This week's Official UK Singles Chart

This week's Official UK Albums Chart

 

So remember back in August when Richard & Adam spent four weeks on top of the Official UK Albums chart but only sold a total of 90,000 units during that time? Turns out it was worth sitting through it. This week the Number One album bursts through and exceeds that total after just seven days on sale as the Arctic Monkeys make it a perfect five out of five as the Sheffield band maintain their 100% record of chart-topping albums.

It helps naturally that AM is regarded as their best album for many years, not so much a return to form as a dramatic rejuvenation of their sound and the record which truly progresses them as a band after what could be viewed as years of stagnation. Home to some of their most successful singles of recent years, the album last week sold no less than 157,000 copies in one of the largest one-week sales of the year (second only to the 165,000 copies sold by Daft Punk in the first week Random Access Memories was on sale). This is also enough to make it their fastest selling album since 2007, the total well up on the 96,000 copies sold by Humbug in 2009 and the 82,000 by Suck It And See in 2011. In the teeth of a declining market, the Arctic Monkeys career revival is all the more impressive.

Hard luck then to London Grammar who in truth were never really in contention but who in any normal week might have landed a Number One album of their own, instead having to content themselves with a Number 2 entry for If You Wait.

Over on the Official UK Singles chart, we get something of a breather before what seems set to be a rather busier state of affairs next week. That leaves Katy Perry sitting pretty at Number One for a second week, Roar reinforcing its dominance over the competition, selling over 100,000 copies once again to finish out in front by some considerable distance. With a second week at Number One Roar now joins California Gurls from 2010 as her second longest running chart-topper, albeit still some distance behind the five weeks she managed with her debut I Kissed A Girl back in 2008.

The rather surprise occupants of the runners-up position this week are OneRepublic whose tenacious progress over the last few weeks with Counting Stars is rewarded with their highest charting single ever. Taken from their latest album Native which actually came out back in March, this is the first single to be promoted internationally and after a seven-week climb it finally reaches Number 2 - one place higher than their introductory single Apologize which made the Top 3 in March 2007. Ryan Tedder's group haven't been seen in the Top 10 since the immediate follow-up Stop And Stare made Number 4 in March 2008, although the frontman has since written a large string of major hit singles for countless other acts - including coincidentally Ellie Goulding's recent Number One hit Burn.

Now under normal circumstances, a brand new single from Coldplay would be a very big deal indeed, but whilst their new track Atlas does become the highest new entry of the week, their first new material since the Mylo Xyloto album in 2011 makes what is for them a rather understated debut at Number 12. This release is, however, something of a one-off, their contribution to the soundtrack of the science-fiction film The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. As such it stands as a passing curiosity rather than the start of a brand new chart campaign, their first chart hit in any event since Princess Of China peaked at Number 4 last year.

One place behind is another new single from a man who under normal circumstances could be expected to chart higher. Elliot "Example" Gleave scored a brace of Number 2 hit singles last year, one alongside with Calvin Harris and another Say Nothing as the lead single from his fourth album Evolution Of Man. Promotion for that album ended earlier this year with the single Perfect Replacement which stalled outside the Top 40, and with the announcement that his next album is due to land in 2014, the performer has spent the summer previewing some of the material he has already recorded for that release. New single All The Wrong Places is one such track, one which sees him make good on his pledge to avoid rapping altogether for this release and instead move in in a more rave and trance-inspired direction. Draw your own conclusions from the muted response to this new single as to just how successful this new style is likely to be.

As mentioned above, the release of the Arctic Monkeys album AM has had a beneficial effect on all three of its tracks released as singles so far. Do I Wanna Know rebounds 24-14 in its 13th week on the Top 40 and in fact reaches its highest chart placing since it debuted at Number 11 in late June. Follow-up Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High moves 26-20, this also its second highest chart position to date whilst the track RU Mine which first charted back in March 2012 and which now finds its way onto the tracklisting of the album makes a chart return at Number 45.

Other new entries this week include the Number 25 debut of What I Might Do, the first single from Manchester-based DJ and producer Ben Pearce whilst Lethal Bizzle is back on the Top 40 for the first time as a lead artist since the 2011 re-recording of Pow as Party Right enters at Number 29.

Finally the X Factor-inspired comeback of the week goes to the Swedish House Mafia's 2012 farewell single Don’t You Worry Child, the former Number One single storming back to Number 40 following a performance during auditions by boy band hopefuls Kingsland - although it is worth noting that Gold Digger is still hovering around the Top 40 three weeks after it was reawakened from hibernation by the talent show and climbs once more to Number 33.

Next week we should be overrun by smash hits - new singles from Jason Derulo, Jessie J and Avicii mean that Katy Perry's days at the top of the charts look severely numbered.

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