STEVIE NICKS CELEBRATES FOURTH YEAR AS L.DK WEEKLY’S TOP ARTIST!
Note: an artist’s performance is determined by both the sales of their albums, and the week-to-week chart performance of those albums.
As Nicks rules overall, Taylor Swift takes the sales crown!
Fleetwood Mac frontwoman and rock legend Stevie Nicks triumphs as the most successful artist of the year for the fourth time in a row.
Nicks has ruled every Year-End Artists tally since records began in 2017, and this year continues her unbroken streak. The rock n roll goddess saw sales of 2.17 million albums this year from her catalogue (making her the 5th bestselling artist of the annum) – with almost half coming from the best-of set Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks which hit the No.1 spot in January, and ranks as the 7th biggest album of 2020.
Nicks also benefitted from the continued success of her earlier studio albums: her 1981 solo debut Bella Donna made its fourth successive appearance on a Year-End List, ranking at No.27 this time around. Bella made it to No.4 on the 2017 rundown and then appeared at No.20 & No.24 in 2018 and 2019.
1985’s Rock a Little narrowly sneaks onto the Year-End Chart at No.49. It is also the fourth showing from this album: No.10 in 2017, No.38 in 2018, and No.31 in 2019.
Lana Del Rey achieves her highest rank on the Year-End Artists Chart as she sits at No.2. Del Rey’s surpasses her previous best showing of No.3 in 2017 – she would also rank No.9 in 2018 and No.4 in 2019.
Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! was announced last month as 2020’s Top Album, after it came in at No.3 for 2019. The singer’s spoken word poetry album Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass reached No.3 over the Summer this year and sits at No.26 on the yearly rundown.
With sales of 2.64 million units, Lana Del Rey ranks as the year’s second bestselling artist.
Ariana Grande follows at No.3, matching her best performance from 2018 when she also placed at No.3.
Grande places four albums in the Year-End Albums Chart – the most of any artist. Live album K Bye for Now leads the pack at No.17 after peaking at No.2 for six weeks in January. Older records Sweetener & thank u, next rank at No.21 and No.42 after making the Top Ten on the yearly rundown in 2018 & 2019 respectively. Positions (released in October) finishes 2020 as the year’s 33rd most successful record.
With total sales of 2.16 million albums, Grande is the 6th bestselling artist of 2020.
Taylor Swift Rule Sales!
At No.4: Taylor Swift utterly dominated 2020 in terms of sales. Her catalogue sold a massive 3.17 million units, with 2.21 million of those sales coming from folklore alone. No.4 also marks Swift’s best rank on the Year-End Artists Chart (passing her No.9 high in 2017).
folklore was the year’s 4th biggest album, while 2019’s Lover makes it onto the tally at No.24.
In a big first year for Alanis Morissette, the singer finishes at No.5 on Year-End Artists. The Canadian star sold 2.2 million albums (No.4 for sales) with 1.9 million units coming from 2005’s The Collection – the 3rd biggest album of the year. Her 2020 release Such Pretty Forks in the Road also made the cut, placing at No.39.
Lady Gaga is next at No.6. Her latest set Chromatica has shifted 1.81 million units since June (of Gaga’s total sales haul of 2.16 million – No.7 for sales) and sits at No.5 on Year End Albums. A Star is Born – her joint soundtrack with Bradley Cooper – takes the No.29 spot after ruling the rundown for two years.
Dua Lipa follows at No.7 – owing much of her success this year to the blockbuster Future Nostalgia which finishes 2020 at No.2 – and with 2.28 million sales is the 3rd bestselling star of the year.
Annie Lennox ranks at No.8 thanks to the sustained success of Diva (No.16) and Medusa (No.11).
Jessie Ware ends 2020 at No.9. She appears twice on the Year End Albums Chart: at No.18 with 2017’s Glasshouse, and at No.25 with her new What’s Your Pleasure?. With total sales of 1.31 million albums this year, Ware is the 8th biggest seller.
Rounding out the Top Ten: Fleetwood Mac owe their success this year to the continued draw of their catalogue. 1988’s Greatest Hits was their biggest hit in 2020 (No.23); 1977’s Rumours is at No.37; and 1979’s Tusk takes the No.45 spot.
TAYLOR SWIFT COMMANDS CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS FOR SEVENTH CONSECUTIVE WEEK!
Note: this chart reflects my own personal music consumption. 1 song played = 1,000 units. Contemporary Albums ranks the performance of albums officially released within the past 18 months.
evermore & folklore continue their rule; Hayley Williams & Harry Styles re-enter the Top Ten!
Taylor Swift’s evermore collects a seventh successive week atop L.dK Weekly, and fifth frame in charge of Contemporary Albums; evermore also spent two weeks at the top on the Weekly Top 50 in 2020.
The album sold 124,000 copies in the latest tracking week (down 16 percent), and pushes the album’s total sales to 1.12 million units.
Also occupying the No.2 spot for a seventh consecutive turn, Swift’s folklore moves a further 63,000 copies (down 15 percent). The record – which ruled L.dK Weekly for fifteen weeks – has sold 2.59 million to date.
Three former chart-topping albums hold steady in the Top Five: Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts at No.3 (50,000 – up 4 percent); Ariana Grande’s Positions at No.4 (32,000 – down 20 percent); Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! at No.5 (20,000 – down 5 percent).
The latter set nabs a record-extending 41st week in the Top Five, and record-padding 67th week in the Top Ten.
At No.6: Joji’s Nectar – which peaked at No.2 last year – goes 2 x Platinum in its 18th week on L.dK Weekly, with total sales of 609,000 units. The album sold 15,000 units this week (down 7 percent).
Fiona Apple’s No.4 hit Fetch the Bolt Cutters dips 6-7 (12,000 – down 25 percent); Hayley Williams’s No.3 peaking Petals for Armor blooms 11-8 (12,000 – up 9 percent); The Weeknd inches 10-9 with his chart-leading After Hours (11,000 – down 9 percent); Harry Styles’ former number one record Fine Line springs 14-10 (10,000 – on par).
Onto Next Week: Celeste could challenge for the No.2 spot on Top Contemporary Albums, as her debut album Not Your Muse could generate upwards of 50,000 sales in its first week. Taylor Swift is predicted to log an eighth week at the summit with around 100,000 sales of evermore.
Notable Moves on Top Contemporary
No.14 – Piano Sketches / Birdy’s 2020 4-track EP reaches a new peak on the latest edition of Top Contemporary Albums, shooting 16-14 with sales of 9,000 copies. The EP rises to a new high following the announcement of Birdy’s upcoming fourth studio record Young Heart (due 30th April).
Top Contemporary Albums
[=/7] evermore – Taylor Swift (7)
[=] folklore – Taylor Swift (27)
[=] Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (9)
[=] Positions – Ariana Grande (13)
[=] Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (74)
[+1] Nectar – Joji (18)
[-1] Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (41)
[+3] Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (38)
[+1] After Hours – The Weeknd (45)
[+4] Fine Line – Harry Styles (59)
[+4] Album No.8 – Katie Melua (15)
[-4] What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (31)
[-1] Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (27)
[+2] Piano Sketches – Birdy (12)
[-2] Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (44)
[-7] SAWAYAMA – Rina Sawayama (8)
[+1] Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (13)
[-1] Ungodly Hour – Chloe x Halle (33)
[+2] DISCO – Kylie Minogue (12)
[-1] Chromatica – Lady Gaga (35)
[-1] Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (26)
[+1] Map of the Soul: 7 – BTS (49)
[+1] BE – BTS (10)
[re] Compilation 1.1 – Celeste (11)
[-3] Love Goes – Sam Smith (13)
STEVIE NICKS THUNDERS TO NO.1 WITH CRYSTAL VISIONS!
Note: this chart reflects my own personal music consumption. 1 song played = 1,000 units. Catalogue Albums measures the performance of albums “officially” released prior to the last 18 months, including retrospective releases.
Kate Bush climbs to new highs; Florence + the Machine re-enter the Top Five; Adele’s 21 makes the Top Ten!
After soaring to No.2 last week, Stevie Nicks goes all the way to No.1 this week with Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks, moving 20,000 units (up 11 percent).
This marks the first week at No.1 on Top Catalogue Albums for Stevie Nicks, although including the singer’s extensive reign on the Weekly Top 50, this is Nicks’ seventeenth week at No.1 across all albums.
Crystal Visions has now spent a total of four weeks at No.1 across the Weekly Top 50 and the new Top Catalogue Albums Chart.
Nicks is present again in the Top Ten: Bella Donna drops 7-9 with 10,000 copies sold (up 11 percent). The album has now sold a total of 1.501 million units, making it Nicks’ first album to be certified 5 x Platinum!
In-fact, Bella Donna is only the 17th album in history to exceed sales of 1,500,000 units.
Slipping from No.1 to No.2 after a total of three weeks in charge is Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection selling 18,000 copies (down 6 percent).
Kate Bush’s The Whole Story surges 5-3, selling 13,000 copies (on par). Story – Bush’s only compilation set to date – reaches its highest rank ever in its 82nd charting week, surpassing its prior peak of No.4, which it reached in 2018.
To date, Story is the only album from Kate Bush to surpass 1 million sales, having moved 1,067,000 since release.
Annie Lennox’s No.1 hit Diva remains at No.4 as it celebrates a full two years on L.dK Weekly (104 weeks)! Diva moved 12,000 copies this week (down 8 percent).
Florence + the Machine follow back-to-back in the Top Ten this week with their two most recent albums: former No.1 High as Hope rebounds 11-5 (12,000 – up 71 percent) and the No.3 peaking How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful springs 9-6 (12,000 – up 50 percent).
On the tenth anniversary of its release, Adele’s historic 21 flies onto Top Catalogue Albums at No.7 shifting 11,000 copies. The Platinum-certified set has now spent a total of 50 weeks on L.dK Weekly, after peaking at No.4 in 2019. Further down the Catalogue ranking, 25 (No.2 peak) is back at No.21 (4,000 copies), in its 107th charting week.
Two compilation sets round out the Top Ten: Alanis Morissete’s No.2 peaking The Collection tumbles 3-8 (11,000); Fleetwood Mac’s one-week number-one Greatest Hits slides 6-10 (8,000 – down 12 percent).
Onto Next Week: Tori Amos could be primed to earn her first No.1 hit as Under the Pink looks set to sell between 30-40,000 copies in its opening week. It follows her 1992 debut Little Earthquakes which climbed as high as No.2.
Notable Moves on Top Catalogue
No.13 – She’s so Unusual / Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 debut album ranks among the most successful sets in L.dK Weekly history. The album topped the Weekly Top 50 for six terms in 2019, and this week logs an 86th appearance on the ranking. To date, Unusual has sold a whopping 1,803,000 units – it is just the 12th album in history to be certified 6 x Platinum. Currently, Unusual is the 12th bestselling album of all time, trailing Lady Gaga’s Chromatica at No.11 (1,852,000 sold).
Top Catalogue Albums
[+1/4] Crystal Visions: the Very Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (47)
[-1] A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (32)
[+2] The Whole Story – Kate Bush (82)
[=] Diva – Annie Lennox (104)
[+6] High as Hope – Florence + the Machine (4)
[+3] How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + the Machine (41)
[re] 21 – Adele (50)
[-5] The Collection – Alanis Morissette (42)
[-2] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (124)
[-4] Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (62)
[-1] Sweetener – Ariana Grande (106)
[+1] thank u, next – Ariana Grande (53)
[-5] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (86)
[=] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (111)
[=] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (98)
[+2] Medusa – Annie Lennox (78)
[re] Heart – HEART (39)
[-2] 50 Words for Snow – Kate Bush (10)
[-7] Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (60)
[-3] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (58)
[re] 25 – Adele (107)
[+3] True Colors – Cyndi Lauper (23)
[-4] Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (37)
[-4] Bad Animals – HEART (74)
[-2] A Star is Born – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (99)
Industry Sales: Contemporary Albums record sales of 441,000 units this week (down 13.9%) while Catalogue Albums generated 230,000 units (up 1.7%). Contemporary was responsible for 65.2% of all consumption this week; versus 34.8% for Catalogue.
This week marks the lowest figure to date for Contemporary Abums: the previous low-mark for the format was last week’s haul of 512,000 units.
Total industry sales are down by a sharp 9.1% to 671,000 copies sold this week. Compared to the same week last year (when 494,000 albums were sold), activity is up by a whopping 35.8%!
TAYLOR SWIFT’S EVERMORE TIES A RECORD AS IT SELLS 1 MILLION UNITS!
Note: this chart reflects my own personal music consumption. 1 song played = 1,000 units.
As evermore leads Top Contemporary Albums for a sixth frame, The Weeknd’s After Hours revisits the Top Ten!
Dominating Contemporary Albums for a fourth straight week (and sixth overall), Taylor Swift’s evermore becomes just the ninth album to rule L.dK Weekly for six weeks or more. It is the first to spend at least weeks at the top spot since Swift’s own folklore ruled for fifteen weeks.
evermore moved 146,000 copies in the latest tracking week (down 15 percent).
To date, the record has shifted a total of 1,004,000 copies. By selling over 1 million units in just six weeks, evermore matches the record for the shortest amount of time needed to sell 1 million albums. Lana Del Rey’s Lust for Life also surpassed the 1 million mark in its sixth week, having sold 1.047 million copies by the end of the week.
Holding at No.2 for a sixth successive week (after a staggering fifteen weeks at No.1) is Swift’s own folklore, moving 74,000 copies (down 10 percent).
The longest-running No.1 hit of 2020 has now sold 2,531,000 units since its release in July.
folklore – Swift’s bestselling album – now ranks as the third bestselling record of all time! It is just the third record in history to sell at least 2.5 million units. The album passes Del Rey’s Lust which has sold 2,494,000 to date.
folklore has now lived inside the Weekly Top Five for 26 consecutive weeks; it is just the fifth album to spend at least half a year inside the Top Five.
Three former chart-toppers follow in the Top Five: Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts repeats at No.3 (48,000 sold – up 9 percent); Ariana Grande’s Positions holds at No.4 (40,000 – up 21 percent); and Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! keeps at No.5 (21,000 – down 5 percent).
NFR! adds a record-padding 40th week inside the Top Five, and record-furthering 66th week in the Top Ten.
Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters climbs 8-6 with 16,000 sold (up 6 percent) after hitting No.4 last year. Joji’s No.2 peaking Nectar remains at No.7 with 16,000 sold (down 16 percent).
Jessie Ware’s No.1 hit What’s Your Pleasure? inches 9-8 moving 15,000 copies (up 7 percent) as Rina Sawayama’s SAWAYAMA slides 6-9 following its No.4 debut, selling 15,000 copies (down 25 percent).
Finally, The Weeknd’s After Hours returns to the Top Ten for the first time since July. After sold 12,000 copies this week (up 50 percent from last week). The album has now spent 16 weeks inside the Top Ten.
Onto Next Week: Taylor Swift’s evermore will likely earn a seventh week at No.1, potentially with around 100,000 units.
Top Contemporary Albums
[=/6] evermore – Taylor Swift (6)
[=] folklore – Taylor Swift (26)
[=] Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (8)
[=] Positions – Ariana Grande (12)
[=] Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (73)
[+2] Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (40)
[=] Nectar – Joji (17)
[+1] What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (30)
[-3] SAWAYAMA – Rina Sawayama (7)
[+6] After Hours – The Weeknd (44)
[+2] Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (37)
[-1] Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (26)
[-1] Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (43)
[-4] Fine Line – Harry Styles (58)
[-1] Album No.8 – Katie Melua (14)
[-1] Piano Sketches – Birdy (11)
[+2] Ungodly Hour – Chloe x Halle (32)
[-1] Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (12)
[+2] Chromatica – Lady Gaga (34)
[-2] Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (25)
CAROLE KING TALLIES THIRD WEEK ATOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS WITH A BEAUTIFUL COLLECTION!
Note: this chart reflects my own personal music consumption. 1 song played = 1,000 units.
Stevie Nicks surges to No.2 with Crystal Visions; Cyndi Lauper’s She’s so Unusual hits the Top Ten!
For a third cumulative week, Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection commands Top Contemporary Albums. The album sold 19,000 units this week (down 5 percent) and extends its record as the longest-running album to date on the Catalogue Chart.
Stevie Nicks’ Crystal Visions– the Very Best of Stevie Nicks rockets 19-2 as it soars by 260 percent to 18,000 copies sold in the latest tracking week.
This marks Crystal’s first visit to the Top Ten of Contemporary Albums, however the album peaked at No.1 on the Weekly Top 50 for a total of three weeks. This is the collection’s 28th week inside the Top Ten.
Nicks is present again further down the Top Ten: her 1981 debut solo album Bella Donna rebounds 9-7 moving 9,000 copies (on par with last week’s sales figure).
Alanis Morissette keeps at No.3 with the No.2 peaking The Collection, moving 14,000 units (down 7 percent). Annie Lennox’s chart-leading Diva springs 6-4 selling 13,000 units (up 8 percent).
Capping the Top Five: Kate Bush’s The Whole Story keeps at No.5 for a third term after hitting No.4, moving 13,000 copies (on par).
Outside the Top Five, Fleetwood Mac are up 7-6 with their former chart-topping Greatest Hits (9,000 – down 25 percent); Cyndi Lauper’s She’s so Unusual surges 13-8 to notch a 28th week in the Top Ten (8,000 – up 33 percent).
Florence + the Machine’s No.3 peaking How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful steps down 8-9 (8,000 – down 20 percent).
Capping the Top Ten: Ariana Grande’s Sweetener is steady at No.10 with 7,000 sold (on par).
Onto Next Week: Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection and Stevie Nicks’ Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks both could challenge for No.1 as both albums could sell around 20,000 units.
Notable Moves on Top Catalogue
No.11 – High as Hope / Florence + the Machine notched their second chart-topping album (and third Top Five entry) when their 2018 set High as Hope opened at No.1 selling 35,000 units. Hope slides to No.11 in its third charting week, and has now sold 60,000 copies – the LP has now been certified Silver for selling more than 60,000 units. It is the band’s third effort to reach the sales mark following 2011’s Ceremonials (Platinum) and 2015’s How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (2 x Platinum).
No.13 – thank u, next / Ariana Grande’s thank u, next followed her 2018 set Sweetener in becoming her second chart-topping album on L.dK Weekly, and until the release of Positions in October 2020 it stood as the singer’s fastest-selling release. next has sold 1,251,000 units since its release almost two years ago (it is certified 4 x Platinum) and this week becomes Grande’s second album to spend a full year on L.dK Weekly. Grande’s other – Sweetener – has lived on the chart for 105 weeks to date.
No.16 – 50 Words for Snow / Kate Bush’s wintery project has now been certified Silver with total sales of 62,000 units. Snow is the art-pop icon’s sixth album to receive a sales certification on L.dK Weekly. It joins The Whole Story (3 x Platinum); The Red Shoes (2 x Platinum); and Never for Ever, Hounds of Love & The Sensual World which have all been certified Platinum.
Industry Sales: Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 512,000 units this week (down 4.9%) while Catalogue Albums generated 226,000 units (down 0.9%). Contemporary was responsible for 69.3% of all consumption this week; versus 30.7% for Catalogue.
This week marks the lowest figure to date for Contemporary Albums: the previous low-mark for the format was last week’s haul of 534,000 units.
Total industry sales are down by 3.2% to 738,000 units this week. Compared to the same week last year (when 445,000 records were sold), consumption is up by a massive 65.8%!
Top Catalogue Albums
[=/3] A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (31)
[+17] Crystal Visions: the Very Best of Stevie Nicks (46)
[=] The Collection – Alanis Morissette (41)
[+2] Diva – Annie Lennox (103)
[=] The Whole Story – Kate Bush (81)
[+1] Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (61)
[+2] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (123)
[+5] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (85)
[-1] How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful? – Florence + the Machine (40)
[=] Sweetener – Ariana Grande (105)
[-9] High as Hope – Florence + the Machine (3)
[-8] Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (59)
[-2] thank u, next – Ariana Grande (52)
[-2] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (110)
[-1] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (97)
[=] 50 Words for Snow – Kate Bush (9)
[-2] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (57)
[+3] Medusa – Annie Lennox (77)
[+6] Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (36)
[re] Bad Animals – HEART (73)
[re] The Red Shoes – Kate Bush (59)
[re] The Sensual World – Kate Bush (54)
[-6] A Star is Born – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (98)
As evermore continues to dominate, folklore reaches a new sales milestone.
Taylor Swift’s evermore tallies a fifth straight week at No.1 on Top Contemporary Albums. It’s currently the longest-running No.1 album since Swift’s own folklore dominated the Weekly Top 50 for fifteen weeks in 2020.
evermore moved 172,000 units in the latest tracking week (up 14 percent): gaining in the first full week after the album’s deluxe edition was released, including two new tracks.
Still on Swift: holding at No.2 on Top Contemporary, folklore sells a further 82,000 units (down 7 percent). The juggernaut has sold 2,457,000 units to date since its release in July last year, making it only the fourth album in history to top the 2.4 million sales mark.
Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (3.6 million)
A Star is Born – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (3.3 million)
Lust for Life – Lana Del Rey (2.49 million)
folklore – Taylor Swift (2.45 million)
Notably, this marks the fifth week in a row that Taylor Swift has concurrently held the top two spots: including two weeks on the Weekly Top 50, and now three on Top Contemporary Albums.
A trio of former No.1 hits follow in the Top Five: Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts (44,000 – down 9 percent) and Ariana Grande’s Positions (33,000 – down 16 percent) retain their ranks from the previous week. Rising from No.6 to No.5: Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! adds a record-padding 39th week inside the Top Five (22,000 – down 5 percent). NFR! also scores a record-extending 65th frame in the Top Ten.
Rina Sawayama’s No.4 peaking SAWAYAMA falls 5-6 with 20,000 sold (down 17 percent); Joji’s No.2 hit Nectar ticks 8-7 (19,000 – up 18 percent) swapping places with Fiona Apple’s No.4 hit Fetch the Bolt Cutters (15,000 – down 12 percent).
Returning to the Top Ten for the first time since last August, Jessie Ware’s sole No.1 album What’s Your Pleasure? sails 11-9 with 14,000 sold (up 16 percent). The set has now spent seven weeks inside the Top Ten.
Capping the top tier: Harry Styles’ is down 9-10 with his former chart-topper Fine Line (13,000 – down 14 percent).
Onto Next Week: ZAYN’s new solo record Nobody’s Listening could bow inside the Top Ten with around 20,000 units. Taylor Swift should be clear for a sixth week at No.1 with evermore: the LP is tracking for around 130,000 units.
Notable Moves on Top Contemporary
No.15 – Piano Sketches / Birdy’s EP lifts one spot to No.15, reaching another new highpoint, moving 9,000 copies this week. The EP has sold 80,000 to date.
No.25 – Infinite Things / Paloma Faith’s latest effort bowed inside the Top Ten last year, and now sits at No.25 on Top Contemporary Albums in its ninth charting week. The album has now been certified Gold with sales of 101,000 units.
Top Contemporary Albums
[=/5] evermore – Taylor Swift (5)
[=] folklore – Taylor Swift (25)
[=] Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (7)
[=] Positions – Ariana Grande (11)
[+1] Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (72)
[-1] SAWAYAMA – Rina Sawayama (6)
[+1] Nectar – Joji (16)
[-1] Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (39)
[+2] What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (29)
[-1] Fine Line – Harry Styles (57)
[+2] Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (25)
[=] Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (42)
[-3] Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (36)
[+1] Album No.8 – Katie Melua (13)
[+1] Piano Sketches – Birdy (43)
[-2] After Hours – The Weeknd (43)
[=] Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (11)
[+1] Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (24)
CAROLE KING RECLAIMS CATALOGUE CROWN WITH A BEAUTIFUL COLLECTION!
PIC.
Beautiful spends a second week at the summit; Ariana Grande’s Sweetener celebrates a new achievement.
Selling 20,000 copies in the latest tracking week (up 5 percent), Carole King’s compilation set A Beautiful Collection rises 2-1 for a second week atop Top Catalogue Albums. With two weeks at the top, it is the first multi-week leader of the year on the Catalogue Chart.
Last week’s No.1 hit – Florence + the Machine’s High as Hope – slides to No.2 with 18,000 units (down 49 percent). The Machine feature again in this week’s Top Ten: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful inches 9-8 with 10,000 sold (up 11 percent) after hitting No.3 in 2020.
The Top Five is completed by a trio of compilation albums: Alanis Morissette is steady at No.3 with her No.2 peaking The Collection (15,000 – up 15 percent); Stevie Nicks is up 7-4 with her chart-topping Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks (14,000 – up 27 percent); and Kate Bush keeps at No.5 with The Whole Story (13,000 – up 8 percent) which hit No.4 in 2018.
Annie Lennox’s former No.1 hit Diva springs 8-6 with 12,000 units (up 20 percent). Fleetwood Mac’s No.1 best-of set Greatest Hits slides 4-7 with 10,000 sold (down 17 percent).
Falling 6-9 with 9,000 units (down 19 percent) is Stevie Nicks’ No.3 peaking Bella Donna.
Ariana Grande’s Sweetener caps the Top Ten for the third week in a row, shifting 7,000 units (down 13 percent). The album has now spent a massive 104 weeks on the weekly charts: 101 of them on the Weekly Top 50.
Sweetener is Grande’s first album to spend two years on L.dK Weekly. It is just the fourth album overall, following Stevie Nicks’ Bella Donna (122 weeks), Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (109 weeks) and Adele’s 25 (106 weeks).
Onto Next Week: Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection could earn a third week at the top with around 20,000 units once again.
Top Catalogue Albums
[+1/2] A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (30)
[-1] High as Hope – Florence + the Machine (2)
[=] The Collection – Alanis Morissette (40)
[+3] Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (58)
[=] The Whole Story – Kate Bush (80)
[+2] Diva – Annie Lennox (102)
[-3] Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (60)
[+1] How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + the Machine (39)
[-3] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (122)
[=] Sweetener – Ariana Grande (104)
[=] thank u, next – Ariana Grande (51)
[+2] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (109)
[=] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (84)
[+2] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (96)
[-3] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (56)
[+1] 50 Words for Snow – Kate Bush (8)
[+4] A Star is Born – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (97)
[+4] Rock a Little – Stevie Nicks (76)
[re] Crystal Visions: the Very Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (45)
[-5] Back to Black – Amy Winehouse (86)
[-3] Medusa – Annie Lennox (76)
[+3] True Colors – Cyndi Lauper (21)
[-3] Heart – HEART (38)
[-1] Dancing Queen – Cher (89)
[-6] Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (35)
Industry Sales: Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 534,000 units this week (down 1.5%) while Catalogue Albums generated 228,000 units (down 3.8%). Contemporary was responsible for 70% of all sales this week; versus Catalogue’s share of 30%.
This week marks the lowest figure to date for Contemporary Albums. The first week of 2021 generated the most sales, with 548,000 units.
Total industry sales are down 2.2% from last week, to 762,000 units this week. Compared to the same week last year (when 603,000 albums were sold), consumption is up 26.3%.
TAYLOR SWIFT CONTINUES HER DOMINATION OF CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS!
Note: this chart reflects my own personal music consumption. 1 song played = 1,000 units.
evermore & folklore rank as the week’s top albums once again; Lana Del Rey reaches a new milestone!
Taylor Swift holds the No.1 spot on Top Contemporary Albums for a second straight week, moving 150,000 copies (up 6 percent).
Overall, evermore has logged a total of four weeks at No.1, including its two week reign atop the Weekly Top 50 in 2020. The album has sold 686,000 units to date, making it Swift’s fourth album to be certified Multi-Platinum. Her 2017 album reputation is certified 2 x Platinum, 2019’s Lover is 5 x Platinum, and evermore‘s sister set folklore was recently awarded 7 x Platinum status!
Speaking of folklore… that album holds the No.2 position on this weekly round-up with sales of 88,000 copies (up 18 percent).
For a fourth successive week, Taylor Swift holds the top two spots on L.dK Weekly. She achieved this historic feat in the final two weeks of 2020 on the Weekly Top 50, and currently is the only artist to reach No.1 or No.2 on Top Contemporary Albums.
Holding at No.3, Miley Cyrus’s three-week leader Plastic Hearts earns 2 x Platinum status as it moves 48,000 copies (down 10 percent).
Capping the Top Five: Ariana Grande’s three-week No.1 hit Positions stays at No.4 (39,000 – down 8 percent); Rina Sawayama’s SAWAYAMA keeps at No.5 after peaking at No.4 (24,000 – down 23 percent).
Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! (which this week sits at No.6 with 23,000 sold – on par with last week) reaches a new sales milestone as it becomes the first album in history to surpasses 3.6 million combined sales: to date, NFR! has sold 3,611,000 copies!
NFR! makes history as it attains 12 x Platinum status. It is one of only two albums to be certified Diamond or higher. The other, Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born soundtrack has sold 3.36 million and has been certified 11 x Platinum.
Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters steps up 8-7 with 17,000 sold (down 6 percent) after reaching No.4. It pushes Joji’s No.2 record Nectar down one rung to No.8 with 16,000 units (down 12 percent).
Harry Styles repeats at No.9 with his former No.1 Fine Line (15,000 – down 7 percent); Hayley Williams’ Petals for Armor completes the Top Ten as it rises 13-10 (12,000 – up 9 percent). Petals reached No.3 last year, and now nabs an 18th week inside the Top Ten!
Onto Next Week: Again, there are no new releases, opening the way for Taylor Swift to continue her rule. evermore could sell another 150,000 copies, while folklore will likely remain steady with around 80,000 units.
Notable Moves on Top Contemporary
No.16 – Piano Sketches / Birdy’s latest EP rises 17-16 this week, reaching a new highest-rank. The 4-track collection has sold 71,000 to date, and is now in its 9th week on the chart.
No.24 – Love Goes / Sam Smith’s first album in three years, Love Goes debuted and peaked at No.13 on the Weekly Top 50 last year but quickly slid down the list. While it failed to reach the Top Ten, it ties The Thrill of it All as the singer’s longest-charting LP with 10 weeks so far. Love sold 4,000 units this week, bringing its total sales figure to 60,000 sold. Of Smith’s two releases, Love is their second to be certified Silver (60,000); Thrill is a Platinum record (300,000).
Top Contemporary Albums
[=/4] evermore – Taylor Swift (4)
[=] folklore – Taylor Swift (24)
[=] Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (6)
[=] Positions – Ariana Grande (10)
[=] SAWAYAMA – Rina Sawayama (5)
[=] Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (71)
[+1] Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (38)
[-1] Nectar – Joji (15)
[=] Fine Line – Harry Styles (56)
[+3] Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (35)
[+3] What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (28)
[-2] Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (41)
[-2] Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (24)
[-2] After Hours – The Weeknd (42)
[=] Album No.8 – Katie Melua (12)
[+1] Piano Sketches – Birdy (9)
[-1] Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (10)
[+3] DISCO – Kylie Minogue (9)
[=] Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (23)
[=] Chromatica – Lady Gaga (32)
[-3] BE – BTS (7)
[+1] Map of the Soul: 7 – BTS (46)
[-1] Ungodly Hour – Chloe x Halle (30)
[+1] Love Goes – Sam Smith (10)
[-1] Infinite Things – Paloma Faith (8)
FLORENCE + THE MACHINE SOAR TO NO.1 ON TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS!
Note: this chart reflects my own personal music consumption. 1 song played = 1,000 units.
High as Hope earns Florence + the Machine their second No.1 album, as the outfit doubles up in the Top Ten!
Florence + the Machine become the first act to debut atop the new Top Catalogue Albums survey, as their 2018 release High as Hope opens in pole position with 35,000 copies sold. It’s the 60th album to reach No.1 on L.dK Weekly!
Previously, the Machine snared three weeks at No.1 on the Weekly Top 50 way back in December 2017 with 2011’s Ceremonials, an album that has now sold over 400,000 units.
More recently, they reached No.3 in January 2020 with the 2015 set How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. How Beautiful is the band’s biggest selling album with almost 700,000 copies sold to date. It roars 19-9 on this week’s ranking, selling 9,000 copies (up 125 percent).
While it is their second No.1 hit, High as Hope starts with Florence + the Machine’s lowest opening sales week: 35,000 copies. Ceremonials topped the tally in 2017 with 145,000 copies in its first seven days, and while How Beautiful had to settle for a No.3 peak, it did so with a healthy 76,000 units.
Falling to No.2 after finally ascending to No.1 (following a nine-week stay at No.2 on the Weekly Top 50 in 2020) Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection shifts 19,000 units (down 14 percent).
Three further compilation records follow in the Top Five: Alanis Morissette’s No.2 peaking The Collection rises 4-3 with 13,000 sold (on par); Fleetwood Mac’s former chart-topper Greatest Hits falls 2-4 with 12,000 units (down 20 percent);; Kate Bush climbs 6-5 with The Whole Story selling 12,000 copies (on par). Story reached No.4 in 2017.
Stevie Nicks lifts 7-6 with Bella Donna (11,000 units – on par), while her best-of set Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks drops 3-7 (11,000 units – down 22 percent).
Capping the Top Ten: Annie Lennox’s Diva slides 5-8 (10,000 copies – down 17 percent) and Ariana Grande’s Sweetener sinks 8-10 (8,000 copies – on par).
Onto Next Week: Florence + the Machine & Carole King are likely to clash for No.1 on next week’s chart. Both High as Hope & A Beautiful Collection are set to sell around 20,000 units.
Top Catalogue Albums
[NEW] High as Hope – Florence + the Machine (1)
[-1] A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (29)
[+1] The Collection – Alanis Morissette (39)
[-2] Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (59)
[+1] The Whole Story – Kate Bush (79)
[+1] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (121)
[-5] Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (57)
[-3] Diva – Annie Lennox (101)
[+10] How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + the Machine (38)
[-2] Sweetener – Ariana Grande (103)
[=] thank u, next – Ariana Grande (50)
[-2] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (55)
[=] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (83)
[-5] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (108)
[+8] Back to Black – Amy Winehouse (85)
[=] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (95)
[-5] 50 Words for Snow – Kate Bush (7)
[=] Medusa – Annie Lennox (75)
[-4] Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (34)
[=] Heart – HEART (37)
[-7] A Star is Born – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (96)
[re] Rock a Little – Stevie Nicks (75)
[re] Dancing Queen – Cher (88)
[re] Heart of Stone – Cyndi Lauper (41)
[re] True Colors – Cyndi Lauper (20)
Industry Sales: Contemporary Albums drove sales of 542,000 units this week, as Catalogue Albums moved 237,000. This week, Contemporary makes up 69.5% of all sales; Catalogue was responsible for 30.5%.
With total industry sales of 779,000 units across all formats, album sales are up by 3.1% compared to last week’s haul of 755,000 copies. Consumption is up 56.1% compared to the same week last year which recorded sales of 499,000 albums.
LANA DEL REY’S NORMAN FUCKING ROCKWELL! IS THE YEAR’S NO.1 ALBUM!
Note: an album’s performance is determined both by it’s sales and by weekly chart points accumulated.
PLUS: Taylor Swift’s folklore rules in sales, and Harry Stylesmakes history with Fine Line!
Lana Del Rey’s record-breaking LP Norman Fucking Rockwell! ranks as the top album of 2020!
Norman Fucking Rockwell! actually debuted at No.1 on the weekly Top 50 dated 9th September 2019, and spent a record-breaking fourteen consecutive weeks at No.1. Over the course of 2020, NFR! has returned to the top on three separate occasions, bringing its total weeks at No.1 to a record-padding 17 weeks!
The album last commanded the Top 50 on the chart dated 16th March, but has remained inside the Top 15 every week since. On the latest (and final) edition of the Weekly Top 50, it rises to No.7.
Norman Fucking Rockwell! is perhaps the most distinguished album in L.dK history. It is the bestselling album of all time (3,565,000), the longest-running No.1 album (17 weeks), the longest-charting Top Five album (38 weeks) and the longest-charting Top Ten album (62 weeks).
NFR! was placed at No.3 in 2019, while outselling all other titles that year with sales of 1.886 million units. This year, as it ascends to No.1, it becomes Del Rey’s first album to rule the Year-End Chart (although she has led twice before in sales, with NFR! in 2019, and in 2017 with Lust for Life on sales of 1.866 million).
Following Del Rey’s triumphant NFR!, Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia ranks as the most successful album released in 2020. It was unleashed in late March, debuting at No.1 with the year’s biggest sales week at the time (289,000 copies) and would retain control of the Top 50 for eight consecutive weeks.
Future raked in sales of 2,145,000 copies through the chart dated 28th December, making it the second bestselling album of the annum.
At No.3: the biggest album to receive a retrospective release in 2020, Alanis Morissette’s The Collection peaked at No.2 for a then record-breaking nine weeks (the feat has since been equalled by Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection, which comes in at No.9 on the Year End tally). The compilation has sold 1,901,000 copies since its release in April.
2020’s bestselling album comes in at No.4 on the Year End tally. Taylor Swift’s folklore is both the No.1 seller of the annum, and the longest-running No.1 hit of the year with fifteen weeks in charge.
Upon its release in July, folklore opened at No.1 on the weekly tally, and would retain that position for fourteen consecutive weeks. It ties Lana Del Rey’s NFR! for the longest single reign atop the chart.
folklore has sold 2,213,000 copies in 2020, breaking the previous record for the largest sales figure in a single calendar year. Previously, NFR! held the distinction with 1.886 million in 2019.
In-fact: Swift’s folklore, Lipa’s Future & Morissette’s Collection all post higher sales than NFR! did in 2019!
Lady Gaga’s Chromatica finishes the year at No.5. It’s her third consecutive year inside the Top Five, as she ruled both the 2018 & 2019 tallies with her A Star is Born soundtrack!
Chromatica is 2020’s fastest-selling album, as it bowed with a massive 473,000 units – nabbing it the second biggest sales week in history. Only Lana Del Rey’s Lust for Life sold more in a single week (it opened with 639,000 copies). The blockbuster remained at No.1 for six weeks.
Harry Styles’ Fine Line & Stevie Nicks’ Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks both originally reached No.1 in December 2019, and became chart mainstays throughout 2020, often returning to the highest tiers of the list. Both albums have sold over a million copies, and rank back to back at No.6 & No.7 on the Year End Chart!
The Weeknd scores the eighth biggest album of 2020 with After Hours. Upon its release in March, it became the fastest-selling album ever by a male artist (249,000 – a boon it still holds).
Finally, Kate Bush makes her first Top Ten showing on the Year End Albums Chart. The Whole Story is at No.10, after ranking inside the Top Twenty for almost the entire year.
Top Ten Albums (Sales)
folklore – Taylor Swift – 2,213,000
Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa – 2,145,000
The Collection – Alanis Morissette – 1,901,000
Chromatica – Lady Gaga – 1,818,000
Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey – 1,679,000
A Beautiful Collection – Carole King – 1,289,000
After Hours – The Weeknd – 1,271,000
Fine Line – Harry Styles – 1,007,000
Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks – 977,000
Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams – 895,000
Top Ten Albums (Chart Points)
Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey
Fine Line – Harry Styles
Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks
Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa
The Whole Story – Kate Bush
The Collection – Alanis Morissette
Medusa – Annie Lennox
She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper
Diva – Annie Lennox
Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos
2020 – Music’s Biggest Year Ever
Throughout 2020, a whopping 40.25 million albums have been sold! It’s easily the biggest year since L.dK Weekly launched in 2017, and marks a second consecutive year of growth. The previous biggest year in music was 2019, which recorded sales of 26.14 million albums.
Music Industry Year by Year
*2017 – 17.13 million
**2018 – 10.58 million (-38.2%)
2019 – 26.14 million (+146.9%)
2020 – 40.25 million (+53.9%)
*2017 consisted of 44 weeks, beginning in the week dated 4th March 2017.
**2018 consisted of 23 weeks, the first four weeks, and then the last 19.
TAYLOR SWIFT CROWNS THE FIRST EDITION OF TOP CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS!
Note: this chart reflects my own personal music consumption. 1 song played = 1,000 units.
Taylor Swift holds both the No.1 & No.2 spots on Top Contemporary Albums.
On the premiere edition of the new Top Contemporary Albums Chart, Taylor Swift holds the top two spots, as she had done the previous week on the Top 50.
evermore sold 141,000 copies in the latest tracking week. It has now spent a total of three weeks at No.1, including two weeks on the Weekly Top 50 in 2020.
folklore lands at No.2 with sales of 74,000 units. The album peaked at No.1 on the Top 50 for fifteen cumulative weeks in 2020.
Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts is at No.3 (53,000) after spending two weeks at No.1 on the Top 50 in December. Ariana Grande’s three-week No.1 hit Positions is at No.4 (42,000); Rina Sawayama’s No.4 peaking SAWAYAMA places at No.5 (31,000).
Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! takes the No.6 spot (23,000) on the new Top Contemporary Albums Chart. NFR! notches a record-extending 63rd week inside the Top Ten (62 of those were earned on the Top 50). The record is the longest-running No.1 ever, with seventeen weeks in charge.
Rounding out the Top Ten: Joji’s Nectar at No.7 (18,000); Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters at No.8 (17,000); Harry Styles’ Fine Line at No.9 (16,000); and Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia at No.10 (14,000).
Onto Next Week: Taylor Swift looks set to continue her domination of the Contemporary Chart. evermore could easily sell over 120,000 units, while folklore should draw around 70,000 consumption units.
Notable Moves on Top Contemporary
No.13 – Petals for Armor / Hayley Williams’s debut solo album Petals for Armor was among the biggest albums of 2020, peaking at No.3 in Summer and spending eight months to date on the chart. This week, Petals sold 11,000 copies, bringing its total sales to 906,000 units. Williams earns her first 3 x Platinum plaque!
No.17 – Piano Sketches / Birdy’s latest EP, released in October 2020, originally peaked at No.25 last November, but this week reaches a new high of No.17 on Top Contemporary Albums. Selling 8,000 copies, it has now moved 63,000 units in total. Piano is Birdy’s third effort to be certified at least Silver, following her Gold-certified self-titled set, and her Platinum Beautiful Lies.
Top Contemporary Albums
evermore – Taylor Swift (3)
folklore – Taylor Swift (23)
Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (5)
Positions – Ariana Grande (9)
SAWAYAMA – Rina Sawayama (4)
Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (70)
Nectar – Joji (14)
Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (37)
Fine Line – Harry Styles (55)
Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (40)
Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (23)
After Hours – The Weeknd (41)
Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (34)
What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (27)
Album No.8 – Katie Melua (11)
Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (9)
Piano Sketches – Birdy (8)
BE – BTS (6)
Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (22)
CAROLE KING IS THE FIRST NO.1 ON TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS!
Note: this chart reflects my own personal music consumption. 1 song played = 1,000 units.
Fleetwood Mac & Stevie Nicks both double up inside the Top Ten.
Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection is one of the bestselling albums of all time: since receiving a retrospective release just over six months ago, it has shifted a little over 1.3 million copies.
During its 27-week run inside the Top Ten in 2020, Beautiful managed a total of nine weeks at No.2, earning it the title of most weeks at No.2 without reaching No.1 (it tied this record, but this week loses it as it ascends to the top). On the new Top Catalogue Albums Chart, it reaches No.1 for the first time, moving 22,000 copies.
Three further best-of sets follow in the Top Five: Fleetwood Mac land at No.2 with their No.1 compilation Greatest Hits (15,000); Stevie Nicks makes it to No.3 with Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks (14,000) which spent three weeks at the No.1 spot between 2019 and 2020; and Alanis Morissette’s The Collection (which now solely boasts the most weeks spent at No.2 without hitting No.1) is at No.4 with 13,000 sold.
Annie Lennox’s Diva is the highest-ranking studio album on Top Catalogue Albums this week, as it lands at No.5 shifting 12,000 units.
Diva has now charted for a total of 100 weeks – it is Lennox’s first album to earn this impressive accolade! Previously, Diva ruled the Weekly Top 50 for a week in November 2018.
Kate Bush places at No.6 with the No.4-peaking The Whole Story (12,000).
Stevie Nicks’ second album to make the Top Ten takes the No.7 spot this week… Bella Donna moved 11,000 units in the tracking week. It has now charted for a record-padding total of 120 weeks.
Ariana Grande’s Sweetener is at No.8 (8,000). It logged three weeks at No.1 in 2018.
Fleetwood Mac make their second appearance in the Top Ten with Rumours at No.9 (8,000) – the album tallied a total of five weeks at the No.1 spot in 2017.
Rounding out the Top Ten, Tori Amos’s No.2 hit Little Earthquakes places at No.10 with 8,000 sold.
Onto Next Week: Florence + the Machine could earn their second No.1 on L.dK with their 2018 set High as Hope which could bow with around 50,000 units.
Top Catalogue Albums
A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (28)
Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (58)
Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (56)
The Collection – Alanis Morissette (38)
Diva – Annie Lennox (100)
The Whole Story – Kate Bush (78)
Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (120)
Sweetener – Ariana Grande (102)
Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (107)
Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (54)
thank u, next – Ariana Grande (49)
50 Words for Snow – Kate Bush (6)
She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (82)
A Star is Born – Lady Gaga (95)
Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (33)
Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (94)
Crystal Visions – Stevie Nicks (44)
Medusa – Annie Lennox (74)
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + the Machine (37)
Heart – HEART (36)
The Sensual World – Kate Bush (53)
25 – Adele (106)
Back to Black – Amy Winehouse (84)
Bad Animals – HEART (72)
The Red Shoes – Kate Bush (58)
Industry Sales: Contemporary Albums recorded sales of 548,000 units this week, while Catalogue Albums generated 207,000 units. Contemporary made up 72.5% of all sales this week; compared to Catalogue’s share of 27.5%.
Overall, music sales totalled 755,000 units across all charts and albums. This marks a 39.5% increase from the first week of 2020 which drove sales of 541,000 units.
As evermore continues to rule, folklore holds in second place; Lana Del Rey also re-enters the Top Ten!
For a second consecutive week, Taylor Swift’s evermore ranks as the bestselling album on L.dK Weekly.
After debuting at the top spot last week, the album moves another 169,000 units, falling just 26 percent from the week before when it sold 226,000.
evermore has already been certified Platinum with sales of 395,000 since its release. It marks Swift’s fourth Platinum hit, and second released this year,
Compared to the performance of folklore, while evermore debuted with just over 30,000 fewer units, the newer set has now pulled ahead in sales. After two weeks, folklore had moved 390,000 units: 5,000 less than evermore!
It’s second week haul of 169,000 also represents Swift’s greatest non-debut sales week.
Speaking of folklore: on the newest instalment of L.dK Weekly, folklore holds in the No.2 spot with sales of 86,000 copies (down 18 percent).
After spending a whopping fifteen weeks at the summit earlier this year, the LP logs a 22nd week in the Top Five. It passes Alanis Morissette’s The Collection, Adele’s 25 & Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection to become the fifth longest-running Top Five album in history.
38 weeks – Lana Del Rey / Norman Fucking Rockwell!
31 weeks – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper / A Star is Born
28 weeks – Lana Del Rey / Lust for Life
28 weeks – Fleetwood Mac / Rumours
22 weeks – Taylor Swift / folklore
For a second week, Taylor Swift holds both the No.1 & No.2 spots on L.dK Weekly. She made history last week by becoming the first artist ever to achieve this feat!
The remaining three albums inside the Top Five repeat their positions from last week: Miley Cyrus’s two-week leader Plastic Hearts is at No.3 with 59,000 units (down 21 percent); Ariana Grande ranks at No.4 with her three-week ruler Positions, selling 47,000 copies (down 10 percent); Rina Sawayama’s SAWAYAMA places again at No.5 after reaching No.4 – it sells 29,000 copies (up 3 percent).
Just outside the Top Five, Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection bullets at No.6 moving 25,000 units (up 4 percent).
Roaring 12-7 in its 69th week in the Top 50: Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! earns 20,000 units this week (up 25 percent). The album – which commanded the Top 50 for a record 17 weeks, and ranks as the bestselling project ever – nabs a record-padding 62nd week in the Top Ten!
Rockwell! is closely followed by Fiona Apple’s No.4 hit Fetch the Bolt Cutters with 18,000 units (up 5 percent).
Two former No.1 hits anchor the Top Ten: Fleetwood Mac are down 7-9 with Greatest Hits (18,000 – down 22 percent), and Harry Styles falls back one spot to No.10 with Fine Line (18,000 – down 6 percent).
Industry Sales: Album sales totalled 865,000 across all releases this week: down 7.9% from the week before. Although, its up a huge 33.4% compared to the same week last year when 648,000 units were sold.
Onto Next Week: Next week shall mark the first chart week of 2021, and a big change is coming to L.dK Weekly! More on that at the end of this week’s article…
Notable Moves in the Top 50
No.18 – The Whole Story / Kate Bush has achieved many things in her time on L.dK Weekly. The art-pop Queen has earned herself five Top Five hits, including the No.1 hit Never for Ever and ranks among the most successful artists ever. But this week marks a first for Bush, as her 1986 compilation set The Whole Story becomes her first collection to sell over 1 million copies! With 1,004,000 sold to date, Bush’s only best-of set is the 31st album to sell 1 million units among all artists. Other than Story, Bush’s highest-selling studio album is 1993’s The Red Shoes on sales of 824,000 copies.
No.23 – Such Pretty Forks in the Road / After earning one of the year’s biggest releases with her 2005 compilation The Collection, the stakes were high for Alanis Morissette’s newest project. Forks would debut at No.2 (matching the peak of The Collection) while her other album was still in the Top Five. This week, as it rises 30-23, it becomes Morissette’s second album (in as many tries) to be certified Platinum for sales of over 300,000 units. While Forks is still dwarfed by The Collection‘s hefty 1.91 million to-date-sales, it is certainly a success in its own right.
Top 50
[=/2] evermore – Taylor Swift (2)
[=] folklore – Taylor Swift (22)
[=] Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (4)
[=] Positions – Ariana Grande (8)
[=] SAWAYAMA – Rina Sawayama (3)
[=] A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (27)
[+5] Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (69)
[+2] Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (36)
[-2] Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (57)
[-1] Fine Line – Harry Styles (54)
[-3] Nectar – Joji (13)
[+1] Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (39)
[+5] The Collection – Alanis Morissette (37)
[+11] After Hours – The Weeknd (40)
[+9] Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (22)
[=] Diva – Annie Lennox (99)
[+9] Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (33)
[-4] The Whole Story – Kate Bush (77)
[-8] BE – BTS (5)
[-5] Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (55)
[-4] What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (26)
[+6] Chromatica – Lady Gaga (30)
[+7] Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (21)
[-1] Album No.8 – Kate Bush (10)
[-4] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (119)
[-4] Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (8)
[-8] Sweetener – Ariana Grande (101)
[+3] Piano Sketches – Birdy (7)
[+7] A Star is Born – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (94)
[-3] thank u, next – Ariana Grande (48)
[-11] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (106)
[-3] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (53)
[-1] 50 Words for Snow – Kate Bush (5)
[-1] DISCO – Kylie Minogue (7)
[+3] Ungodly Hour – Chloe x Halle (28)
[-2] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (81)
[+7] Medusa – Annie Lennox (73)
[+1] Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (32)
[-4] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (93)
[re] The Sensual World – Kate Bush (52)
[-4] Infinite Things – Paloma Faith (6)
[re] Rock a Little – Stevie Nicks (74)
[+5] 25 – Adele (105)
[-1] Back to Black – Amy Winehouse (83)
[=] Map of the Soul: 7 – BTS (44)
[=] Love Goes – Sam Smith (8)
[re] Crystal Visions – Stevie Nicks (43)
[-1] Christmastide – Tori Amos (2)
[re] How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + the Machine (36)
As of the first week of 2021, L.dK Weekly will now be comprised of two separate charts: Contemporary Albums & Catalogue Albums.
Contemporary Albums: This chart – 25 positions deep – will rank the performance of albums officially released in the past 18 months (78 weeks).
Catalogue Albums: This chart – also 25 positions deep – will rank the performance of albums officially released more than 18 months (78 weeks) ago.
In terms of Year-End rundowns, there will now be four lists as opposed to the current two. Contemporary & Catalogue will each have an albums chart for the year, and an artist’s chart for the year.
Top Contemporary Albums: Ranks the most successful contemporary albums of the year.
Top Catalogue Albums: Ranks the most successful catalogue albums of the year.
If an album places on the weekly Contemporary Chart at one point during the year, and is then moved onto the Catalogue Albums Chart due to age, then it is entirely possible for an album to chart on both Year-End tallies should it generate enough sales & points.
Top Contemporary Artists: Ranks the most successful artists of the year by the performance of their albums on the Contemporary Chart only.
Top Catalogue Artists: Ranks the most successful artists of the year by the performance of their albums on the Catalogue Chart only.
For All-Time Charts, there shall be just one list for albums & another for artists.
TAYLOR SWIFT DEBUTS AT NO.1 WITH EVERMORE; HOLDS NO.2 SPOT WITH FOLKLORE!
Note: this chart reflects my own personal music consumption. 1 song played = 1,000 units.
Taylor Swift makes history, becoming the first artist to hold the top two spots on the L.dK Top 50!
Premiering at No.1 this week: the surprise new release from Taylor Swift. evermore – the ninth studio album from Swift – bows as the singer’s fourth No.1 record on L.dK Weekly (and fifth Top Five). It is the 58th album to crown the Top 50.
evermore debuts with 226,000 in first week sales.
Four Rulers: Swift scores her fourth chart-topper and her fifth Top Five hit overall. She previously reached No.1 in 2017 with reputation and in 2019 with Lover, both leading for one week. folklore became Swift’s third No.1 when it debuted at the top in August – it would ultimately rule for a total of fifteen weeks!
Note: Swift’s 2014 iconic pop album 1989 peaked at No.5 in 2017.
With four chart-toppers under her belt, Swift has the second most number one records among all artists. She had previously been tied with Fleetwood Mac & Ariana Grande who have all risen to No.1 with three different albums. Now only Stevie Nicks can claim more No.1’s, with five to her name.
18 Weeks at No.1: As Taylor Swift leads the L.dK Weekly Top 50 for an eighteenth overall week, she draws even with Lady Gaga for the second most weeks atop the chart. Both artists lag behind Lana Del Rey, who has spent 28 terms in command.
226,000 units: evermore‘s opening week is the latest in supersized debuts from Taylor Swift. Sister album folklore bowed at No.1 in August selling 259,000 units; 2017’s reputation launched with even greater sales of 309,000 copies. Swift’s highest sales frame came in September 2019 when Lover debuted with 310,000 units sold.
6th Biggest Debut of 2020: 226,000 units marks the 6th biggest debut frame of 2020, and the largest since Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts started with 251,000 sold.
Chromatica , Lady Gaga – 473,000 (8th June)
Future Nostalgia , Dua Lipa – 289,000 (6th April)
folklore , Taylor Swift – 259,000 (3rd August)
Plastic Hearts , Miley Cyrus – 251,000 (7th December)
After Hours , The Weeknd – 249,000 (30th March)
evermore , Taylor Swift – 226,000 (21st December)
12th Biggest Debut Ever: Only eleven albums have registered bigger opening week sales than evermore. It’s the thirteenth biggest sales week overall (MARINA’s Love + Fear moved 256,000 in its fourth week following a re-issue with new tracks).
Lust for Life , Lana Del Rey – 639,000 (29th July 2017)
Chromatica , Lady Gaga – 473,000
Melodrama , Lorde – 345,000 (24th June 2017)
Lover , Taylor Swift – 310,000 (2nd September 2019)
reputation , Taylor Swift – 309,000 (9th December 2017)
Future Nostalgia , Dua Lipa – 289,000
folklore , Taylor Swift – 259,000
*Love + Fear , MARINA – 256,000 (6th May 2019)
Plastic Hearts , Miley Cyrus – 251,000
After Hours , The Weeknd – 249,000
Blue Lips , Tove Lo – 243,000 (25th November 2017)
Meaning of Life , Kelly Clarkson – 237,000 (4th November 2017)
evermore , Taylor Swift – 226,000
More Swift: After leading the Top 50 for fifteen non-consecutive weeks, and becoming the longest-running No.1 hit of the year, Swift’s folklore holds at the No.2 spot on the latest chart update, shifting 104,000 units.
folklore has sold a staggering 2,127,000 copies since its release, including this week’s numbers. It becomes the fifth album in history to surpass 2.1 million in total sales. The record is Swift’s bestselling release.
History: With evermore celebrating a huge No.1 debut, and folklore bulleting at No.2, Taylor Swift becomes the first artist in history to hold the top two spots on the Weekly Top 50! The historic feat comes at the end of what was already an extremely impressive year for Swift: a year that saw her lodged at No.1 for fifteen weeks, and score one of the biggest selling records of all time!
As evermore debuts at No.1, Swift solidifies herself as a true L.dK juggernaut. It’s her fourth straight No.1 hit, and has big shoes to fill, coming hot on the heels of the incredible folklore. It remains to be seen whether evermore will be able to match its predecessor’s lengthy reign, but Swift certainly could not have hoped for a better opening week performance!
Lower down the Top Ten… Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts drops from No.1 to No.3 after two weeks, dipping by 39 percent to 74,000 sold.
Ariana Grande’s Positions falls one spot to No.4: the three-week No.1 hit has now sold 603,000 copies, making it Grande’s latest album to achieve Multi-Platinum status: her fourth, in-fact. It joins Sweetener (6 x Platinum), thank u, next (4 x Platinum) and the live album K Bye for Now (2 x Platinum). Positions sold 52,000 copies in its latest tracking week (down 9 percent).
Rina Sawayama’s SAWAYAMA descends 4-5 in its second week selling 28,000 units (down 29 percent). The LP is now certified Silver for selling over 60,000 units.
Beyond the Top Five: Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection improves 7-6 with 24,000 units (up 9 percent) after spending a record-tying nine weeks in the No.2 spot earlier this year. The collection has now spent half a year (26 weeks) inside the Top Ten.
Fleetwood Mac’s No.1 smash Greatest Hits reverses course 5-7 with 23,000 sold (down 8 percent). The compilation album has now become the Mac’s second album to sell in excess of 1,000,000 copies, following the blockbuster, 6 x Platinum smash Rumours. Hits has moved 1,005,000 copies since its release.
Rising two places to No.8, Joji’s No.2-peaking Nectar moves another 20,000 units (on par with last week).
Rounding out the Top Ten, two of 2020’s chart mainstays return to the region: Harry Styles’ chart-leading Fine Line swings 12-9 (19,000 – up 5 percent) and Fiona Apple’s No.4 peaking Fetch the Bolt Cutters climbs 11-10 (17,000 – down 6 percent).
Industry Sales: Music sales this week are up 13.2% to 939,000 across all albums sold. 939,000 albums marks an increase of 34.3% when put next to the same week last year (699,000 sales).
Onto Next Week: With no new albums expected to impact the chart next week, Taylor Swift’s evermore should easily lead with over 100,000 in sales. Swift could even repeat her top-two domination!
Notable Moves in the Top 50:
No.11 – BE / BTS’s latest album debuted and peaked at No.3, and this week slides 6-11 in its fourth week, selling 16,000 copies. The album has sold 106,000 to date, becoming the second release from BTS to be certified Gold. The band’s Map of the Soul: 7 (down 42-45 on the latest list) is certified Platinum.
No.19 – Sweetener / Ariana Grande’s most successful release sinks 16-19 with 11,000 units. The album has now lived on the L.dK Top 50 for 100 weeks – Grande’s first to reach the milestone, and just the fourth album to ever do so.
No.24 – Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass / Lana Del Rey’s spoken word poetry album Violet rose to No.3 in the Summer, living in the Top Ten for thirteen weeks. It slips 23-24 on the most recent tally with 10,000 sold. Violet is now certified 2 x Platinum with total sales of 601,000 units – it makes history as the first spoken word set to be certified Multi-Platinum! It is Del Rey’s fourth album to be certified Multi-Platinum following Norman Fucking Rockwell (11 x Platinum), Lust for Life (8 x Platinum) and Born to Die: Paradise Edition (2 x Platinum).
No.29 – Little Earthquakes / Tori Amos’s 1992 debut album is up 31-29 this week (8,000 units). The LP celebrates its 52nd week on the chart, marking an entire year on the list! Further down the list, Amos’s new EP Christmastide enters the Top 50 at No.47 selling 4,000 copies in its second week, after failing to chart the previous week.
No.48 – 25 / Adele’s juggernaut 25 moves 47-48 (3,000 copies). Just a week after being certified 5 x Platinum for 1,500,000 sales, 25 makes its 104th appearance on L.dK Weekly. It is one of only three albums to spend two years on the chart!
Top 50
[NEW] evermore – Taylor Swift (1)
[=] folklore – Taylor Swift (21)
[-2] Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (3)
[-1] Positions – Ariana Grande (7)
[-1] SAWAYAMA – Rina Sawayama (2)
[+1] A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (26)
[-2] Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (56)
[+2] Nectar – Joji (12)
[+3] Fine Line – Harry Styles (53)
[+1] Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (35)
[-5] BE – BTS (4)
[+1] Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (68)
[-4] Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (38)
[+3] The Whole Story – Kate Bush (76)
[=] Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (54)
[+3] Diva – Annie Lennox (98)
[+3] What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (25)
[-4] The Collection – Alanis Morissette (36)
[-3] Sweetener – Ariana Grande (100)
[+7] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (105)
[+3] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (118)
[-4] Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (7)
[+2] Album No.8 – Katie Melua (9)
[-1] Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (21)
[+1] After Hours – The Weeknd (39)
[+2] Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (32)
[+5] thank u, next – Ariana Grande (47)
[-6] Chromatica – Lady Gaga (29)
[+2] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (52)
[+6] Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (20)
[-1] Piano Sketches – Birdy (6)
[+2] 50 Words for Snow – Kate Bush (4)
[-12] DISCO – Kylie Minogue (6)
[+3] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (80)
[+3] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (92)
[-1] A Star is Born – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (93)
[-8] Infinite Things – Paloma Faith (5)
[-5] Ungodly Hour – Chloe x Halle (27)
[+4] Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (31)
[re] Hounds of Love – Kate Bush (48)
[+3] The Red Shoes – Kate Bush (57)
[-34] Wonder – Shawn Mendes (2)
[-3] Back to Black – Amy Wnehouse (82)
[-3] Medusa – Annie Lennox (72)
[-3] Map of the Soul: 7 – BTS (43)
[+3] Love Goes – Sam Smith (7)
[NEW] Christmastide – Tori Amos (1)
[-1] 25 – Adele (104)
[-1] WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? – Billie Eilish (26)
Note: this chart reflects my own personal music consumption. 1 song played = 1,000 units.
Plus: Rina Sawayama and Shawn Mendes debut inside the Top Ten!
Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts leads the L.dK Top 50 for a second consecutive week. It stays ahead courtesy of 121,000 sales, down 52 percent compared to the previous week when it launched at No.1 with 251,000 copies sold.
Plastic has now become Cyrus’s first album to be certified Platinum, having sold over 300,000 copies since its release.
Taylor Swift’s folklore repeats at No.2 after fifteen non-consecutive weeks at No.1. The album drove sales of 80,000 copies this week, marking a 6 percent lift over the previous week.
folklore has sold 2,023,000 copies to date, making it Swift’s first album to sell more than two million units. It is just the fifth album in history to cross the threshold. folklore joins Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! (3.5 million), Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born (3.3 million), Del Rey’s Lust for Life (2.4 million) and Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia. More on Future later…
To date, folklore is the second bestselling album of 2020 (behind only Future), representing Swift’s best showing on a yearly rundown. In 2019 she ranked at No.6 for sales with Lover (1,010,000).
The album has also spent 20 consecutive weeks inside the Top Five. It passes Stevie Nicks’ Crystal Visions: the Very Best of Stevie Nicks to become the 8th longest-running Top Five hit of all time.
Ariana Grande keeps at No.3 with Positions (57,000 – down 4 percent) following the album’s three-week stay at the No.1 spot.
Rina Sawayama’s debut full-length SAWAYAMA bows at No.4 selling 39,000 units. The British-Japanese artist earns her first Top Five record in the process.
Rounding out the Top Ten: Fleetwood Mac’s chart-topping compilation Greatest Hits elevates 7-5 selling 25,000 copies (up 8 percent).
BTS’s No.3-peaking BE drops 4-6 in its third week with 22,000 sold (down 27 percent). The album has now become the longest-running Top Ten album by the K-Pop boyband, with three weeks in the top tier. Their previous best came with Map of the Soul: 7 which opened at No.1 in March before slipping to No.2, and then tumbling to No.18 the following week.
Rising two spots to No.7 is Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection on sales of 22,000 units (on par) after peaking at No.2 for nine weeks.
Shawn Mendes nabs his first Top Ten hit on L.dK Weekly as Wonder starts at No.8. The Canadian’s fourth full-length bows with 22,000 copies sold, instantly becoming the singer’s bestselling and highest-charting release. Mendes previously topped out at No.11 with 2016’s Illuminate; his 2018 self-titled set reached No.12.
Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia tumbles 5-9 on sales of 21,000 units (down 25 percent). This week, Future becomes the latest album to be certified 7 x Platinum, denoting sales exceeding 2,100,000 units!
Future – which commanded the Top Fifty for its first eight weeks – has sold 2,112,000 copies, and ranks as the fifth bestselling album ever. Just in 2020, Future is the year’s bestselling release.
Finally, Joji’s No.2 hit Nectar slides 6-10 with 20,000 sold (down 29 percent).
Industry Sales: Overall music sales totalled 829,000 units, dipping 13.2% versus last week when 955,000 albums were sold. Against the same week last year, sales are up 27.3% from the 651,000 sold in that tracking period.
Onto Next Week: Taylor Swift’s surprise ninth studio album evermore has a lock to go No.1 in the coming chart week. Described as a companion album to the juggernaut folklore, this new record could bow with around 200,000 units. It would grant Swift her fourth No.1 album, and second this year.
Notable Moves in the Top 50
No.12 – Fine Line / Harry Styles’ sophomore hit falls 8-12 selling 18,000 copies this week. The former No.1 smash passed 1 million sales roughly a month ago, and this week celebrates a whole year inside the Top 50 – dating to its No.1 debut exactly 52 weeks ago! Fine is only the second album from a male artist to roam the chart for at least a year; Troye Sivan’s Bloom has spent 59 weeks on the list!
No.18 – Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour / The first live album from veteran rock star Stevie Nicks rises to No.18 on this new edition of the Top 50, shifting 12,000 copies. The live set is the second of its kind to be certified Gold (for sales of over 100,000 copies). Ariana Grande’s K Bye for Now is the bestselling live album ever with sales of over 700,000 units.
No.20 – What’s Your Pleasure? / Jessie Ware earned her first No.1 album earlier this year in the form of sleek-disco hit What’s Your Pleasure? The album now holds steady at No.20 (moving 11,000 copies) in its 24th week, and passes 600,000 in total sales. It is the second album from Ware to be certified at least 2 x Platinum! 2017’s Glasshouse achieved 4 x Platinum status earlier this year and has sold over 1.4 million to date.
No.27 – Rumours / The legendary 1977 album from rock superstars Fleetwood Mac dips 25-27 on the most recent chart moving 9,000 copies. Following its revival earlier in the year, which sent the album back up to No.5 on the weekly chart, Rumours marks its 104th week inside the Top Fifty! Only one other album has charted for two years: Stevie Nicks’ Bella Donna is at No.24 this week in its 117th week.
No.47 – 25 / Adele’s 25 is among the longest-charting and bestselling albums ever released, and this week it earns a new accolade. Adding 4,000 sales to its lifetime total, the hit has now sold 1,500,000 units to date! 25 is the 16th album ever to be certified 5 x Platinum, and is Adele’s bestselling album.
Top 50
[=/2] Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus (2)
[=] folklore – Taylor Swift (20)
[=] Positions – Ariana Grande (6)
[NEW] SAYAWAMA – Rina Sawayama (1)
[+2] Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac (55)
[-2] BE – BTS (3)
[+2] A Beautiful Collection – Carole King (25)
[NEW] Wonder – Shawn Mendes (1)
[-4] Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa (37)
[-4] Nectar – Joji (11)
[-1] Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple (34)
[-4] Fine Line – Harry Styles (52)
[-2] Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey (67)
[+4] The Collection – Alanis Morissette (35)
[=] Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks (53)
[=] Sweetener – Ariana Grande (99)
[=] The Whole Story – Kate Bush (75)
[+3] Live in Concert: the 24 Karat Gold Tour – Stevie Nicks (6)
[+3] Diva – Annie Lennox (97)
[=] What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware (24)
[-7] DISCO – Kylie Minogue (5)
[-3] Chromatica – Lady Gaga (28)
[=] Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey (20)
[=] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks (117)
[+1] Album No.8 – Katie Melua (8)
[+2] After Hours – The Weeknd (38)
[-2] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (104)
[+7] Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams (31)
[-16] Infinite Things – Paloma Faith (4)
[+2] Piano Sketches – Birdy (5)
[-2] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos (51)
[-2] thank u, next – Ariana Grande (46)
[=] Ungodly Hour – Chloe x Halle (26)
[+2] 50 Words for Snow – Kate Bush (3)
[-8] A Star is Born – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (92)
[-5] Such Pretty Forks in the Road – Alanis Morissette (19)
[-3] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper (79)
[+1] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware (91)
[re] Rock a Little – Stevie Nicks (73)
[+6] Back to Black – Amy Winehouse (81)
[-4] Medusa – Annie Lennox (71)
[=] Map of the Soul: 7 – BTS (42)
[-5] Tusk – Fleetwood Mac (30)
[-4] The Red Shoes – Kate Bush (56)
[re] The Wild Heart – Stevie Nicks (80)
[-1] In a Dream – Troye Sivan (16)
[-6] 25 – Adele (103)
[=] WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? – Billie Eilish (25)
L.dK Music 