Stevie Nicks
- 146 weeks – Diva / Annie Lennox
- 137 weeks – Sweetener / Ariana Grande
- 129 weeks – Glasshouse / Jessie Ware
- 124 weeks – The Whole Story / Kate Bush
- 119 weeks – 25 / Adele
- 116 weeks – Rumours / Fleetwood Mac & Norman Fucking Rockwell! / Lana Del Rey
- 113 weeks – Rock a Little / Stevie Nicks
- 110 weeks – A Star is Born – OST / Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
- 105 weeks – She’s so Unusual / Cyndi Lauper
Adele rounds out the Top Five this week as her three studio albums surge ahead of the highly anticipated release of 30 – more on that later.
25 leads the pack as it pushes 4-3 on sales of 55,000 units (up 103 percent); 21 leaps 7-4 selling 44,000 copies (up 144 percent); 19 blasts 11-5 with 31,000 sold (up 106 percent).
To date, Adele has sold an impressive 2.72 million albums across her discography, despite never releasing an album since the inception of L.dK Weekly; of that figure, over 1.8 million are from sales of 25 alone.
Outside the Top Five: Joni Mitchell’s Blue drops 3-7 (25,000 units – down eleven percent) and Tori Amos’s Ocean to Ocean descends 6-9 (23,000 units – on par with last week).
Onto Next Week: Adele’s 30 looks set for one of the biggest debuts of all time, and could finally be the album to challenge Lana Del Rey’s Lust for Life as the fastest-selling record ever; that album started with 639,000 units in August 2017. Since its release on Friday 19, 30 has already been certified Platinum and has surpassed sales of 420,000 copies. Just three days in, it has already become the third fastest-selling album ever.
It will undoubtedly become the fastest-selling album of the year – perhaps with over 500,000 first-week sales – but it remains to be seen whether it will go the extra mile and topple Lust for Life’s record.
Notable Moves on the L.dK Weekly Top 50
No.11 – How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? / Big Red Machine saw their second studio album debut and peak at No.5 over the Summer this year, and it has now spent three months on the listing. This time around, How Long rockets 34-11 – becoming the Greatest Gainer – on sales of 18,000 copies. It owes much of its upward movement to the revived success of track “Renegade” which features this week’s No.1 Artist – Taylor Swift.
No.17 – Greatest Hits / Fleetwood Mac’s 1988 round-up of their biggest hits dives 12-17, selling 15,000 copies as it notches a 104th week on L.dK Weekly. It becomes just the thirteenth album ever to spend a full two years on the charts!
No.48 – Sweetener I Ariana Grande’s most successful studio album moves 42-48 (5,000 sold) in its 137th week on the chart. One of the biggest hits in chart history, Sweetener has just become the ninth album to be certified 7 x Platinum, denoting sales exceeding 2.1 million units.
L.dK WEEKLY TOP 50
L.dK WEEKLY TOP ARTISTS
Industry Sales
Industry sales stand at 968,000 units for the week, rising by 29.2% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 905,000 albums were sold), consumption is up 6.9%!
968,000 marks the largest weekly consumption figure of the year, surpassing the week dated 31 May when 919,000 albums were sold. It’s the biggest weekly haul since August 2020.
Note
Certifications: Silver (60,000); Gold (100,000); Platinum (300,000); Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.); Diamond (3,000,000).
L.dK Music 