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

Chemtrails Over the Country Club rules for a third week; goes Platinum!

This week sees Top Contemporary Albums dominated for a third successive frame by Lana Del Rey’s newest set Chemtrails Over the Country Club. It marks the singer’s thirty-first week atop L.dk Weekly across three different records.

Del Rey first ruled with Lust for Life for eleven weeks, across 2017 and 2018, and followed with Norman Fucking Rockwell! which spent seventeen weeks at the summit between 2019 and 2020. Both albums became the longest-running number-one album ever at the time, and NFR! still holds this distinction.

Currently, Del Rey’s thirty-one week tenure atop the charts is even with that of Taylor Swift, who nabbed the record from Del Rey earlier this year.

The list of artists who have spent the most weeks at No.1 is as follows:

1. 31 weeks – Taylor Swift (reputation – one week, Lover – one week, folklore – sixteen weeks, evermore – thirteen weeks)
2. 31 weeks – Lana Del Rey (Lust for Life – eleven weeks, Norman Fucking Rockwell! – seventeen weeks, Chemtrails Over the Country Club – *three weeks to date)
3. 19 weeks – Lady Gaga (A Star is Born, with Bradley Cooper – twelve weeks, Chromatica – six weeks)
4. 18 weeks – Stevie Nicks (The Other Side of the Mirror – Five 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, Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – three weeks)
5. 9 weeks – Fleetwood Mac (Tango in the Night – three weeks, Rumours – five weeks, Greatest Hits – one week)

Chemtrails leads courtesy of 106,000 sales (down 6 percent) and has now been certified Platinum (denoting sales exceeding 300,000 units) after just three weeks on sale! It is Del Rey’s sixth album to be certified at least Platinum.

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

The two biggest-selling records of 2021 follow back to back at No.2 and No.3: Taylor Swift’s folklore on sales of 49,000 (down 6 percent) and evermore with 41,000 sold (down 17 percent).

Hayley Williams’s No.2-peaking FLOWERS for VASES / descansos strengthens its position at No.4, selling 38,000 copies (up 5 percent). The singer’s previous solo album Petals for Armor – which reached No.3 last year – improves 10-9 this week with 16,000 sold (down 5 percent).

The Weeknd’s No.3-hit The Highlights keeps at No.5 shifting 32,000 copies (down 4 percent).

Outside the Top Five: Miley Cyrus’s former two-week chart-topper Plastic Hearts rebounds 8-6 (25,000 units – up 8 percent); Celeste’s No.3-peaking Not Your Muse stays put at No.7 (24,000 units – on par with last week); Dua Lipa’s eight-week number-one Future Nostalgia: Moonlight Edition slides 6-8 (22,000 units – down 15 percent).

Finally, Zara Larsson’s Poster Girl slips 9-10 (15,000 units – down 16 percent) after debuting and peaking at No.3 a month ago.

Onto Next Week: Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift look set to go head to head for the No.1 spot, with a battle between the incumbent ruler Chemtrails Over the Country Club, and the newly released Fearless (Taylor’s Version). Both albums could sell roughly 90,000 – 100,000 copies this week: it will put one artist ahead in the race for most weeks at No.1 ever, and if Swift takes the crown, it will be her record-tying fifth No.1 album.

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary!

No.18 – Piano Sketches / Birdy’s four-track EP falls 16-18 this week, moving 6,000 copies, after peaking at No.13 earlier this year. Although it is Birdy’s first release to not to reach the Top Ten, it has now become her longest-charting effort, with twenty-two weeks on the ranking. Previously, her self-titled debut album spent twenty-one weeks on the list. Piano has sold 170,000 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).

LANA DEL REY MAKES HISTORY WITH NORMAN FUCKING ROCKWELL!

Plus: Joni Mitchell’s Blue goes Platinum, and celebrates record-tying sixth week at No.1!

Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! – ranked as the Greatest Album of All Time on L.dK Weekly – continues to break records and achieve things no other album has, even its 84th week.

With its latest haul of 33,000 copies (down 8 percent from last week’s figure), which slots it at No.2 this week on Top Catalogue Albums, NFR! has now surpassed total sales of 3.9 million units, becoming the first album in history to be certified 13 x Platinum! In the first week of January this year, the juggernaut also became the first to be certified 12 x Platinum.

With total sales of 3,913,000 copies to date, NFR! could top the 4 million mark in roughly a month’s time.

Del Rey is rather accustomed to breaking records at this point, and interestingly, her 2017 album Lust for Life was the first LP to sell 1 million copies (Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours reached the mark in the same week) and 2 million copies. NFR! was the second to sell 3 million, behind Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born.

Just to add on more records, this week marks the forty-seventh frame NFR! has been present in the Top Five, and seventy-seventh in the Top Ten – both figures are all-time records.

More Del Rey: In addition to NFR! holding steady at No.2, Lana Del Rey places a further five albums inside the Top Ten once again!

2017’s Lust for Life springs 5-3 with 17,000 sold (down 5 percent) after previously spending eleven weeks at No.1.; 2015’s Honeymoon repeats at its No.4 highpoint on sales of 16,000 copies (down 11 percent); her No.2-peaking 2012 debut set Born to Die: Paradise Edition recovers 7-6 with 15,000 units (even with last week); finally, her 2014 set Ultraviolence rises from No.9 back its No.8 high, selling 13,000 units (down 7 percent).

Joni Mitchell ties a record this week as her 1971 masterpiece Blue keeps the crown for a sixth consecutive turn. The album sold 54,000 copies this week (up 6 percent).

It draws even with Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection as the longest-running number-one on Catalogue Albums; it also becomes the eleventh album to log at least six weeks in pole position, joining the aforementioned A Beautiful Collection, in addition to Cyndi Lauper’s She’s so Unusual and Lady Gaga’s Chromatica.

Blue has now sold in excess of 300,000 copies, making it the first Catalogue album of the year to be certified Platinum!

Stevie Nicks’s five-week ruler Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks steps up 6-5 shifting 16,000 units (on par with last week), capping the Top Five.

Florence + the Machine climb 8-7 with their former chart-topping LL High as Hope (13,000 units – down 7 percent).

Two records from Annie Lennox round out the Top Ten this week: her chart-topping juggernaut Diva ticks 10-9 (12,000 units – down 8 percent) while Bare plummets 3-10 in its second week (12,000 units – down 43 percent).

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue could become the longest-running number-one album in Catalogue Albums history; it is gunning for a seventh week out in front with around 50,000 sold.

Notable Moves on Top Catalouge!

No.11 – The Whole Story / Kate Bush celebrates a first in her career this week as she notches her first Quadruple Platinum hit! Already her bestselling album, this week her 1986 compilation The Whole Story reaches sales of 1.2 million units. Only twenty-six other albums have sold as many copies, including three other compilation sets.

No.13 – The Collection / Alanis Morissette’s best-of set was released last year, and peaked at No.2 for a total of nine weeks, and holds the record for the most weeks in the runner-up spot without ever hitting No.1. To date, The Collection has sold 2.08 million units, and now celebrates its fifty-second appearance on L.dK Weekly, becoming the thirty-fifth album to live on the lists for a whole year!

Top Catalogue Albums

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums generated sales of 468,000 units this week (down 4.9%) while Catalogue Albums recorded sales of 331,000 units (down 10.3%). Contemporary accounted for 58.6% of all consumption this week; versus 41.4% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales stand at 799,000 units this week, showing a 7.3% decline from last week. Compared to the same week last year (when 891,000 albums were sold), consumption is down by 10.4%.

LANA DEL REY HOLDS AT NO.1 FOR SECOND WEEK WITH CHEMTRAILS OVER THE COUNTRY CLUB!

As Del Rey rules, Zara Larsson’s Poster Girl goes Gold!

Lana Del Rey adds a second consecutive week at No.1 on Top Contemporary Albums with Chemtrails Over the Country Club. The album sold 112,000 copies this week, marking a 30 percent decline from the previous week when it sold 160,000 units.

Del Rey has now spent a total of thirty weeks at number-one across all L.dK Charts, including two weeks on Top Contemporary, and twenty-eight weeks in command of the discontinued Weekly Top 50.

In addition to Chemtrails: the singer previously ruled with Lust for Life (eleven weeks – 2017-2018) and Norman Fucking Rockwell! (seventeen weeks – 2019-2020).

Taylor Swift’s folklore repeats at No.2 with 52,000 sold (down 9 percent) as her follow-up evermore keeps at No.3 with 45,000 sold (down 10 percent). The sister albums previously logged sixteen and thirteen weeks respectively atop L.dK Weekly.

Hayley Williams’s No.2-peaking FLOWERS for VASES / descansos bullets at No.4, selling 36,000 copies (up 2 percent); The Weeknd’s The Highlights rises 6-5 on sales of 33,000 copies (up 3 percent) after peaking at No.3.

Beyond the Top Five: Dua Lipa’s eight-week number-one Future Nostalgia drops 5-6 (26,000 units – down 24 percent); Celeste’s No.3-hit Not Your Muse rebounds 8-7 (24,000 units – down 4 percent); Miley Cyrus’s former two-week number-one Plastic Hearts sinks 7-8 (23,000 units – down 18 percent).

Holding at No.9, Zara Larsson’s Poster Girl goes Gold (denoting sales of over 100,000 copies) with 18,000 sold this week (down 10 percent). The album peaked at No.3 three weeks ago.

Finally, Hayley Williams appears again at No.10 with her No.3-peaking Petals for Armor shifting 17,000 copies (up 13 percent).

Onto Next Week: Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club looks set to nab a third week at No.1, possibly with upwards of 100,000 sold.

Top Contemporary Albums

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

LANA DEL REY CONTINUES TO DOMINATE TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS!

Joni Mitchell’s Blue stays at No.1 for fifth week; Annie Lennox doubles up in Top Ten!

Lana Del Rey ranks highest at No.2 with 2019’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! on sales of 36,000 copies (up 5 percent) as the album adds a record-padding forty-sixth week in the Top Five, and record-extending seventy-sixth week in the Top Ten.

Her 2015 hit Honeymoon reaches a new highest-rank as it improves 5-4 on sales of 19,000 copies (up 18 percent).

2017’s Lust for Life returns to the Top Five (6-5) for the first time since September 2019 selling 18,000 units (up 12 percent).

Beyond the Top Five: the No.2 hit Born to Die: Paradise Edition retreats 4-7 (15,000 units – down 7 percent); and Ultraviolence inches 10-9 (14,000 – up 27 percent) after hitting No.8.

With five albums inside the Top Ten this week, Lana Del Rey becomes the first artist in history to populate fifty percent of the upper bracket for multiple weeks!

Joni Mitchell tallies a fifth consecutive week at number-one on Top Catalogue Albums with her 1971 magnum-opus Blue. The album sold 51,000 copies this week (up 15 percent) and has now sold 282,000 since its release.

As of this week, Blue is the bestselling album of 2021 on the Catalogue format, passing Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection.

Annie Lennox collects her third Top Five hit on L.dK Weekly as 2003’s Bare opens at No.3 selling 21,000 copies in its first seven days.

Lennox has notched two No.1 hits on L.dK Weekly, with Diva and Medusa topping the Weekly Top Fifty for one and three weeks respectively. Those albums have been certified 7 x Platinum and 6 x Platinum, to date.

Diva springs 12-10 this week on sales of 13,000 copies (up 30 percent).

Two former number-one hits follow outside the Top Five: Stevie Nicks’s Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks rebounds 7-6 (16,000 units – even with last week); Florence + the Machine bullet at No.8 with High as Hope (14,000 units – up 7 percent).

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue could earn a sixth week at No.1, and sell over 40,000 copies.

Top Catalogue Albums

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 492,000 units this week (down 14%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 369,000 units (up 7.2%). Contemporary accounted for 57.1% of all consumption this week; versus 42.9% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales stand at 861,000 units this week, representing a 6.1% drop from last week. Compared to the same week last year (when 1.028 million albums were sold), consumption is down by 16.3%.

LANA DEL REY SCORES THIRD NO.1 WITH CHEMTRAILS OVER THE COUNTRY CLUB

Chemtrails shoots to No.1 on Top Contemporary Albums; becomes fastest-selling album of the year!

Queen of Alternative, Lana Del Rey’s just-released Chemtrails Over the Country Club soars to No.1 on Top Contemporary Albums, instantly earning the singer her third chart-topper (and eighth Top Ten).

• 2012 – Born to Die: Paradise Edition – No.2
• 2014 – Ultraviolence – No.8
• 2015 – Honeymoon – No.5
• 2015 – The Unreleased Collection – No.3
• 2017 – Lust for Life – No.1 (eleven weeks)
• 2019 – Norman Fucking Rockwell! – No.1 (seventeen weeks)
• 2020 – Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – No.3
• 2021 – Chemtrails Over the Country Club – No.1 (one week to date)

Chemtrails debuts with sales of 160,000 units – comprising of 141,000 first-week sales and a further 19,000 copies from singles & pre-sales.

It nabs the biggest opening week of the year on L.dK Weekly, surpassing Joni Mitchell’s Blue (Catalogue) which sold 75,000 in its debut.

In addition: 160,000 marks the greatest haul since the chart dated 18 January when Taylor Swift’s evermore sold 172,000 in its fifth week of sales; and the largest debut since evermore racked up sales of 226,000 copies for the chart dated 21 December 2020.

Compared to Del Rey’s previous set – 2019’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! – it marks a dip of 18 percent (down from 194,000).

Overall: Chemtrails’s debut is the twenty-second greatest of all time, just ahead of Alanis Morissette’s The Collection (158,000).

Del Rey’s previous two records, 2017’s Lust for Life & NFR! rank at No.1 (639,000 – 29 July 2017) and No.15 (194,000 – 09 September 2019) among the fastest-selling albums of all time.

Already, Chemtrails has been certified Gold for selling over 100,000 copies. It is Del Rey’s eighth consecutive record to achieve at least a Gold badge.

• 12 x Platinum, Norman Fucking Rockwell! – 3.84 million
• 8 x Platinum, Lust for Life – 2.53 million
• 2 x Platinum, Born to Die: Paradise Edition – 789,000
• 2 x Platinum, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – 749,000
• Platinum, Honeymoon – 304,000
• Gold, The Unreleased Collection – 189,000
• Gold, Ultraviolence – 187,000
• Gold, Chemtrails Over the Country Club – 160,000

Including Chemtrails, Lana Del Rey has sold a staggering 8.75 million albums across her catalogue, ranking her as the second bestselling artist of all time, behind only Stevie Nicks (10.63 million).

Just outside the Top Ten, Del Rey’s spoken-word poetry album – which peaked at No.3 last year – bursts 17-11 on sales of 14,000 units (up 75 percent).

Taylor Swift’s folklore retreats to No.2 after last week returning to No.1 for a sixteenth non-consecutive week following its Album of the Year win at the Grammys! The album sold 57,000 units this week (down 22 percent).

Interestingly, this marks the first time since its inception that Top Contemporary Albums has been topped by any artist other than Taylor Swift (she commanded the list for its first eleven weeks with evermore, and then last week with folklore).

evermore meanwhile steps down 2-3 after a thirteen-week command, selling 50,000 copies (down 21 percent). The album has now been certified 6 x Platinum for selling in excess of 1.8 million units.

Both of Swift’s most recent albums have been certified at least 6 x Platinum; folklore was certified Diamond last week, having topped 3 million sales!

Hayley Williams’s No.2-peaking FLOWERS for VASES / descansos reounds 5-4 on sales of 35,000 (down 3 percent); the singer’s No.3 hit Petals for Armor simultaneously bullets at No.10 with 15,000 sold (up 7 percent).

Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia backtracks 3-5 on sales of 34,000 units (down 20 percent), as it celebrates two major accomplishments!

Future has now charted for a whole consecutive year on L.dK Weekly, and the eight-week chart-topper has also just passed 2.4 million sales, making it just the fifth album in history to attain 8 x Platinum certification! The other such albums are as follows:

1. Norman Fucking Rockwell, Lana Del Rey – 12 x Platinum
2. A Star is Born, Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – 11 x Platinum
3. folklore, Taylor Swift – Diamond
4. Lust for Life, Lana Del Rey – 8 x Platinum
5. Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa – 8 x Platinum

The Weeknd’s The Highlights falls 4-6 after peaking at No.3 (32,000 sold – down 14 percent) as the best-of set becomes the star’s second release to be certified Platinum, following the Quadruple Platinum smash After Hours.

Miley Cyrus’s two-week leader Plastic Hearts steps down 6-7 (28,000 copies – down 13 percent); Celeste’s No.3-peaking Not Your Muse stays put at No.8 for another week (25,000 copies – on par).

Finally: After debuting at No.3 two weeks ago, Zara Larsson’s Poster Girl descends 7-9 (20,000 units – down 26 percent).

Onto Next Week: Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club should easily take out a second week at No.1, possibly with sales of over 100,000 units.

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary

No.18 – Piano Sketches / Birdy’s four-track EP, released in November last year, stays put at No.18 this week, selling 7,000 units (up from 6,000 the week before). The short-set peaked at No.13 earlier this year, and while currently being Birdy’s only release not to hit the Top Ten, it is now tied with her self-titled debut as her longest-charting record, with twenty weeks apiece on L.dK Weekly.

No.24 – Love Goes / Sam Smith’s third record Goes Gold this week. It is the singer’s second effort to achieve the certification, following 2017’s No.1 hit The Thrill of it All which is currently certified Platinum.

Top Contemporary Albums

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

LANA DEL REY DOMINATES CATALOGUE ALBUMS

Joni Mitchell’s Blue leads for fourth week; Del Rey places five albums in Top Ten!

For a fourth consecutive week, Joni Mitchell rules Top Catalogue Albums with her iconic 1971 LP Blue. The album sold 44,000 copies this week (down 9 percent).

Lana Del Rey: The Indie-Queen bullets at No.2 with her Diamond-certified juggernaut Norman Fucking Rockwell! shifting 34,000 units this week (up 47 percent).

All of Lana Del Rey’s full-length studio albums preceding NFR! surge into the Top Ten this week!

Her major-label debut Born to Die: Paradise Edition (2012) rockets 15-4 on sales of 16,000 copies (up 128 percent). Born – which peaked at No.2 over three years ago – makes its first trip to the Top Five since September 2017 when it was at No.5; it ranked higher the previous August when it sat at No.4.

2015’s Honeymoon reaches the Top Five for the first time after originally peaking at No.6 in August 2017, flying 17-5! Including sales of 16,000 copies this week (up 128 percent), Honeymoon has sold just over 300,000 units, earning it a Platinum certification! The baroque-pop set last charted inside the Top Ten in late September 2017.

The fastest-selling album in history – and eleven-week number one – 2017’s Lust for Life bolts 20-6, also selling 16,000 units (166 percent). Lust last appeared in the Top Ten last February (at No.10) and last ranked higher than No.6 in September 2019 when it was at No.4.

Finally, 2014’s Ultraviolence elevates 13-10 with 11,000 sold (up 57 percent). The No.8-peaking album has not been present inside the highest bracket since August 2017.

History: By taking the No.2; No.4; No.5; No.6 & No.10 spots on this week’s Top Catalogue Albums Chart, Lana Del Rey becomes the first artist in history to command fifty percent of the Top Ten.

Previously, Stevie Nicks placed four records in the Top Ten on multiple occassions in 2017, and once earlier this year!

Surviving Del Rey’s onslaught, Carole King’s six-week number one A Beautiful Collection holds in the Top Five at No.3 with 16,000 sold (down 16 percent).

Outside the Top Five: Stevie Nicks’s five-week chart-topper Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks slides 4-7 (16,000 – even with last week); Florence + the Machine’s one-week leader High as Hope drops 6-8 (13,000 – down 8 percent); Kate Bush’s No.3-peaking The Whole Story tumbles 5-9 (12,000 – down 15 percent).

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue looks set to sell another 40,000 units in the upcoming tracking week, which could sustain her at No.1 for a fifth frame. Her closest competition could come from Annie Lennox’s third solo album Bare (newly retrospectively released) which looks set to sell upwards of 30,000 units; if not No.1, then the LP will jostle Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! which also could sell around 30,000 units, for the No.2 spot.

Top Catalogue Albums

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums generated sales of 572,000 units this week (up 19.9%) while Catalogue Albums recorded sales of 344,000 units (up 6.1%). Contemporary accounted for 62.4% of all consumption this week; versus 37.6% for Catalogue.

572,000 represents the greatest sales figure this year for the Contemporary format, beating the 554,000 albums sold in the week dated 15 February.

Total industry sales are up to a year-high of 916,000 (up 14.3% from last week). Compared to the same week last year (when 958,000 albums were sold), consumption is down by 4.4%.

This week marks the first time in 2021 that a week has produced lower consumption than its equal in 2020. It is worth noting, that this week last year, the Covid-19 Lockdown began, causing consumption to jump to 958,000 from 673,000 the week before; sales would top 1,000,000 for the first time the following week.

Despite dipping below last year’s figures this week, overall industry has now surpassed 10,000,000 units in record time! Prior to this week, 2020 had been the fastest year to hit 10,000,000 consumption units, reaching the mark in the week dated 20 April.

Through the first quarter of 2021, 10,111,000 albums have been consumed. More than half of this figure comes from the Contemporary Albums format (6,615,000), with the remaining 3,496,000 units coming from Catalogue sales.

TAYLOR SWIFT’S FOLKLORE RETURNS TO NO.1 ON TOP CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS FOLLOWING ALBUM OF THE YEAR WIN!

As Taylor Swift replaces herself at No.1, and makes history with folklore; Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia re-enters the Top Five, and Lady Gaga’s Chromatica re-enters Top Ten!

Taylor Swift’s 2020 album folklore climbs 2-1 this week following its Album of the Year win at the 63rd Grammy Awards which aired March 14. This earns folklore a sixteenth non-consecutive week atop L.dK Weekly, adding to the fifteen weeks it spent at No.1 on the discontinued Weekly Top 50 in 2020.

Currently, folklore is the second-longest-running number-one album of all time; only Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! ruled for longer (seventeen weeks).

Diamond: Including its latest weekly haul of 73,000 copies (up 15 percent from the previous frame), Swift’s magnum-opus has now shifted a total of 3,024,000 units! It becomes just the third album in history to be certified Diamond (denoting sales of at least 3,000,000 copies).

The list of Diamond-certified albums is as follows:

1. Norman Fucking Rockwell! / Lana Del Rey – 3.81 million
2. A Star is Born / Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – 3.39 million
3. folklore / Taylor Swift – 3.02 million.

Notably, Swift’s folklore becomes the fastest album on record to surpass three million in total sales, passing Del Rey’s NFR! which achieved Diamond certified after forty-eight weeks on sale! Gaga & Cooper’s A Star is Born – the first LP to reach the milestone – did so in its sixty-third week on sale.

1. 34 weeks – folklore
2. 48 weeks – Norman Fucking Rockwell!
3. 63 weeks – A Star is Born

To date: Taylor Swift has now spent a record-extending thirty-one weeks at the summit on L.dK Weekly (including nineteen weeks on the Weekly Top 50, and now twelve weeks atop Top Contemporary Albums). The singer’s No.1 hits are as follows:

• (2017) reputation – one week
• (2019) Lover – one week
• (2020-2021) folklore – sixteen weeks
• (2020-2021) evermore – thirteen weeks

As folklore takes back the crown, Swift becomes the first artist to replace themselves at No.1 since Fleetwood Mac did in March 2017 when Rumours (1977) dethroned Tango in the Night (1987).

This week, evermore falls to No.2 after tallying thirteen consecutive weeks in charge. The album sold 63,000 units this week (down 23 percent) and has sold 1.76 million units to date.

Dua Lipa’s Grammy-winning Future Nostalgia soars 7-3 on sales of 42,000 copies (up 44 percent). This year’s Best Pop Vocal Album hits its highest rank since the chart dated 22 June 2020 when it also placed at No.3; it last ranked higher on the chart dated 08 June, when it sat at No.2 following its eight-week command of the Weekly Top 50.

The Weeknd’s No.3 peaking The Highlights lifts 5-4 this week with sales of 37,000 copies (down 8 percent).

Hayley Williams’s FLOWERS for VASES / descansos descends 4-5 with 36,000 sold (down 13 percent). The album – which debuted and peaked at No.2 five weeks ago – has now been certified Platinum for selling over 300,000 units.

FLOWERS is Williams’s second release to attain Platinum status, joining last year’s Petals for Armor which has been certified Triple Platinum to date and sold more than one million copies. The No.3 hit Petals drops 9-10 this week selling 14,000 units (down 18 percent).

Beyond the Top Five: Miley Cyrus’s two-week leader Plastic Hearts sinks 5-6 (32,000 – down 22 percent) as it becomes the thirty-fifth album in history to sell more than one million units!

Zara Larsson’s Poster Girl slides 3-7 and goes Silver (60,000) in its second week (27,000 – down 36 percent); Celeste’s Not Your Muse bullets at No.8 after reaching a No.3 highpoint six weeks ago (25,000 – up 8 percent).

Finally, Lady Gaga’s Chromatica surges 20-9 (16,000 – up 166 percent) after its Gaga-Ariana Grande single “Rain on Me” took home the award for Best Pop Duo / Group Performance at this year’s Grammys. Chromatica previously spent six weeks at number-one, and was the fastest-selling album of 2020 (473,000). It has now spent seventeen weeks inside the Top Ten!

Onto Next Week: Lana Del Rey’s newly released Chemtrails Over the Country Club is predicted to debut at No.1, and could sell upwards of 125,000 copies.

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary!

No.11 – Fine Line / Harry Styles’s sophomore album rises 13-11 after its single “Watermelon Sugar” took home the prize for Best Pop Solo Performance. The album moved 13,000 units this week (up 62 percent). Previously, Fine spent a single week at the top spot in December 2019.

No.12 – Fetch the Bolt Cutters / After winning Best Alternative Music Album, Fiona Apple’s masterpiece Fetch the Bolt Cutters surges by 62 percent to 13,000 sold. The album peaked at No.4 in April last year.

No.14 – After Hours / The Weeknd’s former chart-topping set – controversially shut out of this year’s Grammy Awards – celebrates a whole year on L.dK Weekly, dating to its No.1 debut on the chart dated 30 March 2020. In its milestone fifty-second charting week, After swings 19-14 on sales of 9,000 units (up 28 percent). To date, it is the thirty-third album to spend a whole year on L.dK Weekly.

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 THIRD WEEK IN CHARGE OF TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS!

Mitchell continues to rule; Lana Del Rey prepares for her new album; Stevie Nicks & Ariana Grande records return to Top Ten!

1971’s seminal record Blue strings a third week in control on Top Catalogue Albums. Mitchell’s signature set moved 48,000 copies this week (down 25 percent). The album has sold 187,000 to date, and currently ranks as the second biggest-selling album of 2021 to date on Top Catalogue Albums.

Rising back to No.2 is Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! selling 23,000 copies (up 4 percent) after a seventeen-week reign across 2019 and 2020.

The bestselling album of all time is one of five Del Rey records on Top Catalogue Albums this week… 2014’s Ultraviolence returns at No.13 with 7,000 copies; 2012’s Born to Die: Paradise Edition re-enters at No.15 – 7,000 sold; 2015’s Honeymoon is up 18-17 – 6,000 sold; 2017’s Lust for Life springs 24-20 – 6,000 sold.

Del Rey’s whole catalogue is expected to make significant gains on next week’s chart!

Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection descends 2-3 after six weeks in pole position earlier this year – it moves 19,000 units this week (down 21 percent).

Stevie Nicks’s first appearance in the Top Ten this week is with Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks which repeats at No.4 once again, shifting 16,000 copies (down 16 percent). Her second is at No.9, with her solo debut album Bella Donna (up from No.12) moving 8,000 copies (even with last week). Crystal spent a total of five weeks at No.1 on L.dK Weekly, while Bella topped out at No.3.

Capping the Top Five: Kate Bush’s No.3-peaking The Whole Story keeps at No.5 (14,000 – down 7 percent).

Florence + the Machine’s former chart-topping High as Hope ticks 7-6 (13,000 – up 18 percent); Alanis Morissette’s The Collection slips 6-7 (12,000 – even with last week) after peaking at No.2 for nine weeks.

Steady at No.8 this week (10,000 – down 10 percent), Annie Lennox’s one-week chart-topper Diva becomes just the sixth album in history to be certified 7 x Platinum (denoting sales of 2,100,000 units). Diva is Lennox’s first album to reach this milestone, as her 1995 followup Medusa has been certified 6 x Platinum with 1.81 million sold to date.

Ariana Grande rounds out the Top Ten as three-week leader Sweetener surges 14-10 (8,000 sold – up 14 percent).

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue and Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! could both sell between 30,000 and 40,000 copies in the upcoming tracking period. Either album could take the crown, which would earn Mitchell a fourth week at No.1, or would nab Del Rey’s NFR! a record-extending eighteenth week out front. The rest of Del Rey’s catalogue is set to surge and could re-enter the Top Ten in some cases.

Top Catalogue Albums

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums generated sales of 477,000 units this week (down 4.1%) while Catalogue Albums recorded sales of 324,000 units (down 14.1%). Contemporary accounted for 59.6% of all consumption this week; versus 40.4% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales are down by 8.4% to 801,000 sold. Compared to the same week last year (when 673,000 albums were sold), consumption is up by 19%!

TAYLOR SWIFT LOGS HISTORIC THIRTIETH WEEK AT NO.1!

Swift commands Top Contemporary Albums for thirteenth week with evermore; Zara Larsson’s Poster Girl launches at No.3.

Taylor Swift snares a thirteenth consecutive frame at No.1 this week with evermore; the album has been at the helm since its No.1 debut on the chart dated 21 December, and has ruled Top Contemporary Albums for its entire eleven-week lifetime.

evermore moved 81,000 units this week (down 5 percent). Now with thirteen weeks at the top spot, it becomes the third-longest running chart-topper in L.dK Weekly history, passing Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born soundtrack (twelve weeks). Only Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! (seventeen weeks) and Swift’s own folklore (fifteen weeks) have spent longer in pole position.

30 Weeks at No.1: After claiming the record of most weeks at No.1 among all artists, Swift extends that record this time around. She is the first artist in history to accrue a total of thirty weeks at No.1; Del Rey follows with twenty-eight weeks at the summit.

Swift makes another showing at No.2 with folklore on sales of 63,000 copies (up 8 percent): this marks the twelfth non-consecutive week that the singer has simultaneously held the top two positions on L.dK Weekly. The album has now spent its first thirty-three weeks inside the Top Five, marking the longest ever consecutive stay in the region. Previously, Del Rey’s NFR! held the title after spending its first thirty-two weeks in the tier.

Zara Larsson nabs a No.3 placement with her sophomore studio album Poster Girl, as it opens with sales of 42,000 units. The set – which is the second Top Ten hit for the Swedish star – follows 2017’s chart-topping So Good. That album has since been certified Platinum for sales of over 300,000 copies.

Hayley Williams follows as her No.2 peaking FLOWERS for VASES / descansos steps down 3-4 with 41,000 sold (down 13 percent); the Paramore-front-woman also keeps at No.9 with the No.3 hit Petals for Armor (17,000 – up 30 percent).

Capping the Top Five: Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts bullets at No.5 selling 41,000 copies (up 20 percent) after peaking at No.1 for two weeks in December.

The Weeknd’s The Highlights exits the Top Five for the first time (4-6) after debuting at its No.3 in February (40,000 – down 14 percent); Dua Lipa’s eight-week-leader Future Nostalgia sinks 6-7 (29,000 – even with last week); Celeste’s No.3 peaking Not Your Muse reverses course 7-8 (23,000 – down 5 percent).

Beneath Williams’s Petals, Ariana Grande’s former three-week number-one Positions drops 8-10 (16,000 – down 12 percent).

Onto Next Week: Taylor Swift should easily rule for a fourteenth week with evermore. The album looks set to sell another 70,000 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 SPENDS SECOND WEEK ATOP TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS WITH BLUE!

Plus: Stevie Nicks’s 1985 hit Rock a Little races back into the Top Ten!

Joni Mitchell’s seminal Blue (1971) tallies a second week in the penthouse on Top Catalogue Albums, moving 64,000 copies in its second frame (down 15 percent). The iconic collection has already been certified Gold, and with sales of 139,000 units has become the third bestselling Catalogue Album of the year!

Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection rebounds 3-2 after a six-week command, selling 24,000 units in the latest tracking period (up 33 percent). The best-of set has now been certified Pentuple Platinum, exceeding sales of 1,500,000 units since its release! Beautiful is just the nineteenth album in history to sell over 1.5 million copies, and currently ranks as the nineteenth bestselling album ever!

Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! slips 2-3 – although gains by 15 percent to 22,000 sold – as it registers a record-extending forty-third week in the Top Five, and seventy-third week inside the Top Ten. NFR! previously commanded the discontinued Weekly Top 50 for a record seventeen weeks across 2019 and 2020.

Stevie Nicks is steady at No.4 with her five-week leader Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks selling 19,000 (up 18 percent).

Further down the Top Ten, Nicks takes the No.9 spot this week with 1985’s Rock a Little (on sales of 11,000 copies) which peaked at No.2 in 2017 and has sold just over 1,000,000 copies. Rock re-enters at No.9 following its relevant episode of Nicksology: the Stevie Nicks Podcast, and nabs a twenty-ninth term inside the Top Ten. This also marks the album’s eightieth week on the ranking overall.

Kate Bush anchors the Top Five this week with the stationary compilation The Whole Story, moving 16,000 units (up 6 percent) after peaking at No.3.

Alanis Morissette’s The Collection bounces back up 8-6 (12,000 – up 9 percent); Florence + the Machine’s former number-one High as Hope holds at No.7 (12,000 – on par with last week); Annie Lennox’s one-week-ruler Diva descends 6-8 (11,000 – down 9 percent); Florence + the Machine are steady again at No.10 with the No.3 hit How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (9,000 – on par with last week).

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue could sell a further 40,000 copies, which would earn the album a third stay at No.1!

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue

No.13 – So Good / As she enters the Top Five on Top Contemporary Albums with her new release Poster Girl, Zara Larsson’s 2017 collection So Good makes its first appearance on L.dK Weekly in almost four years: it ranks No.13 this week with 8,000 copies sold. It is the album’s first visit to the Catalogue Chart, but ninth week overall on L.dK Weekly. The Platinum-certified LP debuted at No.1 in 2017 and at the time was the fastest-selling record of all time – with opening week sales of 223,000 units (it is still the thirteenth biggest debut ever, and fourteenth biggest weekly figure overall).

No.15 – All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend / AURORA’s debut full-length album debuts at No.15 on Top Catalogue Albums (selling 6,000 copies) in celebration of its five-year anniversary. Demons earns the Norwegian singer her third Top Twenty hit, following the No.6 peaking EP Infections of a Different Kind and her No.2 hit album A Different Kind of Human. The latter set retreats 17-20 this week.

No.17 – Glasshouse / Jessie Ware’s most successful album to date has now clocked 104 weeks on L.dK Weekly: a whole two years on the chart. Glasshouse is just the sixth album to reach this historic milestone, following juggernaut records by Stevie Nicks (Bella Donna), Fleetwood Mac (Rumours), Ariana Grande (Sweetener), Annie Lennox (Diva), and Adele (25).

No.18 – Honeymoon / Lana Del Rey’s 2015 set re-enters at No.18 (selling 6,000 units), marking its first charting week on Top Catalogue Albums, and first showing since mid-2020. The Gold-certified set re-enters in anticipation of Del Rey’s upcoming album Chemtrails Over the Country Club – due March 19th.

Top Catalogue Albums

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 497,000 units this week (up 6.6%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 377,000 units (up 15.6%). Contemporary accounted for 56.9% of all consumption this week; versus 43.1% for Catalogue.

This marks the lowest share on record for Contemporary Albums; it drops beneath the previous lowpoint of 58.8% registered last week (dated 08 March). Meanwhile, Catalogue Albums registers its greatest share of sales, passing the 41.2% last week (08 March).

Total industry sales reach a new yearly high, rising by 10.3% to 874,000 – their highest level since the charted 21 December 2020 when 939,000 albums were sold. Compared to the same week last year (when 581,000 albums were sold), consumption is up by 50.4%!

Total sales industry sales are up by 5% to 792,000 sold this week. Compared to the same week last year (when 576,000 albums were sold), consumption is up by 37.5%!

TAYLOR SWIFT BREAKS RECORD FOR MOST WEEKS AT NO.1!

evermore nabs twelfth week at No.1 on Top Contemporary Albums; folklore continues at No.2!

This week, Taylor Swift breaks the record for the most weeks spent at No.1 on L.dK Weekly, notching a twenty-ninth frame at the top spot across her four chart-topping records.

Her latest blockbuster – evermore – lodges in first place for a twelfth consecutive week (dating to its No.1 debut on the chart dated 21 December). The album sold 85,000 copies this week (down 11 percent).

Now with twelve weeks in command, evermore ties Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born as the third longest-running number-one in history.

1. Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (seventeen weeks)
2. folklore – Taylor Swift (fifteen weeks)
3. A Star is Born – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (twelve weeks)
4. evermore – Taylor Swift (twelve weeks)
5. Lust for Life – Lana Del Rey (eleven weeks)

Swift passes Lana Del Rey who previously held the record with twenty-eight weeks in charge across her two No.1 records Lust and NFR! . The singer’s twenty-nine weeks at the spot are owed largely to 2020’s folklore and it’s sister record evermore. Both 2017’s reputation and 2019’s Lover each ruled for a single week each.

Swift also takes the runner-up position on Top Contemporary Albums this week with folklore. The set sells a further 59,000 copies (down 2 percent) as it tallies a thirty-second consecutive week inside the Top Five. Currently, it’s the secnd-longest running Top-Five album ever, behind only Del Rey’s NFR (more on that later…)

Hayley Williams makes two appearances once again in this week’s Top Ten: her No.2 peaking FLOWERS for VASES / descansos keeps at No.3 moving 47,000 copies (down 12 percent) and her No.3 hit Petals for Armor steps up 10-9 on sales of 13,000 units (down 8 percent).

The Weeknd strengthens at No.4 with bestof set The Highlights following its No.3 debut a month ago. The collection moves 46,000 units this week (up 4 percent).

Capping the Top Five: Miley Cyrus’s two-week chart-topper Plastic Hearts rebounds 6-5 with sales of 34,000 copies (up 3 percent).

Beyond the Top Five: Dua Lipa backtracks 5-6 with her eight-week-ruler Future Nostalgia (29,000 – down 20 percent); Celeste’s No.3 hit Not Your Muse reverses course 8-7 (24,000 – up 4 percent); Ariana Grande’s Positions sinks 7-8 following a three-week command last year (18,000 – down 38 percent); Williams’s Petals is at No.9; and Jessie Ware’s sole No.1 record What’s Your Pleasure? inches 11-10 (11,000 – even with last week).

Onto Next Week: Taylor Swift’s evermore could be bound for a thirteenth week at the summit, potentially with around 80,000 units. Zara Larsson could also nab a Top Ten debut with her new Poster Girl; the album – currently tracking to sell roughly 30,000 copies – would be the singer’s second Top Ten hit and first since 2017’s So Good.

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary

No.11 – Ungodly Hour / Chloe x Halle’s sophomore studio album rockets 21-11 on this week’s Contemporary Chart, selling 10,000 copies in the lastest tracking period – up 150 percent from the frame before. By hitting No.11, Ungodly records its best rank since last July when the album ranked No.8 (it’s sixth and final week inside the Top Ten). In June last year, the R&B set debuted and peaked at No.5, and has since been certified Platinum!

No.17 – Life Support / Madison Beer’s debut full-length set begins at No.17 with first week sales of 7,000 copies. Previously, the album had been projected to debut in the Top Ten with upwards of 30,000 units.

Top Contemporary Albums

1. [=/12] evermore – Taylor Swift (12)
2. [=] folklore – Taylor Swift (32)
3. [=] FLOWERS for VASES / descansos – Hayley Williams (4)
4. [=] The Highlights – The Weeknd (4)
5. [+1] Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (14)
6. [-1] Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (49)
7. [+1] Not Your Muse – Celeste (5)
8. [-1] Positions – Ariana Grande (18)
9. [+1] Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (43)
10. [+1] What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (36)
11. [+10] Ungodly Hour – Chloe x Halle (38)
12. [=] Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (32)
13. [+1] Fine Line – Harry Styles (64)
14. [+2] Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (46)
15. [+3] Nectar – Joji (23)
16. [-1] Album No.8 – Kati Melua (20)
17. [NEW] Life Support – Madison Beer (1)
18. [-1] After Hours – The Weeknd (50)
19. [-6] Piano Sketches – Birdy (17)
20. [=] Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (31)
21. [-2] Chromatica – Lady Gaga (40)
22. [=] DISCO – Kylie Minogue (16)
23. [=] Love Goes – Sam Smith (18)
24. [re] In a Dream – Troye Sivan (18)
25. [-1] Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (18)

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

JONI MITCHELL BOWS AT NO.1 WITH BLUE!

The legendary 1971 set earns the biggest debut to date on Top Catalogue Albums!

Joni Mitchell launches at No.1 on the latest tally of Top Catalogue Albums with her 1971 album Blue. The LP starts with sales of 75,000 copies – marking the biggest sales week since the conception of Top Catalogue Albums in January! It also positions the record as the tenth bestselling catalogue album of the year afer only seven days!

Now offically older than eighteen months, Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! marks its first appearance on Catalogue Albums after a seventy-eight week run on the contemporary counterpart. It surges onto the list at No.2 with sales of 19,000 copies, nabbing a record-extending forty-second week in the Top Five and record-padding seventy-second week in the Top Ten!

Last week’s No.1 – Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection – tumbles to No.3 after a six-week reign. The compilation moved 18,000 copies this week (down 6 percent).

Stevie Nicks’s five-week-leader Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks descends 2-4 with 16,000 sold (on par) as it celebrates a fifty-second turn on L.dK Weekly. Nicks currently boasts six albums that have spent at least a year on the chart: 1981’s Bella Donna (129 weeks), 1983’s The Wild Heart (eighty-four weeks), 1985’s Rock a Little (seventy-nine weeks), 1991’s Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks (sixty-one weeks), 1989’s The Other Side of the Mirror (fifty-four weeks) and now Crystal.

Kate Bush rounds out the Top Five with her No.3 peaking The Whole Story (down 3-5) selling 15,000 units this week (even with last week).

Two former chart-toppers follow in the Top Ten: Annie Lennox’s Diva retreats 5-6 (12,000 – up 9 percent); Florence + the Machine’s High as Hope slips 6-7 (12,000 – up 9 percent). Both albums spent a single week at the summit.

Alanis Morissette’s No.2 peaking The Collection slides 4-8 (11,000 – down 22 percent).

Billie Eilish’s WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? returns at No.9 following the release of her Apple documentary this week. The album – which debuted and peaked at No.2 in 2019 – re-enters with sales of 9,000 copies.

Capping the Top Ten: Florence + the Machine take a second Top Ten slot with How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (9,000 – up 12 percent) after it reached No.3 last year.

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue is currently on track to sell at leat 50,000 copies in the coming week, which will easily earn it a second week out front.

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue

No.17 – A Different Kind of Human / AURORA’s second full-length album – and third project overall – re-enters Top Catalogue Albums at No.17 this week selling 5,000 copies. The album – which last week was certified Double Platinum for exceeding sales of 600,000 units – reaches its highest position since October 2019 when it ranked No.14. Human opened at No.5 in June 2019 and climbed to its peak of No.2 the following week. Currently, AURORA boasts two certified releases: Human (Double Platinum) and the EP Infections of a Different Kind (Platinum).

Top Catalogue Albums

1. [NEW] Blue – Joni Mitchell (1)
2. [NEW] Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (79)
3. [-2] A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (37)
4. [-2] Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (52)
5. [-2] The Whole Story – Kate Bush (87)
6. [-1] Diva – Annie Lennox (109)
7. [-1] High as Hope – Florence + the Machine (9)
8. [-4] The Collection – Alanis Morissette (47)
9. [re] WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? – Billie Eilish (27)
10. [-1] How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + the Machine (46)
11. [-4] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (129)
12. [-4] Sweetener – Ariana Grande (111)
13. [-3] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (91)
14. [-1] Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (67)
15. [+1] Melodrama – Lorde (45)
16. [-5] thank u, next – Ariana Grande (58)
17. [re] A Different Kind of Human – AURORA (49)
18. [-6] True Colors – Cyndi Lauper (28)
19. [+2] Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (42)
20. [-6] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (103)
21. [+4] Lust for Life – Lana Del Rey (74)
22. [-4] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (63)
23. [-4] Medusa – Annie Lennox (83)
24. [-4] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (116)
25. [-3] Bad Animals – HEART (78)

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums generated sales of 466,000 units this week (down 6.8%) while Catalogue Albums recorded sales of 326,000 units (up 28.3%). Contemporary accounted for 58.8% of all consumption this week; versus 41.2% for Catalogue.

This marks the lowest market share on record for Contemporary Albums; it falls beneath the previous lowpoint of 65.1% registered on the chart dated 08 February. Meanwhile, Catalogue Albums registers its greatest share of sales, passing the 34.9% on the 08 February chart.

Total sales industry sales are up by 5% to 792,000 sold this week. Compared to the same week last year (when 576,000 albums were sold), consumption is up by 37.5%!

TAYLOR SWIFT EQUALS RECORD FOR MOST WEEKS AT NO.1!

evermore keeps atop Contemporary Albums for an eleventh week; folklore repeats at No.2.

Taylor Swift’s evermore tallies an eleventh successive week at No.1 on L.dK Weekly. The album has ruled the Top Contemporary Albums Chart since its inception in the first week of January, leading for ten weeks. In 2020, evermore spent two weeks in pole position on the discontinued Weekly Top 50.

Currently, evermore is tied with Lana Del Rey’s Lust for Life as the fourth longest-running number-one record of all time.

1. Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (17 weeks)
2. folklore – Taylor Swift (15 weeks)
3. A Star is Born – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (12 weeks)
4. Lust for Life – Lana Del Rey (11 weeks)
5. evermore – Taylor Swift (11 weeks)

Most Weeks at No.1: To date, Taylor Swift has spent a total of twenty-eight weeks at No.1 on L.dK Weekly, including eighteen weeks atop the Weekly Top 50, and ten weeks at the top of Top Contemporary Albums. It ties the record for the most weeks at No.1 among all artists, drawing even with Lana Del Rey who has also ruled for twenty eight weeks!

Swift first reached No.1 in December 2017 with her sixth studio album reputation, which debuted at No.1; and would again open at No.1 in August 2019 with her seventh record Lover. Both albums would spend just a single week in first place.

In 2020, Swift nabbed her third chart-topper when folklore opened at No.1. It became her first album to spend multiple weeks in charge, and has since ruled for fifteen non-consecutive weeks. The singer soon followed folklore with evermore (eleven weeks to date).

evermore sold 95,000 copies in the latest tracking week (down 2 percent) and has now sold 1.532 million units to date. The album is Swift’s third release to be certified Pentuple Platinum for exceeding sales of 1.5 million copies.

Now with three albums boasting over 1.5 million sales, Swift now has the most albums to reach this milestone. Lana Del Rey, Lady Gaga & Annie Lennox all have two albums each to be certified Pentuple Platinum.

• Taylor Swift – folklore (2.82 million); Lover (1.53 million); evermore (1.53 million).
• Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell! (3.74 million); Lust for Life (2.50 million).
• Lady Gaga – A Star is Born (3.38 million); Chromatica (1.86 million).
• Annie Lennox – Diva (2.07 million); Medusa (1.80 million).

More Swift: folklore holds in the No.2 spot – marking the tenth time that Taylor Swift has held the top two positions on L.dK Weekly – selling 60,000 units (up 3 percent).

The fifteen-week chart-topper has now logged thirty-one consecutive weeks inside the Top Five. It ties Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born as the second longest-running Top Five album of all time. Both hits trail Lana Del Rey’s NFR! (forty-one weeks).

After debuting in the runner-up spot two weeks ago, Hayley Williams keeps at No.3 with FLOWERS for VASES / descansos, selling 53,000 copies (down 4 percent). Williams appears again at No.10 (steady with last week) with her No.3 peaking Petals for Armor on sales of 14,000 copies (down 7 percent).

The Weeknd’s No.3 hit The Highlights rebounds 5-4 selling 43,000 units (up 4 percent).

Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia lifts 6-5 to return to the Top Five for the first time in 2021. Future sold 36,000 copies this week (even with lat week) and previously logged eight weeks at No.1 in 2020.

Miley Cyrus’s two-week leader Plastic Hearts slides 4-6 (33,000 – down 27 percent); it leaves the Top Five for the first time after twelve weeks, and is now Cyrus’s first album to be certified Triple Platinum (900,000).

Rising from No.9 to No.7: Ariana Grande’s Positions blooms following the release of its deuxe edition, improving by 81 percent to 29,000 copies sold.

Celeste steps down one spot to No.8 with her No.3 peaking debut solo album Not Your Muse (23,000 – down 12 percent). The album has now been certified Gold for selling over 100,000 copies.

Capping the Top Ten: Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! sinks 8-9 (18,000 – up 5 percent) in its record-padding 71st week inside the Top Ten!

Onto Next Week: Taylor Swift is the clear leader with evermore set to sell roughly 90,000 copies once again. If the album stays in front, it will nab a twelfth week at No.1. Chloe x Halle’s Ungodly Hour could make gains with the release of its Chrome Edition, and Madison Beer could debut in the Top Ten with Life Support (potentially with 20,000 units).

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary

No.13 – Piano Sketches / Birdy reaches a new high of No.13 (up from No.14) with her four-track EP Piano Sketches. The set sold 8,000 units this week.

Top Contemporary Albums

1. [=/11] evermore – Taylor Swift (11)
2. [=] folklore – Taylor Swift (31)
3. [=] FLOWERS for VASES / descansos – Hayley Williams (3)
4. [+1] The Highlights – The Weeknd (3)
5. [+1] Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (48)
6. [-2] Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (13)
7. [+2] Positions – Ariana Grande (17)
8. [-1] Not Your Muse – Celeste (4)
9. [-1] Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (78)
10. [=] Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (42)
11. [=] What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (35)
12. [+1] Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (31)
13. [+1] Piano Sketches – Birdy (16)
14. [+2] Fine Line – Harry Styles (63)
15. [+4] Album No.8 – Katie Melua (19)
16. [-1] Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (45)
17. [-5] After Hours – The Weeknd (49)
18. [=] Nectar – Joji (22)
19. [+1] Chromatica – Lady Gaga (39)
20. [+4] Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (30)
21. [-4] Ungodly Hour – Chloe x Halle (37)
22. [=] DISCO – Kylie Minogue (16)
23. [-2] Love Goes – Sam Smith (17)
24. [-1] Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (17)
25. [re] Compilation 1.1 – Celeste (14)

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

CAROLE KING’S A BEAUTIFUL COLLECTION MAKES HISTORY!

Beautiful spends sixth week in pole position; becomes longest-running number-one compilation album ever!

Carole King collects a record-breaking sixth non-consecutive week at No.1 on Top Catalogue Albums with A Beautiful Collection – it sold 19,000 units this week (down 5 percent).

Beautiful is currently the compilation album with the most weeks at No.1 on L.dK Weekly. Previously, Stevie Nicks’s Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks held the record with five weeks at the summit.

Overall, Beautiful is the tenth longest-running number-one record ever, tied with Cyndi Lauper’s She’s so Unusual and Lady Gaga’s Chromatica.

The previously mentioned Crystal is a non-mover at No.2 after a five-week reign, shifting 16,000 copies (down 6 percent). Nicks is also steady at No.7 this week with her No.3-peaking Bella Donna selling 9,000 copies (on par with last week).

Two further compilation albums follow inside the Top Five: Kate Bush’s The Whole Story adds a fourth week at its No.3 highpoint selling 15,000 copies (down 7 percent); Alanis Morissette’s The Collection sticks at No.4 moving 14,000 units (up 16 percent) after nine weeks at No.2.

Annie Lennox rounds out the Top Five as Diva is unmoved at No.5 on sales of 11,000 copies (down 9 percent).

Florence + the Machine appear twice in this week’s Top Ten: their former chart-topper High as Hope bullets at No.6 (11,000 copies – up 10 percent) while the band’s How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful ticks 10-9 after reaching No.3 last year (8,000 – up 14 percent).

Rounding out the Top Ten: Ariana Grande’s three-week number-one hit Sweetener remains at No.8 (8,000 – on par with last week); Cyndi Lauper’s six-week chart-leader She’s so Unusual backtracks 9-10 (7,000 – down 13 percent).

Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s seminal album Blue could earn the largest sales week of 2021 on Top Catalogue Albums; it is currently set to debut with around 50,000 units.

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue

No.19 – Medusa / Annie Lennox’s sophomore 1995 album Medusa (which spent three weeks at the top slot) slides 14-19 this week on sales of 4,000 copies. The album has now sold 1,803,000 units to date – making it one of the bestselling records of all time. This is Lennox’s second LP to sell as many copies, as her 1992 set Diva has sold 2,070,000 copies.

No.21 – Tusk / Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk debuted and peaked at No.3 in 2020, following a string of Top Five hits for the Mac. The album – which has spent forty-one weeks on L.dK Weekly to date – has now been certified Platinum for selling over 300,000 copies. It is the band’s fifth album to be certified Platinum following Rumours (6 x Platinum); Mirage (2 x Platinum); Tango in the Night (2 x Platinum); and Greatest Hits (3 x Platinum).

Top Catalogue Albums

1. [=/6] A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (36)
2. [=] Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks (51)
3. [=/4] The Whole Story – Kate Bush (86)
4. [=] The Collection – Alanis Morissette (46)
5. [=] Diva – Annie Lennox (108)
6. [=] High as Hope – Florence + the Machine (8)
7. [=] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (128)
8. [=] Sweetener – Ariana Grande (110)
9. [+1] How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + the Machine (45)
10. [-1] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (90)
11. [+9] thank u, next – Ariana Grande (57)
12. [+3] True Colors – Cyndi Lauper (27)
13. [-1] Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (66)
14. [-3] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (102)
15. [+3] Heart – HEART (43)
16. [re] Melodrama – Lorde (44)
17. [-4] The Wild Heart – Stevie Nicks (84)
18. [+1] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (62)
19. [-5] Medusa – Annie Lennox (81)
20. [+2] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (115)
21. [-5] Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (41)
22. [-5] Bad Animals – HEART (77)
23. [re] The Sensual World – Kate Bush (55)
24. [=] A Star is Born – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (101)
25. [re] Lust for Life – Lana Del Rey (73)

Industry Sales

Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 500,000 units this week (down 2.6%) while Catalogue Albums generated sales of 254,000 units (down 0.8%). Contemporary accounted for 66.3% of all consumption this week; versus 33.7% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales are down 2% to 754,000 sold this week. Compared to the same week last year (when 645,000 albums were sold), consumption is up by 16.8%.

TAYLOR SWIFT’S EVERMORE STILL NO.1; HAYLEY WILLIAMS & THE WEEKND DEBUT AT NOS. 2 & 3.

Taylor Swift, Hayley Williams & The Weeknd all double up in the Top Ten!

Taylor Swift’s evermore stays at No.1 on Top Contemporary Albums, selling 102,000 copies (down 8 percent).

The album – so far the only record to reach the top spot on the Contemporary Albums list – logs a ninth consecutive week at the helm.

evermore surpasses Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia to become the fifth longest-running number one album of all time!

As previously reported, evermore is Swift’s second album to rule for at least nine weeks; it joins folklore which tallied fifteen weeks at No.1 in 2020.

This week: folklore slides 2-4 with sales of 57,000 units (down 5 percent). This ends Taylor Swift’s eight-week streak of having the top two albums on Top Contemporary Albums and the discontinued Weekly Top 50: dating to evermore’s No.1 debut on the chart dated December 21st.

folklore has now sold 2,711,000 copies in the 29 weeks since its release in July last year. The album is just the third record ever released to be certified 9 x Platinum (denoting sales of 2,700,000 units).

Currently, only two albums have recieved higher certifications than folklore: Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! (12 x Platinum) and Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born (11 x Platinum).

folklore adds another feat this week: the LP has now lived inside the Top Five for 29 consecutive weeks! It’s a figure only bested by two records: NFR! (41 weeks) and Star (31 weeks).

Hayley Williams roars onto Top Contemporary Albums at No.2 this week with her new release Flowers for Vases / descansos.

The album – Williams’s third Top Ten hit in as many tries – debuts with first week sales of 83,000 units. It marks the largest bow of 2021 to date!

Williams celebrates both her highest sales week, and highest debut on L.dK Weekly. Previously, the singer launched at No.8 with Petals for Armor I, and her debut solo album Petals for Armor in 2020.

With a No.2 debut, Flowers becomes Williams’s highest-peaking album to date, after Petals for Armor reached a high of No.3 on the Weekly Top 50 last year. It also achieves Silver status after just a week (60,000).

Petals is up 8-7 this week in its 40th charting term. The triple-platinum certified album moved 22,000 units (up 83 percent) this week.

The Weeknd celebrates a big week following his Superbowl performance, as new best-of set The Highlights bows at No.3 and After Hours endures in the Top Ten.

The Highlights starts at No.3 selling 64,000 units in its debut week. Already Silver-certified, Highlights is the second Top Five album for The Weeknd. It follows 2020’s After Hours which this week bactracks 7-10, although up 7 percent to 14,000 sold, after peaking at No.1 in March last year.

The Weeknd is the first male artist to double up inside the Top Ten. One of the most successful male artists in L.dK Weekly history, The Weeknd’s After Hours is the bestselling album of all time by a male soloist with sales of 1.35 million copies to date.

Rounding out the Top Five: Miley Cyrus’s two-week number-one Plastic Hearts drops 4-5 with 44,000 in sales (on par with last week).

Celeste’s Not Your Muse slides to No.6, dropping 49 percent to 24,000 sold, following its No.3 debut last week. The album has now been certified Silver for selling over 60,000 copies.

Ariana Grande’s three-week chart-topper Positions dives 5-8 with 21,000 sold (down 25 percent); Lana Del Rey’s seventeen-week ruler NFR! tumbles 6-9 in its record-furthering 69th week in the Top Ten, shifting 18,000 copies (down 6 percent).

Onto Next Week: Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia could make a return to the Top Ten after the release of its Moonlight Edition. The former No.1 hit could sell upwards of 20,000 units this week. Taylor Swift’s evermore could be bound for a tenth week at the top spot with around 100,000 units again.

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary

No.12 – Fine Line / Harry Styles’s sophomore record debuted at No.1 in December 2019 and has spent all but one week on the chart ever since. The album (which finished No.6 on the 2020 Year-End Chart) has now been certified Quadruple Platinum for exceeding sales of 1,200,000 copies. It is just the second album ever by a male artist to reach the sales milestone!

Top Contemporary Albums

1. [=/9] evermore – Taylor Swift (9)
2. [NEW] Flowers for Vases / descansos – Hayley Williams (1)
3. [NEW] The Highlights – The Weeknd (1)
4. [-2] folklore – Taylor Swift (29)
5. [-1] Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (11)
6. [-3] Not Your Muse – Celeste (2)
7. [+1] Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (40)
8. [-3] Positions – Ariana Grande (15)
9. [-3] Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (76)
10. [-3] After Hours – The Weeknd (47)
11. [-2] What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (33)
12. [=] Fine Line – Harry Styles (61)
13. [=] Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (29)
14. [-4] Nectar – Joji (20)
15. [+1] Album No.8 – Katie Melua (17)
16. [-2] Piano Sketches – Birdy (14)
17. [=] Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (46)
18. [-3] Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (43)
19. [+1] Ungodly Hour – Chloe x Halle (35)
20. [-2] Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (15)
21. [=] DISCO – Kylie Mingoue (14)
22. [=] Chromatica – Lady Gaga (37)
23. [=] Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (28)
24. [=] Love Goes – Sam Smith (15)
25. [-14] Compilation 1.1 – Celeste (13)

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

STEVIE NICKS CLAIMS FOUR SPOTS IN TOP TEN ON TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS!

Plus: Carole King reclaims No.1 for a fourth week!

Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection rises 2-1 to claim a fourth overall week at No.1 on Top Catalogue Albums. The compilation album sold 20,000 copies this week (up 17 percent).

Stevie Nicks claims four places inside the Top Ten this week: Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks slips 1-2 (19,000 units – down 14 percent), Bella Donna jumps 10-7 (9,000 – down 10 percent), The Wild Heart plummets 3-8 (9,000 – down 44 percent), and Rock a Little surges 24-10 (8,000 – up 100 percent).

Nicks equals her own record for the most albums simultaneously in the Top Ten: she placed four records in the region in multiple weeks in 2017.

In non-Nicks related news: Kate Bush’s The Whole Story returns to its peak of No.3 (up from No.5) selling 1,5000 copies (on par with last week).

Annie Lennox’s No.1 hit Diva rises 6-4 (12,000 – even with last week) and Alanis Morissette’s The Collection surges 8-5 after reaching No.2 for ten weeks (11,000 – on par with last week).

Florence + the Machine populate the last two spots in this week’s Top Ten: the band rise 9-6 with their No.1 record High as Hope (9,000 – down 19 percent) and lift 11-9 with the No.3 peaking How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (8,000 – even with last week).

Onto Next Week: Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection could tally a fifth week at No.1 with around 20,000 copies.

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue

No.19 – Glasshouse / Jessie Ware’s third album Glasshouse may no longer be her highest-charting album (that honour goes to What’s Your Pleasure? which debuted at No.1 last year) although it remains her greatest success. It has sold over 1.4 million units since its release in 2018, and now clocks its 100th week on the tally, settling at No.19. It is one of less than ten albums to spend 100 weeks on L.dK Weekly.

Top Catalogue Albums

1. [+1/4] A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (34)
2. [-1] Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (49)
3. [+1/2] The Whole Story – Kate Bush (84)
4. [+2] Diva – Annie Lennox (106)
5. [+3] The Collection – Alanis Morissette (44)
6. [+3] High as Hope – Florence + the Machine (6)
7. [+3] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (126)
8. [-5] The Wild Heart – Stevie Nicks (82)
9. [+2] How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + the Machine (43)
10. [+14] Rock a Little – Stevie Nicks (79)
11. [+4] Sweetener – Ariana Grande (108)
12. [=] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (88)
13. [=] Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (64)
14. [-7] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (60)
15. [+1] True Colors – Cyndi Lauper (25)
16. [+2] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (113)
17. [+8] Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (39)
18. [+1] Heart – HEART (41)
19. [-2] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (100)
20. [+1] Medusa – Annie Lennox (80)
21. [re] 25 – Adele (108)
22. [re] Back to Black – Amy Winehouse (87)
23. [-1] thank u, next – Ariana Grande (55)
24. [re] A Different Kind of Human – AURORA (47)
25. [re] Dancing Queen – Cher (90)

Industry Sales: Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 554,000 units (up 20.6%) while Catalogue Albums generated 242,000 units (down 1.3%). Contemporary accounted for 69.6% of all consumption this week; versus 30.4% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales are up by 12.2% to 796,000 units sold this week. This marks the best weekly performance of 2021 to date, topping the second week of the year when 779,000 albums were sold. It is also the best-performing week since the final week of 2020 which generated sales of 865,000 units. Compared to the same week last year (when 500,000 album were sold), consumption is up 59.2%!

Contemporary sales reach a new peak this week, passing the 548,000 albums sold in the week ending January 4th.

TAYLOR SWIFT’S EVERMORE LEADS TOP CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS; CELEBRATES TWO MONTHS AT NO.1, AND GOES 4 X PLATINUM!

In addition to another history-making week for Swift: British rising star Celeste achieves a career best, with Not Your Muse opening at No.3!

Taylor Swift’s evermore tallies an eighth overall week at No.1, and sixth atop Top Contemporary Albums (it ruled the Weekly Top 50 for two weeks in 2020).

Currently, evermore is just the sixth album to rule L.dK Weekly for at least two months: it ties Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia for the fifth longest reign in history.

In addition: with evermore’s eight-week reign, Taylor Swift adds her second album to achieve a multi-month command of L.dK Weekly. 2020’s folklore spent a staggering fifteen weeks at the summit, becoming the second longest-running Number One album in history.

Swift is the second artist to achieve this feat, joining Lana Del Rey. The latter star commanded the Weekly Top 50 for eleven weeks with Lust for Life (2017-2018) and then earned a record seventeen weeks at the top with Norman Fucking Rockwell! across 2019 and 2020.

Note: Swift has also reached No.1 with reputation (2017) and Lover. Both albums spent just a single week at the top.

evermore nabs its eighth week at No.1 thanks to sales of 110,000 units (down 12 percent). It’s total sales figure has now climbed to 1,238,000 after only two months on sale.

The set is Swift’s third release to be certified at least 4 x Platinum (denoting sales of over 1,200,000 units) following Lover (5 x Platinum) and folklore (8 x Platinum).

Speaking of folklore… that juggernaut lingers at No.2 on Top Contemporary Albums, held from the top spot by its younger sibling evermore for an eighth straight week. The album sold 60,000 copies this week (down 5 percent) and has sold 2,654,000 copies to date through its twenty-eight weeks on the chart.

Rising British star Celeste pounces onto Top Contemporary Albums at No.3 this week with her debut studio album Not Your Muse. The album bows with sales of 47,000 copies.

New Best for Celeste: This marks Celeste’s second visit to the Top Five – and her best showing to date – as her EP Compilation 1.1 debuted and peaked at No.5 in early 2020.

This week, Compilation surges 24-11 with sales of 10,000 copies. The EP has now spent 12 weeks on L.dK Weekly, and is certified Gold (100,000).

Two former No.1 records cap the Top Five: Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts sinks 3-4 (44,000 units – down 12 percent) and Ariana Grande’s Positions steps down 4-5 (28,000 units – down 13 percent).

Just outside the Top Five, Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! descends 5-6 with sales of 19,000 units (down 5 percent). The legendary album tallies a record-extending 68th week inside the Top Ten!

The Weeknd’s chart-topping After Hours pushes 9-7 this week selling 13,000 units (up 18 percent), holding Hayley Williams’s No.3 peaking Petals for Armor at No.8 for a second week with 12,000 copies sold (on par).

Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? returns to the Top Ten (12-9) on sales of 12,000 copies (up 20 percent). Pleasure? became Ware’s first No.1 record upon its release in 2020.

Rounding out the Top Ten: Joji’s Nectars tumbles from its previous rank of No.6 selling 11,000 units (down 27 percent).

Onto Next Week: Hayley Williams & The Weeknd are set to impact the Top Ten with new releases. Williams’s album Flowers for Vases / descansos could challenge for the No.1 spot with around 90,000 sold, while The Weeknd’s best-of set The Highlights should bow in the Top Five with around 30,000 units. Both artists are looking to score their second Top Five hit in as many tries, and both could double up in the Top Ten next week!

Notable Moves on Top Contemporary

No.14 – Piano Sketches / Birdy’s 2020 EP holds at its No.14 peak for a second straight week with 9,000 units sold (even with last week). The 4-track set has now been certified Gold for selling over 100,000 copies. Birdy’s other certified releases are: Birdy (Gold) and Beautiful Lies (Platinum).

Top Contemporary Albums

1. [=/8] evermore – Taylor Swift (8)
2. [=] folklore – Taylor Swift (28)
3. [NEW] Not Your Muse – Celeste (1)
4. [-1] Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (10)
5. [-1] Positions – Ariana Grande (14)
6. [-1] Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (75)
7. [+2] After Hours – The Weeknd (46)
8. [=] Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (39)
9. [+3] What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (32)
10. [-4] Nectar – Joji (19)
11. [+13] Compilation 1.1 – Celeste (12)
12. [-2] Fine Line – Harry Styles (60)
13. [=] Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (28)
14. [=/2] Piano Sketches – Birdy (13)
15. [-8] Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (42)
16. [-5] Album No.8 – Katie Melua (16)
17. [-2] Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (45)
18. [-1] Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (14)
19. [-3] SAWAYAMA – Rina Sawayama (9)
20. [-2] Ungodly Hour – Chloe x Halle (34)
21. [-2] DISCO – Kylie Minogue (13)
22. [-2] Chromatica – Lady Gaga (36)
23. [-2] Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (27)
24. [+1] Love Goes – Sam Smith (14)
25. [-3] Map of the Soul: 7 – BTS (50)

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

STEVIE NICKS EQUALS HER LONGEST REIGN AS CRYSTAL VISIONS LEADS TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS!

Nicks places three albums in the Top Ten; Tori Amos underperforms with Under the Pink!

For a second week, Stevie Nicks’s Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks takes the reins. Visions has spent a total of five weeks at No.1 between its two-week command here, and its three-week stint atop the Weekly Top 50 in 2018.

With five weeks at the top of L.dK Weekly, it ties Nicks’s 1989 album The Other Side of the Mirror as her longest-running Number One hit!

At the time of its release, Mirror became the fastest-selling album of all time (194,000 sold), and for a time would stand as the longest-running Number One among all artists, and the bestselling album ever!

Mirror has since been surpassed both in chart tenure and in sales, but has still managed to rack up an impressive 54 weeks on L.dK Weekly and sales of 1.05 million units.

In terms of sales, Visions sold 22,000 units this week (up 10 percent).

More Nicks: Returning to Top Catalogue Albums at No.3 is the artist’s 1983 sophomore album The Wild Heart (16,000 sold). Following its episode of the “Nicksology Podcast”, Heart surges back into the Top Five for the first time since January 2019.

With its re-entry at No.3, Heart achieves its second best rank ever, after it topped out at No.2 in April 2017.

Overall, The Wild Heart has now spent eleven weeks in the Top Five, thirty-eight weeks in the Top Ten, and eighty-one weeks on L.dK Weekly in total. It has sold 1.09 million units.

Heart‘s 81-week tenure on L.dK Weekly is the 10th longest stay on the chart.

Year in the Top Ten: Stevie Nicks’s Bella Donna falls 9-10 this week with 10,000 units (on par). The album has now spent an entire year (52 weeks) inside the Top Ten on L.dK Weekly. It is only the second album in history to spend so long in the region, joining Lana Del Rey’s NFR! which has lingered in the Top Ten for 68 weeks to date.

Bella Donna adds a record-padding 125th week on the tally.

At No.2 this week is Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection after three weeks at No.1 (17,000 – down 6 percent).

Kate Bush’s The Whole Story regresses from its No.3 peak to No.4 (15,000 – up 15 percent).

Tori Amos debuts at No.5 this week with her 1994 sophomore album Under the Pink (moving 14,000 copies). The album is the singer’s second Top Five hit to date, although it markedly underperforms in comparison to her last record Little Earthquakes which peaked at No.2 with sales of over 60,000 in its first week.

Earthquakes returns to the Top Ten this week (hurtling from No.20 to No.7 in its 59th week on the list) selling 12,000 copies (up 140 percent). It also becomes Amos’s first record to be certified 3 x Platinum, for selling in excess of 900,000 units.

Rounding out the Top Ten: Annie Lennox’s one-week No.1 Diva slides 4-6 with 12,000 sold (on par), Alanis Morissette’s No.2 peaking The Collection keeps at No.8 with 11,000 units (on par), and Florence + the Machine’s latest chart-topper High as Hope plummets 5-9 with 11,000 units (down 9 percent).

Onto Next Week: Stevie Nicks should be clear for a sixth week at No.1 with Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks with sales of around 20,000 units.

Notable Moves on Top Catalogue

No.24 – Rock a Little / Historic weeks are certainly common for Stevie Nicks. The singer – crowned Top Artist every year since L.dK Weekly’s inception in 2017 – adds her record-extending sixth million-selling album in the form of 1985’s Rock a Little. The rock LP re-enters the chart this week at No.24, marking its 78th apperance on the tally. Little has sold exactly 1,000,000 units to date, joining The Other Side of the Mirror (1.05 million), The Wild Heart (1.09 million), Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks (1.13 million), Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks (1.37 million) and Bella Donna (1.51 million).

Top Catalogue Albums

1. [=/5] Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (48)
2. [=] A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (33)
3. [re] The Wild Heart – Stevie Nicks (81)
4. [-1] The Whole Story – Kate Bush (83)
5. [NEW] Under the Pink – Tori Amos (1)
6. [-2] Diva – Annie Lennox (105)
7. [+13] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (59)
8. [=] The Collection – Alanis Morissette (43)
9. [-4] High as Hope – Florence + the Machine (5)
10. [-1] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (125)
11. [-5] How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + the Machine (42)
12. [+1] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (87)
13. [-3] Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (63)
14. [-7] 21 – Adele (51)
15. [-4] Sweetener – Ariana Grande (107)
16. [+6] True Colors – Cyndi Lauper (24)
17. [-2] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (99)
18. [-4] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (112)
19. [-2] Heart – HEART (40)
20. [-1] Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (61)
21. [-5] Medusa – Annie Lennox (79)
22. [-10] thank u, next – Ariana Grande (54)
23. [+1] Bad Animals – HEART (75)
24. [re] Rock a Little – Stevie Nicks (78)
25. [-2] Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (38)

Industry Sales: Contemporary Abums generated sales of 459,000 units (up 4%) while Catalogue Albums recorded 245,000 units (up 6.5%). Contemporary was responsible for 65.1% of all consumption this week; versues 34.9% for Catalogue.

Total industry sales are up by 4.9% to 704,000 units sold this week. Compared to the same week last year (when 557,000 albums were sold), consumption is up 26.3%!