MARINA SOARS TO NO.1 ON TOP CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS WITH ANCIENT DREAMS IN A MODERN LAND!

MARINA collects her second chart-topper; Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club crosses 1 million copies sold; Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? returns to Top Ten!

MARINA’s Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land enters Top Contemporary Albums in pole position as it sells 55,000 copies in its first seven days.

Ancient is the second chart-topping album for the Welsh-Greek singer, following LOVE + FEAR which spent seven weeks at number-one in 2019 and has since sold over 1.9 million copies.

MARINA’s newest record is the sixty-sixth record to reach No.1 on L.dK Weekly.

Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR falls to No.2 after three weeks out in front, selling 49,000 units this week (down 15 percent).

Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club descends 2-3 on sales of 44,000 units (down 16 percent). The album – which has spent a total of six weeks at the summit of Contemporary Albums – has now sold just over 1.02 million units since its release thirteen weeks ago!

Chemtrails is Del Rey’s third successive album to sell over one million units, joining 2017’s Lust for Life (2.65 million) and 2019’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! (4.13 million).

This makes Lana Del Rey ties with Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift for the most million-selling albums, as all artists have three such albums:

• Taylor Swift – Lover (1.57 million); folklore (3.49 million); evermore (2.23 million)
• Ariana Grande – Sweetener (2.01 million); thank u, next (1.34 million); Positions (1.02 million).
• Lana Del Rey – Lust for Life (2.65 million); Norman Fucking Rockwell! (4.13 million); Chemtrails Over the Country Club (1.02 million).

Stevie Nicks trumps all other artists, as six of her releases have shifted over one million copies.

• Bella Donna (1.67 million); The Wild Heart (1.15 million); Rock a Little (1.11 million); The Other Side of the Mirror (1.11 million); Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks (1.15 million); Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks (1.69 million).

Two LPs former number-ones from Taylor Swift round out the Top Five: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) rises 6-4 selling 38,000 units (up 11 percent) and evermore retreats 3-5 with 36,000 sold (down 8 percent). Swift is also unmoved at No.8 this week juggernaut folklore (24,000 units – down 4 percent).

Outside the Top Five: Birdy’s number-one hit Young Heart slides 3-6 (36,000 units – down 17 percent); London Grammar’s No.3-peaking Californian Soil stays at No.7 (26,000 units – down 4 percent).

Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? returns to the Top Ten at No.9 (up from No.19) as it surges by 266 percent in sales to 22,000 sold following the release of the Platinum Pleasure Edition.

Wolf Alice finish the Top Ten as Blue Weekend tumbles 5-10 in its second week, selling 20,000 copies (down 46 percent).

Onto Next Week: Three albums look to be in contention for the number-one spot: Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club, and Taylor Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) are all set to sell between 40-45,000 copies in the upcoming week.

Top Contemporary Albums

Certifications: Silver (60,000); Gold (100,000); Platinum (300,000); Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.); Diamond (3,000,000).

JONI MITCHELL SPENDS RECORD-EXTENDING SIXTEENTH WEEK AT NO.1 WITH BLUE

Plus: Lorde takes out No.2 & No.3 with Pure Heroine & Melodrama; MARINA’s LOVE + FEAR re-enters at No.9.

Joni Mitchell’s seminal 1971 album Blue tallies a sixteenth consecutive week atop the Catalogue Albums Chart. It extends its record for the longest single reign on L.dK Weekly, ahead of the fourteen-week commands of folklore & NFR!.

Blue sold 36,000 copies this week, marking a drop of ten percent from the previous week.

Mitchell’s masterpiece is now within striking distance of the all-time record for the most weeks atop L.dK Weekly: seventeen weeks, held by NFR! since March 2020. Among the longest-running chart-toppers in L.dK Weekly history, Blue ties folklore in second place.

• Seventeen weeks – Norman Fucking Rockwell , Lana Del Rey
• Sixteen weeks – folklore , Taylor Swift & Blue , Joni Mitchell
• Thirteen weeks – evermore , Taylor Swift
• Twelve weeks – A Star is Born – OST , Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
• Eleven weeks – Lust for Life , Lana Del Rey

Lorde’s two studio albums surge up the Catalogue Albums Chart this week after the long-awaited return of the New Zealand star.

Her 2013 debut Pure Heroine zooms from No.14 to No.2, reaching a new peak on L.dK Weekly; the album sold 28,000 copies this week, leaping 250 percent from the previous week’s hauls. 2017’s five-week leader Melodrama surges 16-3 on sales of 25,000 units (up 257 percent).

Melodrama – which once ranked as the fastest-selling album of all time – ranked as the third biggest album of 2017, and the twelfth most successful of the entire 2010’s decade. Lorde may be primed to nab one of the biggest albums of 2021 with her upcoming Solar Power (due in August).

Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! descends 2-4 selling 19,000 copies (down five percent) and Kelly Clarkson’s Greatest Hits – Chapter One falls 3-5 in its third week after debuting at a No.2 high, moving 16,000 copies (down sixteen percent) and earning a Silver certification.

Two bestselling compilation albums linger just outside the Top Five: Stevie Nicks’s chart-topping Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks sinks 4-6 (16,000 units – down six percent), and Kate Bush’s No.3-peaking The Whole Story slips 6-7 (15,000 units – on par with last week).

Florence + the Machine’s former number-one High as Hope slides 5-8 (14,000 units – down seven percent).

MARINA jumps back onto Top Catalogue Albums at No.9, with LOVE + FEAR selling 14,000 units (up from a negligible figure last week). LOVE previously spent seven weeks at number-one on the discontinued Weekly Top Fifty and has sold 1.96 million copies to date.

Alanis Morissette completes the Top Ten with the No.2-peaking The Collection – down from No.9 (11,000 units – on par with last week).

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue could tie Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! as the longest-running number-one album of all time, as it celebrates its fiftieth anniversary! The album looks set to move upwards of 40,000 units.

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue Albums!

No.11 – A Beautiful Collection / Carole King’s compilation spent ten weeks in the runner-up spot in 2020 and became the tenth biggest album of the year; this year it reached the top of the Catalogue Albums Chart and stayed there for six weeks! It has sold 1.65 million copies to date. This week, it adds another notch to its belt, as it celebrates a whole year (fifty-two weeks) on L.dK Weekly!

Top Catalogue Albums

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums generated sales of 468,000 units this week (down 1.4%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 333,000 units (down 7.5%). Contemporary accounted for 58.4% of all sales this week; versus 41.6% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales stand at 801,000 units for the week, dropping 4.6% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 899,000 albums were sold) consumption is down by 11%.

Contemporary Albums generated sales of 470,000 units this week (down 1.5%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 369,000 units (down 2.9%). Contemporary accounted for 56% of all consumption this week; versus 44% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales stand at 839,000 units for the week, dipping 2.2% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 926,000 albums were sold) consumption is down by 9.4%.

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.

OLIVIA RODRIGO CROWNS TOP CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS AGAIN WITH SOUR!

Rodrigo leads for third week; Wolf Alice’s Blue Weekend debuts at No.5.

Olivia Rodrigo spends a third successive week atop the Contemporary Albums Chart with her debut album SOUR. The album sold 60,000 units this week (down 22 percent).

Two former chart-toppers follow in the Top Five: Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club sticks at No.2 after a total of six weeks at the summit, selling 52,000 this week (down 9 percent); and Birdy’s Young Heart keeps at No.3 – moving 40,000 copies (down 7 percent) – after two weeks in the lead.

Taylor Swift’s evermore ticks 5-4 shifting 39,000 copies (up 18 percent) as it celebrates a whole six months inside the Top Five, after previously spending thirteen weeks at number-one. Outside the Top Five, Swift places a further two records, both of which peaked at the top spot: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is down 4-6 (35,000 units – although up 2 percent) and folklore is down 6-8 (25,000 units – down 11 percent).

folklore has now sold an incredible 3.467 million units since its release last July, making it the second bestselling album of all time! It passes Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born – OST which has moved 3.448 million to date!

Star had ranked as the bestselling album ever (and was the first to sell three million copies) between March 2019 and September 2020 when that honour went to Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! which has shifted 4.113 million units as of this week.

The ten bestselling albums of all time are as follows:

1. Norman Fucking Rockwell! / Lana Del Rey – 4,113,000
2. folklore / Taylor Swift – 3,467,000
3. A Star is Born – OST / Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – 3,448,000
4. Lust for Life / Lana Del Rey – 2,646,000
5. Future Nostalgia: Moonlight Edition / Dua Lipa – 2,617,000
6. Diva / Annie Lennox – 2,236,000
7. evermore / Taylor Swift – 2,198,000
8. The Collection / Alanis Morissette – 2,165,000
9. Sweetener / Ariana Grande – 2,007,000
10. Rumours / Fleetwood Mac – 1,963,000

Wolf Alice make their first appearance on L.dK Weekly as Blue Weekend launches at No.5 selling 36,000 units.

Between Swift’s two former leaders: London Grammar’s Californian Soil repeats at No.7 (27,000 units – up 8 percent) after hitting No.3.

A pair of chart-toppers cap the Top Ten: Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia: Moonlight Edition ascends 10-9 (18,000 units – up 5 percent) and Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts falls 9-10 (17,000 units – even with last week).

Onto Next Week: Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR & Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club are both looking to sell roughly 50,000 copies in the next tracking week. SOUR is competing for a fourth week in the lead while Chemtrails is fighting for a seventh stay at the top. MARINA could launch in the Top Five as Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land is tracking to top 30,000 units sold.

Top Contemporary Albums

Certifications: Silver (60,000); Gold (100,000); Platinum (300,000); Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.); Diamond (3,000,000).

JONI MITCHELL ACHIEVES RECORD-BREAKING FIFTEENTH WEEK AT NO.1 ON TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS!

Plus: Carole King & Alanis Morissette re-enter the Top Ten!

Joni Mitchell’s Blue makes history this week as it breaks the record for the longest successive reign atop L.dK Weekly, with fifteen weeks out in front; both Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! and Taylor Swift’s folklore spent their first fourteen weeks at number-one.

Currently, Blue is the third longest-running number-one album in history, behind only the reigns of NFR! and folklore:

1. Seventeen weeks – Norman Fucking Rockwell! , Lana Del Rey
2. Sixteen weeks – folklore , Taylor Swift
3. Fifteen weeks – Blue , Joni Mitchell
4. Thirteen weeks – evermore , Taylor Swift
5. Twelve weeks – A Star is Born – OST , Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper

Lana Del Rey’s NFR! rebounds 3-2 as it sells 20,000 units (on par with last week) as it claims a record-padding fifty-sixth week in the Top Five, and record-extending eighty-sixth week in the Top Ten.

Del Rey also ranks at No.10 with Born to Die: the Paradise Edition (down from No.9 – selling 10,000 copies – down 9 percent).

Two greatest-hits collections are next up in the Top Five: Kelly Clarkson’s Greatest Hits – Chapter One slips 2-3 in its second week, shifting 19,000 units (down 42 percent); Stevie Nicks’s Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks leaps 7-4 moving 17,000 copies (up 21 percent) after five weeks at the top.

Capping the Top Five: Florence + the Machine’s High as Hope descends 4-5 after peaking at No.1, selling 15,000 copies (down 6 percent).

Outside the Top Five: Kate Bush’s No.3-peaking The Whole Story stays at No.6 (15,000 units – even with last week); Annie Lennox’s former chart-topping Diva moves 8-7 (11,000 units – down 8 percent); Carole King’s six-week-leader A Beautiful Collection surges 12-8 (11,000 units – up 37 percent); Alanis Morissette’s The Collection rises 11-9 following it’s nine-week stay at No.2 (10,000 units – even with last week).

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue may collect a record-extending sixteenth consecutive week at No.1, possibly selling around 40,000 copies.

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue Albums

No.12 – Greatest Hits / Fleetwood Mac’s best-of set flies 17-12 in its eighty-first term on L.dK Weekly. The collection – which sold 8,000 copies in the past seven days – has now been certified Quadruple Platinum denoting sales of over 1.2 million units. Hits is the Mac’s second bestselling effort, behind only 1977’s Rumours (1.963 million).

Top Catalogue Albums

Music Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums generated sales of 470,000 units this week (down 1.5%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 369,000 units (down 2.95). Contemporary accounted for 56% of all consumption this week; versus 44% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales stand at 839,000 units for the week, dipping 2.2% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 926,000 albums were sold) consumption is down by 9.4%.

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.

OLIVIA RODRIGO COMMANDS CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS FOR SECOND WEEK!

SOUR rules again; Lana Del Rey & Birdy earn new certifications; Hayley Williams’s Petals for Armor climbs back up to No.10.

Olivia Rodrigo’s pop-centric hit SOUR logs a second week at No.1 on Top Contemporary Albums, selling 77,000 copies (down 31 percent).

Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club repeats at No.2 after a total of six weeks in the lead, and crosses the 900,000 sales mark! Chemtrails sold 57,000 units this week (down 11 percent) and has now sold a total of 925,000 copies since its release in late-March.

Del Rey’s highest-certified albums are as follows:

• 13 x Platinum – Norman Fucking Rockwell!
• 8 x Platinum – Lust for Life
• 3 x Platinum – Born to Die: the Paradise Edition & Chemtrails Over the Country Club
• 2 x Platinum – Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass
• Platinum – Honeymoon
• Gold – Ultraviolence

To date, Chemtrails ranks as Del Rey’s third bestselling album of all time, passing her 2012 debut Born to Die: the Paradise Edition. Her bestselling records are as follows:

1. Norman Fucking Rockwell! – 4,093,000
2. Lust for Life – 2,639,000
3. Chemtrails Over the Country Club – 925,000
4. Born to Die: the Paradise Edition – 914,000
5. Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – 865,000
6. Honeymoon – 418,000
7. Ultraviolence – 276,000

Birdy’s number-one-hit Young Heart remains at No.3 on sales of 46,000 units (down 6 percent) as it becomes Birdy’s second album to be certified Platinum for selling over 300,000 units; it follows her 2016 hit Beautiful Lies.

Three chart-topping Taylor Swift records follow in the Top Ten, maintaining their ranks from last week: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is at No.4 with 34,000 units (down 6 percent); evermore is at No.5 with 33,000 sold (on par with last week); folklore is at No.6 on sales of 26,000 copies (down 10 percent).

London Grammar’s Californian Soil remains at No.7 after peaking at No.3 (25,000 copies – up 13 percent). Miley Cyrus’s former chart-topping Plastic Hearts ticks 10-8 (18,000 units – even with last week) as Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia: Moonlight Edition holds at No.9 (17,000 units – down 6 percent).

Hayley Williams’s Petals for Armor springs 12-10 (13,000 units – on par with last week) after climbing to No.3 over the Summer of 2020.

Onto Next Week: Olivia Rodrigo is gunning for a third week at the top spot. Currently, SOUR is predicted to sell over 60,000 units in its third term.

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; KELLY CLARKSON DEBUTS AT NO.2

Plus: Lorde places two albums in the Top Ten!

Joni Mitchell’s Blue tallies a fourteenth consecutive week at No.1 on Top Catalogue Albums, moving 42,000 units (down 7 percent).

Blue has now spent a staggering fourteen consecutive weeks at No.1, tying it as the longest-running consecutive chart-topper in L.dK Weekly history.

To date, three albums have logged fourteen straight weeks in pole position:

• Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell! (09 September 2019 – 09 December 2019)
• Taylor Swift – folklore (03 August 2020 – 02 November 2020)
• Joni Mitchell – Blue (08 March 2021 – 07 June 2021)

So far, Blue has sold 753,000 copies, and is by far the bestselling album of 2021 on the Catalogue format.

Greatest Hits – Chapter One from Kelly Clarkson debuts at No.2 on Top Catalogue Albums with a first-week haul of 33,000 copies. It is Clarkson’s second Top Five hit, following 2017’s chart-topping Meaning of Life.

Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! steps down 2-3 selling 20,000 units (down 10 percent) as it nabs a record-extending fifty-fifth week in the Top Five and record-padding eighty-fifth week in the Top Ten. Del Rey also drops 6-9 with her No.2-peaking Born to Die: the Paradise Edition selling 11,000 copies (down 21 percent).

Florence + the Machine’s chart-topping High as Hope descends 3-4 selling 16,000 units (even with last week).

As rumours swirl of Lorde’s impending return, her two studio albums re-enter the Top Ten on Catalogue Albums. Pure Heroine is back at a new high of No.5 (passing its previous No.9 high) with sales of 16,000 copies (up 700 percent); it also goes Gold and has sold 110,000 to date.

Melodrama – which ruled L.dK Weekly for five weeks in 2017, and has sold 1.58 million units to date – returns at No.10 selling 11,000 copies (up 175 percent).

Just outside the Top Five: Kate Bush’s The Whole Story slips 5-6 moving 15,000 copies (on par with last week). The greatest hits collection has now spent one-hundred weeks on L.dK Weekly!

Finally: Stevie Nicks dives 4-7 with Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks (14,000 copies – down 7 percent); Annie Lennox’s Diva dips 7-8 (12,000 units – on par with last week).

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue could make history with a fifteenth consecutive week at No.1!

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue Albums

No.23 – Sweetener / Ariana Grande’s fourth studio album Sweetener is far-and-away her biggest hit on L.dK Weekly, and is one of three number-one hits from the singer. Sweetener has spent 124 weeks on the charts to date, and as of this week has become the ninth album in history to sell more than two million copies!

Top Catalogue Albums

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 477,000 units this week (down 22.2%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 380,000 units (up 1%). Contemporary accounted for 55.7% of all consumption this week; versus 44.3% for Catalogue.

This week marks the greatest haul to date for the Catalogue format, surpassing the week dated 15 March when 377,000 albums were sold.

Total industry sales stand at 857,000 for the week, dipping 6.8% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 1,182,000 albums were sold – the largest sales week in L.dK Weekly history!) consumption is down by 27.5%!

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.

OLIVIA RODRIGO DEBUTS AT NO.1 WITH SOUR!

As Rodrigo launches at No.1, P!nk scores her third Top Ten hit with All I Know So Far: Setlist.

Olivia Rodrigo’s debut studio album SOUR roars onto L.dK Weekly’s Contemporary Chart at No.1, moving 111,000 copies in its first seven days, becoming the sixty-fifth album to reach No.1 on L.dK Weekly.

The LP thus becomes the forty-fourth fastest-selling album of all time, just ahead of Elle King’s Love Stuff (110,000 units). It has already been certified Gold for selling over 100,000 copies.

Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club retreats to No.2 after a total of six weeks at the top spot, shifting 64,000 copies this week (up 3 percent) as it nabs a tenth successive week inside the Top Ten!

Birdy’s former-number-one hit Young Heart slips 3-4 in its fourth week, moving 51,000 units (down 12 percent).

Two Taylor Swift records round out the Top Five: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) slips 3-4 after spending a single week at the summit earlier this year, selling 36,000 units (down 3 percent).

evermore – which ruled for thirteen weeks between 2020 and 2021 – descends 4-5 on sales of 33,000 copies (down 3 percent). The album has now been certified 7 x Platinum for selling over 2.1 million units! evermore is just the eighth album to ever reach this sales milestone:

1. 13 x Platinum – Norman Fucking Rockwell! / Lana Del Rey
2. 11 x Platinum – A Star is Born – OST / Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
3. 11 x Platinum – folklore / Taylor Swift
4. 8 x Platinum – Lust for Life / Lana Del Rey
5. 8 x Platinum – Future Nostalgia: Moonlight Edition / Dua Lipa
6. 7 x Platinum – Diva / Annie Lennox
7. 7 x Platinum – The Collection / Alanis Morissette
8. 7 x Platinum – evermore / Taylor Swift

Swift’s folklore dips 5-6 after spending its first forty-three weeks inside the Top Five! The album – which spent sixteen weeks at No.1 – sold 29,000 copies this week (down 12 percent).

London Grammar hold at No.7 with their No.3-peaking Californian Soil (22,000 units – up 15 percent).

P!nk collects her third Top Ten album as All I Know So Far: Setlist premieres at No.8 with 21,000 sold. The album follows Beautiful Trauma (No.1 – 2017) and Hurts 2B Human (No.2 – 2019) into the upper tier.

Rounding out the Top Ten: Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia: Moonlight Edition slides 6-9 after eight weeks at No.1 (18,000 units – down 5 percent); Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts falls 8-10 (18,000 units – even with last week).

Onto Next Week: Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR should be clear for a second week at the top spot, as the album is tracking to sell over 70,000 copies in its second term.

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary!

No.11 – Women in Music Pt. III / HAIM’s third studio album ascends 12-11 this week, hitting its highest rank since it debuted at its No.8 peak last year, and goes Gold for selling over 100,000 copies since its release.

No.12 – Petals for Armor / Hayley Williams’s Petals peaked at No.3 last year and has so far spent fifty-five consecutive frames on L.dK Weekly! This week it sells another 13,000 units, bringing its total sales figure to a whopping 1.203 million, earning the album a 4 x Platinum certification!

Top Contemporary Albums

Certifications: Silver (60,000); Gold (100,000); Platinum (300,000); Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.); Diamond (3,000,000).

JONI MITCHELL CELEBRATES THIRTEENTH STRAIGHT WEEK ATOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS!

Plus: Lady Gaga’s Born this Way hits No.9 following its ten-year anniversary!

Joni Mitchell leads the Top Catalogue Albums Chart for a thirteenth consecutive week with Blue – the album continues its rule with 45,000 sold this week (down 6 percent).

Now with thirteen weeks in pole position, Blue ties Taylor Swift’s evermore as the third-longest-running number-one album of all time.

1. 17 weeks – Norman Fucking Rockwell! / Lana Del Rey
2. 16 weeks – folklore / Taylor Swift
3. 13 weeks – evermore / Taylor Swift & Blue / Joni Mitchell

Lana Del Rey places two albums inside the Top Ten this week: Norman Fucking Rockwell! remains again at No.2 with 22,000 sold (up 10 percent) as it nabs a record-extending fifty-fourth week in the Top Five and record-padding eighty-fourth week in the Top Ten.

Born to Die: the Paradise Edition ticks 7-6 selling 13,000 copies (up 18 percent) and crosses 900,000 copies sold; it has now been certified 3 x Platinum! Del Rey’s impressive bevy of certifications is as follows:

• 13 x Platinum – Norman Fucking Rockwell!
• 8 x Platinum – Lust for Life
• 3 x Platinum – Born to Die: the Paradise Edition
• 2 x Platinum – Chemtrails Over the Country Club ; Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass
• Platinum – Honeymoon
• Gold – Ultraviolence ; The Unreleased Collection

Florence + the Machine’s number-one High as Hope stays at No.3 on sales of 16,000 units (down 6 percent) as it becomes the band’s third effort to be certified Platinum for sales exceeding 300,000 units. Currently, the outfit’s highest-certified release is 2015’s How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful which has been certified 2 x Platinum.

Stevie Nicks ranks twice inside this week’s Top Ten: Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks rebounds 5-4 after five weeks at No.1, moving 16,000 copies (on par with last week); her No.3-hit Street Angel tumbles 4-8 with 12,000 sold (down 29 percent).

Capping the Top Five: Kate Bush’s The Whole Story improves 6-5 with sales of 15,000 units (up 15 percent).

Annie Lennox’s former-number-one Diva holds at No.7 (12,000 units – up 9 percent).

Lady Gaga tallies her third Top Ten hit on L.dK Weekly as Born this Way makes its chart debut at No.9 on Top Catalogue Albums. The set sold 11,000 in the wake of its ten-year anniversary.

Rounding out the Top Ten: Alanis Morissette’s The Collection slips 9-10 (10,000 units – on par with last week).

Onto Next Week: Kelly Clarkson’s Greatest Hits – Chapter One could challenge for the No.1 spot, as it looks to sell over 30,000 copies in its first week.

Top Catalogue Albums

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums generated sales of 543,000 units this week (up 26.8%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 376,000 units (up 8%). Contemporary accounted for 59.1% of all consumption this week; versus 40.9% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales stand at 919,000 units, surging 18.4% from last week, and becoming the largest sales week of the year, surpassing the week dated 29 March when 916,000 albums were sold. Compared to the same week last year (when 804,000 albums were sold), consumption is up by 14.3%!

LANA DEL REY EXTENDS RECORD FOR MOST WEEKS AT NO.1!

As Chemtrails Over the Country Club returns to No.1, Birdy doubles up in the Top Ten!

Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club rebounds 2-1 to score a sixth non-consecutive week in charge of the Top Contemporary Albums Chart.

So far, Chemtrails has topped the charts on three different occasions for a total of six weeks in the penthouse. The album debuted at No.1 on the chart dated 29 March where it stayed for a further two weeks; it then returned to pole position on the charted 26 April for two weeks; now it climbs back to No.1 again.

Chemtrails moved 62,000 copies this week (up 5 percent).

Birdy’s Young Heart slides to No.2 after spending its first two weeks at No.1; the record sold 58,000 units this week (down 22 percent).

As a consolation prize for losing the crown, Birdy doubles up inside the Top Ten for the first time in her career as her 2020 EP Piano Sketches finally breaks into the Top Ten for the first time.

The four-track-set peaked at No.25 on the discontinued Weekly Top 50 last year, and then reached No.13 on Top Contemporary Albums over two months ago. This week, it surges from No.13 to a new high of No.10 – selling 12,000 copies (up 50 percent) – in its twenty-eight week on the list.

Three former chart-topping LPs from Taylor Swift complete the Top Five: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) remains at No.3 with 37,000 units (down 10 percent) as it goes Platinum in its sixth week; evermore ticks 5-4 selling 35,000 copies (up 16 percent); folklore retreats 4-5 moving 32,000 copies (down 3 percent).

Taylor Swift’s impressive list of certifications is as follows:

• 11 x Platinum – folklore
• 6 x Platinum – evermore
• 5 x Platinum – Lover
• 2 x Platinum – reputation
• Platinum – Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
• Silver – 1989

Outside the Top Five: Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia: Moonlight Edition is steady at No.6 after eight weeks at No.1 (19,000 units – even with last week); and London Grammar’s No.3-peaking Californian Soil rebounds 9-7 (19,000 units – up 26 percent).

Miley Cyrus’s two-week-leader Plastic Hearts stays put at No.8 (18,000 units – on par with last week) as it becomes her first album to be certified Quadruple Platinum for sales exceeding 1,200,000 units.

Capping the Top Ten: Celeste’s No.3-hit Not Your Muse drops 7-9 (14,000 units – down 22 percent); Birdy’s Piano Sketches follows at No.10.

Onto Next Week: Olivia Rodrigo could challenge for a No.1 bow with her debut SOUR, currently looking to sell upwards of 50,000 copies. P!nk is gunning for a third Top Ten hit with her new live album All I Know So Far, while Zara Larsson could also make a strong return with Poster Girl: Summer Edition.

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary!

No.17 – Be Right Back / British singer Jorja Smith earns her first hit on L.dK Weekly as Be Right Back opens at No.17 with first-week sales of 6,000 copies.

No.25 – Collapsed in Sunbeams / Arlo Parks’s debut record falls to No.25 in its fourth week after hitting No.3, moving 4,000 units this week. The album has now been certified Silver for selling 60,000 copies.

Top Contemporary Albums

Certifications: Silver (60,000); Gold (100,000); Platinum (300,000); Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.); Diamond (3,000,000).

JONI MITCHELL LEADS CATALOGUE ALBUMS FOR TWELFTH CONSECUTIVE WEEK!

Blue rules; Stevie Nicks’s Street Angel returns at No.4; Alanis Morissette’s The Collection re-enters Top Ten!

Joni Mitchell’s legendary 1971 album Blue commands the Top Catalogue Albums Chart for a twelfth straight week, tying with Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born – OST as the fourth longest-running number-one album of all time.

• 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 . Blue , Joni Mitchell
• Eleven weeks – Lust for Life , Lana Del Rey

Blue sold 49,000 units this week (up 16 percent) and has sold more than 660,000 copies since its release.

Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! repeats at No.2 selling 21,000 copies (down 4 percent) as it nabs a record-padding fifty-third week in the Top Five, and eighty-third term inside the Top Ten; Del Rey also dips 7-8 with her No.2-peaking Born to Die: the Paradise Edition on sales of 11,000 copies (even with last week).

Stevie Nicks makes two appearances in the Top Five this week: her 1994 album Street Angel re-enters Top Catalogue Albums at No.4, making its first appearance on L.dK Weekly this year. Street has now spent thirty-seven weeks on the ranking, and reached No.3 for a total of three weeks in 2018.

Nicks’s longest-charting albums are as follows:

1. 140 weeks – Bella Donna
2. Eighty-nine weeks – Rock a Little
3. Eighty-five weeks – The Wild Heart
4. Sixty-three weeks – Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks
5. Sixty-one weeks – Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks
6. Fifty-seven weeks – The Other Side of the Mirror
7. Thirty-seven weeks – Street Angel
8. Thirty-six weeks – 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault
9. Twenty-nine weeks – Trouble in Shangri-La
10. Twenty-seven weeks – Stand Back

To date, Street has sold just over 760,000 copies, making it Nicks’s eighth bestselling album to date.

1. 1,640,000 – Bella Donna
2. 1,623,000 – Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks
3. 1,152,000 – Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks
4. 1,134,000 – The Wild Heart
5. 1,101,000 – The Other Side of the Mirror
6. 1,092,000 – Rock a Little
7. 940,000 – 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault
8. 764,000 – Street Angel
9. 605,000 – Stand Back
10. 496,000 – Trouble in Shangri-La

Beneath Street Angel, Nicks’s Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks falls 4-5 on sales of 16,000 units (up 6 percent) after peaking at No.1 for a total of five weeks.

Outside the Top Five: Kate Bush’s The Whole Story backtracks 5-6 (13,000 units – up 8 percent); Annie Lennox steps down 6-7 with her chart-topping Diva (11,000 units – even with last week); Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die: the Paradise Edition dips 7-8 after hitting No.2 (11,000 units – on par with last week).

Alanis Morissette’s The Collection springs 11-9 to log a forty-third week inside the Top Ten, selling 10,000 copies this week (up 11 percent). The album previously peaked at No.2 for a record nine weeks.

Finally, Birdy’s Beautiful Lies dives 8-10 after hitting No.2 (9,000 units – down 10 percent).

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue could sell another 40,000 units, and may notch a thirteenth consecutive week at the summit. Meanwhile Lady Gaga’s Born this Way could reach the Top Ten following its tenth anniversary.

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue

No.12, No.17 & No.25 – Bella Donna, Rock a Little & The Wild Heart / Stevie Nicks’s first three solo albums chart together on Top Catalogue Albums this week, as the icon also places another two releases inside the Top Ten. Bella climbs 17-12 as it moves 9,000 units (up 28 percent) in its record-extending 140th week on L.dK Weekly; Rock returns at No.17 with 7,000 units (up 40 percent) in its eighty-ninth week; Wild is back at No.25 with 5,000 sold (up 400 percent) in its eighty-fifth frame.

Top Catalogue Albums

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 428,000 units this week (down 4.5%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 348,000 units (down 4.4%). Contemporary accounted for 55.2% of all consumption this week; versus 44.8% for Catalogue.

This week represents the greatest market share to date for Catalogue, matching the 44.8% slice it took out last week (17 May); thus, it also shows the lowest market share for Contemporary, equal with last week’s performance.

It also marks the lowest sales figure to date in the Contemporary format, passing the week dated 01 February, when 441,000 albums were sold.

Total industry sales stand at 776,000 units, dropping 4.5% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 784,000 albums were sold), consumption is down by 1.1%.

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.

1. 17 weeks – Norman Fucking Rockwell! , Lana Del Rey
2. 16 weeks – folklore , Taylor Swift
3. 13 weeks – evermore , Taylor Swift
4. 12 weeks – A Star is Born , Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
5. 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%.

BIRDY FLIES TO NO.1 WITH YOUNG HEART!

Young Heart earns Birdy her first No.1 hit; meanwhile, Taylor Swift’s folklore & evermore make history!

This week on Top Contemporary Albums, British singer-songwriter Birdy nabs her first chart-topper with her fourth studio album Young Heart. It follows a pair of Top Five hits for the singer: 2011’s self-titled hit No.4, and 2016’s Beautiful Lies reached No.2. She also scored a Top Fifteen hit this year with the four-track EP Piano Sketches (which this week regresses 14-16 although with a gain in units).

Young Heart debuts with first week sales of 93,000 units, comprised of 89,000 in pure sales and a further 4,000 units derived from pre-sales due to singles.

The impressive start means that Young has already been certified Silver for selling at least 60,000 copies, becoming Birdy’s fourth release to earn the distinction. Her other certifications are as follows:

• Beautiful Lies – Platinum
• Birdy – Gold
• Piano Sketches – Gold
• Young Heart – Silver

Her two earlier studio albums mentioned make gains over on Top Catalogue Albums…

Young Heart unseats Lana Del Rey as Chemtrails Over the Country Club slips to No.2 after logging a fifth non-consecutive week at the top spot. The LP moved 68,000 copies this week (down 8 percent).

Taylor Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) steps down 2-3 a month after debuting atop the list, shifting 41,000 copies (down 18 percent).

Swift celebrates multiple achievements this week thanks to her pair of juggernaut records folklore and evermore. The albums swap places this week, with the former rebounding to No.4 (with 35,000 sold – up 9 percent) and the latter falling back down to No.5 (with 34,000 sold – even with last week).

To date, folklore has sold a staggering 3,322,000 units since its release in July 2020. That makes it both the third bestselling album since records began, and just the third record in history to be certified 11 x Platinum (note: it is also the third to achieve Diamond status for selling 3,000,000 units). folklore has spent a total of sixteen weeks at No.1 (the second longest reign ever) and this week it clocks a forty-first showing inside the Top Five and Top Ten.

Follow-up evermore (released last December) has now inched over the 2,000,000 sales mark, having moved 2,028,000 in its twenty-one week shelf-life. The album – which peaked at No.1 for thirteen weeks – is just the eighth album to sell over 2,000,000 units, and stands in prestigious company.

With both folklore and evermore having brought in individual sales of over 2,000,000 each, Taylor Swift achieves something that only Lana Del Rey had previously managed (with Norman Fucking Rockwell! and Lust for Life).

Currently, the artist who looks most likely to join the two women in this elite club is Annie Lennox. Her 1992 debut Diva has sold 2,179,000 to date, and her 1995 sophomore set Medusa has shifted 1,844,000 so far.

Outside the Top Five: London Grammar’s Californian Soil keeps at No.3 after debuting and peaking at No.3 (20,000 copies – down 26 percent); Miley Cyrus’s two-week-leader Plastic Hearts shoots 10-7 (17,000 units – even with last week); Arlo Parks slides 3-8 with her debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams (16,000 units – down Celeste’s No.3-peaking Not Your Muse drops 7-9 (16,000 units – down 20 percent); The Weeknd’s The Highlights slips 9-10 (16,000 units – down 11 percent).

Onto Next Week: Both Birdy’s Young Heart and Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club are currently in the running for the No.1 spot next week; both LPs look likely to end the week with over 60,000 copies sold.

Notable Moves in Top Contemporary

No.11 – Cry Forever / Australian singer Amy Shark pays her visit to L.dK Weekly as her new album Cry Forever debuts at No.11 with sales of 14,000 units in its first week.

No.12 – Petals for Armor / Hayley Williams’s debut solo album proved her potential upon its release last year. Initially debuting at No.8, it climbed into the Top Five the following week, and would eventually peak at No.3, spending a total of thirty weeks inside the Top Ten. Already having sold in excess of 1.16 million copies, Petals celebrates a whole year on L.dK Weekly as it rebounds 13-12 in its fifty-second charting week. The album sold 13,000 this week, and ranks above her sophomore set FLOWERS for VASES / descansos for the first time, as the latter dives 8-14 shifting 12,000 copies.

No.16 – Piano Sketches / As Birdy claims her first No.1 hit on Top Contemporary Albums, her preceding four-track EP Piano Sketches sports a gain to 10,000 sold, although it backtracks 14-16 on the weekly ranking. Piano reached a peak of No.12 over two months ago, and has now become Birdy’s first album to spend exactly half a year (twenty-six weeks) on L.dK Weekly. Notably, the EP is the bestselling project ever to not reach the Top Ten, having sold just under 200,000 copies to date.

TOP CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS

Certifications: Silver (60,000); Gold (100,000); Platinum (300,000); Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.); Diamond (3,000,000).

JONI MITCHELL TALLIES RARE TENTH WEEK AT NO.1 WITH BLUE!

As Blue stays at No.1; Lana Del Rey reaches a new milestone with Norman Fucking Rockwell!; Birdy’s Beautiful Lies re-enters at No.6!

Joni Mitchell’s 1971 album Blue marks a tenth successive week atop the Top Catalogue Albums Chart, selling 50,000 copies this time around (down 14 percent). This historic album is only the sixth to achieve a double-digit reign, and only the fourth to manage the feat in consecutive weeks.

Longest Runs at No.1:

1. Seventeen weeks – Norman Fucking Rockwell , Lana Del Rey (2019 – 2020)
2. Sixteen weeks – folklore , Taylor Swift (2020 – 2021)
3. Thirteen weeks – evermore , Taylor Swift (2020 – 2021)
4. Twelve weeks – A Star is Born – OST , Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (2018 – 2019)
5. Eleven weeks – Lust for Life , Lana Del Rey (2017 – 2018)
6. Ten weeks – Blue , Joni Mitchell (2021)

Longest Consecutive Runs at No.1:

1. Fourteen weeks – Norman Fucking Rockwell! (09 September 2019 – 09 December 2019) & folklore (03 August 2020 – 02 November 2020)
2. Thirteen weeks – evermore (21 December 2020 – 15 March 2021)
3. Ten weeks – Blue , Joni Mitchell (08 Mar 2021 – 10 May 2021)
4. Eight weeks – Future Nostalgia (06 April 2020 – 25 May 2020)
5. Seven weeks – LOVE + FEAR , MARINA (08 April 2019 – 20 May 2019)

Four Million: This week, Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! becomes the first album since records began to exceed sales of four million units! With 20,000 sold in the past seven days, the record-breaking set has sold 4.008 million since it was released in August 2019.

Historically, Del Rey now holds the record for the first albums to sell one million copies (Lust for Life – tied with Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours); two million copies (Lust for Life) and four million copies with NFR! Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born was the first record to be certified Diamond and sell three million units.

NFR! remains steady at No.2 on Top Catalogue Albums, logging its fifty-first week in the Top Five, and eighty-first week in the Top Ten. Both figures are all-time bests.

Elsewhere in the Top Ten, Del Rey leaps 9-5 with her No.4-peaking Honeymoon selling 14,000 copies (up 55 percent); and keeps at No.7 with the No.2-hit Born to Die: the Paradise Edition on sales of 13,000 copies (up 30 percent).

Florence + the Machine’s former-number-one High as Hope holds at No.3 with 17,000 units sold (down 11 percent); Stevie Nicks’s Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks is also unmoved at No.4 moving 15,000 units (down 20 percent).

Outside the Top Five: Birdy re-enters at No.6 with her 2016 album Beautiful Lies (13,000 units – 550 percent). The album originally peaked at No.2 on the discontinued Weekly Top 50 in 2017, and has been certified Platinum.

Annie Lennox’s chart-topping Diva slides 6-8 (11,000 units – up 10 percent); Kate Bush’s No.3-peaking The Whole Story tumbles 5-9 (11,000 sold – on par with last week); and capping the Top Ten, Alanis Morissette’s The Collection retreats 8-10 (9,000 sold – even with last week).

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue should easily clear a further 40,000 units, which would nab the album its eleventh consecutive week at the top spot.

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue

No.14 – Dog & Butterfly / HEART’s 1978 release Dog & Butterfly enters Top Catalogue Albums at No.14 with sales of 8,000 units. It marks the third Top Twenty hit in a row for the sister-led group, but also becomes their lowest-peaking album yet: their two other charting hits were their self-titled set (No.1) and Bad Animals (No.6).

Top Catalogue Albums

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums generated sales of 490,000 units this week (up 8.1%) while Catalogue Albums recorded sales of 341,000 units (up 5.2%). Contemporary accounted for 59% of all consumption this week; versus 41% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales stand at 831,000 units this week, climbing by 6.9% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 779,000 albums were sold), consumption is up by 6.6%.

LANA DEL REY SETS RECORD FOR MOST WEEKS AT NO.1 ON L.DK WEEKLY!

Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club commands Top Contemporary Albums for fifth week; Arlo Parks debuts at No.3 with Collapsed in Sunbeams.

Topping the Top Contemporary Albums Chart for a fifth cumulative week, Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club shifted a further 74,000 units this week (down 1 percent). The LP has now been certified Double Platinum for exceeding sales of 600,000 units.

Chemtrails is Del Rey’s fifth album to achieve Multi-Platinum status: her 2019 studio album Norman Fucking Rockwell! is the bestselling album of all time, and has been certified 13 x Platinum to date (3.9 million); Lust for Life (8 x Platinum – 2.6 million); Born to Die: the Paradise Edition (2 x Platinum – 855,000); and Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass (2 x Platinum – 811,000).

Including the five-week reign of Chemtrails, Del Rey has spent a record-breaking thirty-three weeks atop L.dK Weekly. She has topped the charts with Lust for Life in 2017 (eleven weeks) and Norman Fucking Rockwell! in 2019 & 2020 (seventeen weeks).

The list of artists with the most weeks at No.1 is as follows:

• 33 weeks, Lana Del Rey – Lust for Life (eleven weeks); Norman Fucking Rockwell! (seventeen weeks); Chemtrails Over the Country Club (five weeks to date).
• 32 weeks, Taylor Swift – reputation (one week); Lover (one week); folklore (sixteen weeks); evermore (thirteen weeks); Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (one week).
• 18 weeks, Stevie Nicks – The Other Side of the Mirror (five weeks); Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks (three weeks); Trouble in Shangri-La (one week); Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks (five weeks); 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault (four weeks).
• 18 weeks, Lady Gaga – A Star is Born with Bradley Cooper (twelve weeks); Chromatica (six weeks).
• 9 weeks, Fleetwood Mac – Rumours (five weeks); Tango in the Night (three weeks); Greatest Hits (one week).
• 9 weeks, Joni Mitchell – Blue (nine weeks).

Taylor Swift takes up three spots in the Top Five this week: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) stays at No.2 in its third week, selling 50,000 copies (down 22 percent); thirteen-week leader evermore rises 5-4 on sales of 33,000 units (up 3 percent); her sixteen-week ruler folklore slips 4-5 moving 32,000 copies (down 6 percent) as it celebrates a 40th consecutive week inside the Top Five! folklore is currently the second longest-running Top Five record of all time, and ranks __ among Top Ten albums.

The list of the longest-running Top Five albums are as follows:

1. 50 weeks – Lana Del Rey, Norman Fucking Rockwell
2. 40 weeks – Taylor Swift, folklore
3. 34 weeks – Carole King, A Beautiful Collection
4. 32 weeks – Stevie Nicks, Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks
5. 31 weeks – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born – OST
6. 30 weeks – Lana Del Rey, Born to Die: the Paradise Edition
7. 28 weeks – Alanis Morissette, The Collection; Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
8. 23 weeks – Annie Lennox, Diva
9. 21 weeks – Adele, 25

The list of longest-running Top Ten albums are as follows:

1. 80 weeks – Lana Del Rey, Norman Fucking Rockwell!
2. 56 weeks – Stevie Nicks, Bella Donna
3. 52 weeks – Annie Lennox, Diva
4. 50 weeks – Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
5. 44 weeks – Lana Del Rey, Lust for Life
6. 43 weeks – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – A Star is Born – OST
7. 41 weeks – Stevie Nicks, Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks; Alanis Morissette, The Collection; Dua Lipa, Future Nostalgia
8. 40 weeks – Taylor Swift, folklore

Between Swift’s albums, at No.3 is Arlo Parks’s debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams. The disc bows with sales of 34,000 units.

Outside the Top Five: London Grammar drop 3-6 with their now-Silver-certified Californian Soil (27,000 units – down 51 percent); Celeste’s No.3-peaking Not Your Muse retreats 6-7 (20,000 units – even with last week); Hayley Williams’s No.2-peaking FLOWERS for VASES / descansos slips 7-8 (20,000 units – even with last week); The Weeknd’s The Highlights steps down 8-9 after peaking at No.3 (18,000 units – down 5 percent); and Miley Cyrus’s two-week leader Plastic Hearts descends 9-10 (17,000 units – down 6 percent).

Onto Next Week: Two albums should start inside the Top Ten this week. The first – Birdy’s Young Heart – could vault to No.1, as it looks set to sell upwards of 100,000 units in its first week. The latter – Amy Shark’s Cry Forever – may make the Top Five with over 30,000 sold.

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary

No.14 – Piano Sketches / Birdy’s four-track EP reached its peak of No.12 over two months ago, and this week soars from No.23 back up to No.14, selling 8,000 copies, in anticipation of the singer’s upcoming album Young Heart. The EP has sold 188,000 copies to date, and is Birdy’s longest-charting effort, with twenty-five weeks on the ranking.

Top Contemporary Albums

Certifications: Silver (60,000); Gold (100,000); Platinum (300,000); Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.); Diamond (3,000,000).

JONI MITCHELL LEADS TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS FOR NINTH WEEK!

Blue extends its rule; Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die: the Paradise Edition celebrates a whole year on L.dK Weekly!

For a ninth successive week, Joni Mitchell dominates the Top Catalogue Albums Chart with her hit 1971 album Blue. The LP recorded sales of 57,000 copies this week (down 25 percent).

Blue is now the sixth longest-running number-one hit of all time on L.dK Weekly, passing Dua Lipa’s eight-week ruler Future Nostalgia. The list of longest-running albums ever is as follows:

1. 17 weeks – Lana Del Rey, Norman Fucking Rockwell!
2. 16 weeks – Taylor Swift, folklore
3. 13 weeks – Taylor Swift, evermore
4. 12 weeks – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – A Star is Born – OST
5. 11 weeks – Lana Del Rey, Lust for Life
6. 9 weeks – Joni Mitchell, Blue

Lana Del Rey occupies four spots in the Top Ten this week, led by Norman Fucking Rockwell! remaining at No.2 with 24,000 sold (down 4 percent) as it logs a record-padding 50th week inside the Top Five and record-extending 80th week in the Top Ten.

Born to Die: the Paradise Edition slides 5-7 on sales of 10,000 copies (down 29 percent) as it becomes the thirty-eighth album to spend a full year (52 weeks) on L.dK Weekly. Two of Del Rey’s other releases have managed this feat as well: Norman Fucking Rockwell! (eighty-seven weeks) and Lust for Life (eighty-two weeks).

Honeymoon meanwhile regresses to No.9 from No.8 after hitting No.4 earlier this year (9,000 units – down 10 percent); and the chart-topping Lust for Life rebounds 11-10 (9,000 units – up 12 percent).

Steady at No.3 for a second week is Florence + the Machine’s High as Hope, on sales of 19,000 copies (up 11 percent). The album debuted at No.1 in January.

Stevie Nicks follows at No.4 with her five-week chart-topper Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks on sales of 19,000 copies (up 11 percent); it holds above Kate Bush’s The Whole Story which sails 5-7 on sales of 11,000 units (up 10 percent) after hitting No.3 earlier this year.

Outside the Top Five: Annie Lennox’s former-chart-topping Diva holds at No.6 (10,000 units – on par with last week); Alanis Morissette’s No.2-hit The Collection jumps 10-8 (9,000 units – even with last week).

The latter album makes history this week as it becomes the first compilation in history to be certified 7 x Platinum denoting sales of over 2.1 million units. The album – which holds the record for most weeks at No.2 without hitting No.1, with nine – reaches the mark in its fifty-fifth week on the charts, and is just the seventh release to sell as many copies.

Onto Next Week: HEART could score a second Top Five hit with their 1978 album Dog & Butterfly. The set is currently aiming to sell 20,000 copies in its first week.

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue

No.16 – WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? / Billie Eilish’s debut full-length album re-enters Top Catalogue Albums at No.16 following the announcement of the singer’s upcoming second studio album Happier than Ever – due out July 30th. WHEN sold 6,000 units this week (up from a negligible figure last week) and has sold over 430,000 copies to date; it debuted and peaked at No.2 in 2019 behind MARINA’s LOVE + FEAR and now marks its 27th appearance on L.dK Weekly. Eilish’s debut EP don’t smile at me – which hit No.1 in 2017 and is certified Platinum – returns at No.21 on sales of 5,000 copies.

Top Catalogue Albums

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 453,000 units this week (down 10.1%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 324,000 units (down 10%). Contemporary accounted for 58.3% of all consumption this week; versus 41.7% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales stand at 777,000 units this week, falling by 10.1% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 907,000 albums were sold), consumption is down by 13.8%.

LANA DEL REY RECLAIMS NO.1 SPOT FOUR FOURTH WEEK WITH CHEMTRAILS OVER THE COUNTRY CLUB!

Plus: London Grammar’s Californian Soil bows at No.3; Foxes debuts at No.10 with Friends in the Corner EP.

Returning to the No.1 spot on Top Contemporary Albums, Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club captures a fourth non-consecutive week in charge.

The album sold 76,000 units this week (down 13 percent) and has now sold more than 500,000 copies to date.

Del Rey has now spent a record-tying thirty-two weeks atop L.dK Weekly: she topped the discontinued Weekly Top 50 with Lust for Life (eleven weeks) and Norman Fucking Rockwell! (a record seventeen weeks) and has now led with Chemtrails for four weeks in total.

The singer ties Taylor Swift’s thirty-two week reign across her albums Lover (one week); reputation (one week); folklore (sixteen weeks); evermore (thirteen weeks); and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (one week).

Chemtrails dethrones Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) which drops to No.2 after debuting in pole position, selling 65,000 units (down 27 percent). Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) – a re-recording of her 2008 sophomore LP Fearless – has already been certified Gold for sales exceeding 100,000 copies.

Swift’s two previous LP’s also place within the Top Five this week. Her sixteen-week number-one folklore descends 3-4 with 33,000 sold (down 17 percent); and her thirteen-week chart-topper evermore remains at No.5 selling 31,000 units (down 9 percent).

The latter album has now surpassed Lady Gaga’s Chromatica to become the sixth bestselling album of the decade, with to-date sales of 1.96 million copies. Gaga’s former chart-topper has moved 1.91 million to date.

Swift’s other smash hit folklore is the decade’s biggest-selling release currently, with total sales of 3.25 million units.

London Grammar nab their first Top Ten album as Californian Soil vaults onto the list at No.3, registering 55,000 sales.

Celeste’s No.3-peaking debut album Not Your Muse steps up 7-6 (20,000 units – down 9 percent); The Weeknd’s The Highlights sinks 6-8 after also hitting No.3 (19,000 units – down 27 percent); and Miley Cyrus’s two-week-leader Plastic Hearts drops 8-9 (18,000 units – down 14 percent.

Foxes rounds out the Top Ten as her latest release – Friends in the Corner EP – bows at No.10 with first-week sales of 17,000 copies.

Onto Next Week: Lana Del Rey could be bound for a fourth week in the lead with Chemtrails Over the Country Club – the album is set to sell roughly 75,000 units again. Arlo Parks could also challenge for the No.2 spot with her debut set Collapsing in Sunbeams which could open with upwards of 50,000 units; it will compete with Taylor Swift’s former chart-topper Fearless (Taylor’s Version) which could also move a further 50,000 copies.

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary!

No.13 – 11 Past the Hour / Irish singer-songwriter Imelda May pays her visit to the Top Contemporary Albums Chart as her third record 11 Past the Hour launches at No.13 with first week sales of 14,000 copies.

No.23 – Positions / Ariana Grande achieves her third million-selling album this with her late-2020 number-one Positions. This week, the LP drops 18-23 in its 25th week on the ranking, selling 4,000 units. Positions has sold 1.003 million to date, making it Grande’s third release to sell a million units, following 2018’s Sweetener (1.97 million) and 2019’s thank u, next (1.31 million).

Top Contemporary Albums

Certifications: Silver (60,000) Gold (100,000) Platinum (300,000) Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.) Diamond (3,000,000).

JONI MITCHELL EARNS RECORD-EXTENDING EIGHTH WEEK ATOP

Plus: Alanis Morissette returns to the Top Ten.

This week, Joni Mitchell crowns Top Catalogue Albums with her 1971 effort Blue, earning the record its eighth consecutive term at the summit.

Now, eight weeks into its chart life, Blue claims its greatest sales week to date, moving 76,000 units this week (up 35 percent). It beats the 75,000 copies sold in the album’s debut week.

Blue is now tied with Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia as the sixth longest-running number-one album of all time, with eight weeks atop L.dK Weekly. Both albums trail the fifth longest reign of all time – Lana Del Rey’s Lust for Life, which racked up an eleven week tenure (a record at the time).

Lana Del Rey: The Queen of Alternative places four records inside the Top Ten this week on Top Catalogue Albums. Seventeen-week leader Norman Fucking Rockwell! stays put at No.2 with 25,000 sold (down 4 percent); the No.2-peaking Born to Die: the Paradise Edition springs 7-5 with 14,000 sold (up 16 percent); Honeymoon rebounds 11-8 after hitting No.4 earlier this year, shifting 10,000 copies (even with last week); and the No.8 hit Ultraviolence keeps at No.9 on sales of 10,000 units (down 9 percent).

Florence + the Machine’s High as Hope rallies 5-3 in its sixteenth charting week, reaching its highest rank since the album sat at No.2 in its second week, following its No.1 start in January. The set sold 17,000 this week (up 21 percent).

Stevie Nicks’s Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks backtracks 3-4 moving 17,000 copies (on par with last week) after topping the chart for a total of five weeks.

Outside the Top Five: Annie Lennox’s former-number-one Diva soars 10-6 (10,000 sold – on par) and Kate Bush’s The Whole Story steps up 8-7 (10,000 sold – down 9 percent).

Finally, Alanis Morrissette’s The Collection makes a return to the Top Ten, rising from No.13 to No.10 selling 9,000 copies this week (even with the previous week). The best-of set – which has sold 2.09 million to date – has now spent a total of forty weeks inside the Top Ten.

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue should sell upwards of 60,000 units in the coming week, and will be clear for a ninth consecutive frame at the top spot!

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue!

No.19 – Rock a Little / Stevie Nicks’s third solo album – originally released in 1985 – sinks 18-19 this week, following its No.9 re-entry last month, selling 6,000 copies this week. Rock notches its eighty-sixth charting week, becoming the second longest-charting album from Nicks. It passes her 1983 record The Wild Heart which has spent a total of eighty-four weeks on the list: both Rock and Wild reached No.2 in 2017. Nicks’s longest-charting albums are as follows: Bella Donna (a record 136 weeks); Rock a Little (eighty-six); The Wild Heart (eighty-four); Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks (sixty-one); and Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks (fifty-six).

Top Catalogue Albums

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums generated sales of 504,000 units this week (up 4.7%) while Catalogue Albums recorded sales of 360,000 units (up 1.1%). Contemporary accounted for 58.3% of all consumption this week; versus 41.7% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales stand at 864,000 units this week, marking a gain of 3.2% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 1,001,000 albums were sold), consumption is down by 14.8%.

TAYLOR SWIFT SCORES RECORD-TYING FIFTH NUMBER ONE ALBUM WITH FEARLESS (TAYLOR’S VERSION)!

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) earns Swift her record-extending thirty-second week at No.1, as she places three albums in this week’s Top Five!

Taylor Swift flies onto Top Contemporary Albums at No.1 with her new re-recording of her 2008 hit Fearless – Fearless (Taylor’s Version). The album – the first in an upcoming series of re-recordings from the star – bows with a total of 89,000 copies, including 84,000 pure sales and and a further 5,000 units derived from pre-sales.

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is the sixty-third album in L.dK Weekly history to reach No.1, dating to its inception in March 2017.

Five Number Ones: Counting the debut of Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Swift has now logged a record-tying five chart-topping albums across L.dK Weekly: her four previous leaders all spent time atop the discontinued Weekly Top 50.

The singer has topped L.dK Weekly with reputation (2017 – one week); Lover (2019 – one week); folklore (2020 & 2021 – sixteen weeks); evermore (2020 & 2021 – thirteen weeks); and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (2021 – one week to date).

Currently, Stevie Nicks is the only other artist to send five collections to the top of the charts: The Other Side of the Mirror (2017 – five weeks); Trouble in Shangri-La (2017 – one week); Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks (2019 & 2020 – three weeks); Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks (2018 & 2021 – five weeks); and 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault (2019 – four weeks).

Interestingly, Swift’s folklore and Nicks’s Crystal Visions are to date the only albums to reach No.1 on multiple charts. folklore spent fifteen weeks atop the Weekly Top 50 in 2020, and earlier this year hit No.1 on Top Contemporary Albums where it spent a single frame; Crystal Visions notched a three-week stay atop the Weekly Top 50 in 2018, and earlier this year would crown Top Catalogue Albums for two weeks.

Thirty-Two Weeks at the Top: Across her record five chart-topping albums, Swift has now commanded L.dK Weekly for thirty-two weeks. The No.1 start of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) breaks her out of a tie with Lana Del Rey, who has racked up thirty-one weeks at the apex.

More Swift: Not content with just the No.1 spot this week, Taylor Swift places two more albums inside the Top Five. Her Diamond-certified juggernaut folklore sinks 2-3 on sales of 40,000 copies (down 18 percent), and its sister record evermore dips 3-5 with 34,000 units (down 17 percent) as it surpasses 1.9 million copies sold.

Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club retreats to No.2 after spending its first three weeks at No.1. The Platinum hit sold 87,000 units this week (down 18 percent).

Hayley Williams holds at No.4 with her No.2-peaking FLOWERS for VASES / descansos, moving 35,000 copies (down 3 percent); the Paramore-front-woman is also steady at No.9 with the No.3 hit Petals for Armor, shifting 16,000 units (even with last week).

The Weeknd backtracks 5-6 with The Highlights after it debuted and peaked at No.3 over two months ago (26,000 copies – down 19 percent); Celeste’s Not Your Muse is unmoved at No.7 after hitting No.3 (22,000 – down 8 percent); Miley Cyrus’s two-week-leader Plastic Hearts sinks 6-8 (21,000 – down 16 percent); and Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia dives 8-10 (15,000 – down 32 percent) after spending eight weeks at No.1 in 2020.

Onto Next Week: Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club could return to the top spot, as it looks set to sell roughly 75,000 units in the new tracking week. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and London Grammar’s new Californian Soil will both compete for No.2, with both sets likely to sell upwards of 50,000 copies. Foxes is also primed for a Top Ten debut with the Friends in the Corner EP: the eight-track project could start with over 20,000 sold. Irish singer-songwriter Imelda May could also make the Top Ten with her third studio album 11 Past the Hour which should start with around 20,000 units also.

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary!

No.15 – Fetch the Bolt Cutters / Fiona Apple scored one of the twenty biggest albums of last year with the alternative Fetch the Bolt Cutters. The set debuted at No.4 – which would become its peak – and has sold consistently since, having now moved just under 900,000 units. As Fetch picks up a spot to No.15 on this week’s list, it celebrates a whole year on L.dK Weekly (or fifty-two weeks)! It is the thirty-sixth album to complete a full year on the tally!

No.17 – Album No.8 / Katie Melua’s eighth studio album reached No.2 last October, and has not left the chart since. The atmospheric, chilled effort has now sold 306,000 units since its release, and thus has been certified Platinum.

Certifications: Silver (60,000) Gold (100,000) Platinum (300,000) Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.) Diamond (3,000,000).

JONI MITCHELL’S BLUE BECOMES LONGEST-RUNNING NO.1 IN CATALOGUE ALBUMS HISTORY!

Mitchell makes history; Stevie Nicks’s The Other Side of the Mirror blasts back into Top Five!

Blue has now surpassed Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection as it logs a seventh week in charge of Top Catalogue Albums, and becomes the longest-running number-one in the chart’s history!

Overall, Blue is tied with MARINA’s LOVE + FEAR as the seventh longest-running chart-topper ever. The record for the longest reign is held by Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! which commanded the Weekly Top 50 for seventeen non-consecutive weeks between 2019 and 2020.

Mitchell’s iconic set sold 56,000 copies this week (up 3 percent).

Lana Del Rey takes up four spots in the Top Ten this week: Norman Fucking Rockwell! leads the pack, steady at No.2 for a fourth frame, selling 26,000 copies (down 21 percent); Lust for Life drops 3-6 after eleven weeks at No.1, moving 13,000 copies (down 24 percent); Born to Die: the Paradise Edition descends 6-7 after hitting No.2, shifting 12,000 copies (down 20 percent); and the No.8-peaking Ultraviolence slips one place to No.9 on sales of 11,000 copies (down 15 percent).

Stevie Nicks’s Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks hikes 5-3 on sales of 17,000 units (up 6 percent). The best-of set previously ranked at No.1 for a total of five weeks.

Nicks’s former-chart-topper The Other Side of the Mirror re-enters the chart just one spot further down the list (at No.4), following its episode of discussion on Nicksology: the Stevie Nicks Podcast. Mirror – originally released in 1989 – made its chart debut on L.dK Weekly in 2017, and quickly made history. It became the fastest-selling album ever at the time (194,000 copies in its first week); in just three weeks, it became the bestselling album ever at the time; and in its fifth week at the top, it became the longest-running number-one hit ever at the time.

Mirror has since lost all of the records it once held, but remains a hugely successful record. This appearance at No.4 marks the albums tenth frame in the Top Five; twentieth showing in the Top Ten; and fifty-fifth week on the ranking overall.

Mirror moved 17,000 copies this week (up from a negligible amount the week before) and has sold 1.07 million copies to date.

Florence + the Machine’s former-chart-topper High as Hope lunges 7-5 to return to the Top Five for the first time since February, shifting 14,000 copies this week (up 7 percent).

Beyond the Top Five: Kate Bush’s The Whole Story springs 11-8 (11,000 units – down 8 percent) and Annie Lennox’s Diva retreats 9-10 (10,000 units – down 17 percent).

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue looks set to sell another 50,000 units, which would earn the album an eighth straight week on the throne!

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue!

No.25 – Glasshouse / Jessie Ware’s biggest hit became one of very few albums to live on the charts for at least 104 weeks (or two whole years) earlier in the year. This week, it officially reaches sales of 1.5 million copies, earning it 5 x Platinum certification! It is just the twenty-first album to sell as many units!

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 481,000 units this week (up 2.7%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 356,000 units (up 7.5%). Contemporary accounted for 57.5% of all consumption this week; versus 42.5% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales stand at 837,000 units this week, marking an uptick of 4.7% from the previous week. Compared to the same week last year (when 1,013,000 albums were sold), consumption is down by 17.4%.