This week's Official UK Singles Chart
This week's Official UK Albums Chart
The frantic pace of album releases makes for another extraordinarily busy Official UK Albums chart this week. No less than five of the Top 10 biggest selling records of the week are brand new entries, although once more the odd disconnect between singles and albums markets means that the biggest sellers are from acts who aren't necessarily dependent on hit records to reach their core audiences.
Hence the Number One album of the week, outselling two acts riding high on the singles chart in the process, are Kings Of Leon whose latest album Mechanical Bull becomes their fourth UK chart-topper in a row. The album matches the instantaneous Number One peak of Because Of The Times in 2007, Only By The Night in 2008, and 2010 release Come Around Sundown. The proud owners of some of the biggest selling and most enduring hit singles of the century, the Followill brothers now appear to have moved beyond the need to play to the mainstream, the two singles released from the new album to date having both made passing Top 40 appearances earlier this summer. Nonetheless, we should note that in the wake of the release of Mechanical Bull its lead single Supersoaker returns to the Top 40 at Number 37, this after it first reached Number 32 back in late July.
The Number 2 album of the week is Nothing Was The Same from Drake, the highest charting release of his career - previous release Take Care reaching Number 5 upon release in November 2011. He at least is also a singles star, his current hit Hold On We're Going Home rises 7-4 to reach a brand new peak this week whilst album cut From Time lands at Number 56 as well. Rather curiously Drake's other chart single of the week is the title track from his previous album, the Rihanna duet Take Care reappearing at Number 57.
Jessie J's debut album Who You Are was an instant Number 2 entry upon release in March 2011 but she has to settle for a place lower with her sophomore effort Alive. The arrival of the album has just for a change had a deleterious effect on the fortunes of its current hit single as It's My Party slips 3-9 although by way of consolation album cut Sexy Lady makes a strong showing with a Number 22 presence on the chart thanks to canny cherry-pickers.
No such reversal for current Official UK Singles Chart champion Jason Derulo though, Talk Dirty comfortably holds firm at the top of the pile, despite being harried all the way by the Katy Perry single it deposed last week and despite competition from his new album Tattoos which is the fourth highest new entry of the week at Number 5, his third Top 10 album in a row and the highest charting so far. His more or less obligatory cherry-picked chart entry is Marry Me which charts at Number 52, alongside the still-charting The Other Side which sits at Number 40.
Rounding off the tally of album chart new entries, Birdy enters at Number 8 with Fire Within whilst Chvrches are at Number 9 with The Bones Of What You Believe.
Contrast this activity with a rather quiet week on the singles chart which means aside from the movements mentioned above, the only other activity of note is the 13-7 climb of Ben Pearce's What I Might Do, the Deep House track from the Manchester-based producer having been steadily growing in appeal over the past three weeks to now become a genuine slow burner turned chart smash.
We have X Factor to thank for the highest charting "new" arrival on the Top 40, a performance on the show the weekend before last causing Demi Lovato's Skyscraper single to charge 59-13 to easily beat the Number 32 it limped to when first released back in March. This is the second week running the talent show auditions have helped an otherwise little-regarded single from an American star to a brand new chart peak, hard on the heels of Christina Perri's climb to Number 11 with A Thousand Years - that single slumping only slumping to Number 21 this week suggesting that its brand new appeal isn't quite as transient as the circumstances of its reappearance might suggest.
All of this then rather leaves the biggest selling new release of the week something of an afterthought, which is actually a shame as it is one of the best singles so far from the artist in question. The performing alias of dance producer Nick Douwma, Sub Focus was last seen on the chart back in May when the Alex Clare-sung Endorphins became his biggest hit single to date when it peaked at Number 10. Follow-up Turn It Around this time enlists the vocal help of Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke but despite being heavily advertised and promoted can only reach Number 14 on the singles chart. All eyes are now on the performance of Sub Focus' second album Torus which drops this week and which features amongst its tracks all five of the producer's last hit singles, including both Endorphins and Turn It Around.
The only other chart-worthy new release this week arrives at Number 16, as Californian sister Haim land their biggest chart hit to date with The Wire. The single is their third hit of the year, following on from Don't Save Me which recovered from a pre-Christmas wobble to peak at Number 32 in January and Falling which crept to Number 30 in early spring. Rather coincidentally (or then again, perhaps not) their album Days Are Gone also drops this week although this sadly may rather cut the legs off the prospect of further chart progress for this rather addictive rock track. Annoying.
