In a showdown between two stylistically dissimilar British bands who came to prominence in the 2000s, The Darkness’ dreams of securing their first No.1 album for 22 years are toast, but Mumford & Sons are back on top for the first time in a decade, with folk rock trumping hard/glam rock.
Mumford & Sons’ fifth regular studio album in total, and their first since slimming down to a trio in 2021, Rushmere – named after a pond on Wimbledon Common where the band was formed – is their third No.1, following 2012’s Babel and 2015’s Wilder Mind, and debuts atop the chart on first week consumption of 35,655 units (18,124 CDs, 7,413 vinyl albums, 6,043 cassettes, 1,192 digital downloads and 2,883 sales-equivalent streams).
It is their first album since Delta debuted and peaked at No.2 on consumption of 58,239 units in 2018, and has the lowest first week sale of any of their albums since their debut release Sigh No More opened at No.11 with 15,728 sales in 2009. Peaking 71 weeks later at No.2, Sigh No More is the band’s most-consumed title with a to-date tally of 1,877,520 units. Babel, which had the band’s highest first week sale (158,923) follows with 1,296,836 units, with Wilder Mind on 514,670 units and Delta on 226,957. Mumford & Sons also reached the Top 10 with the EP Johannesburg, a collaboration with Baaba Maal, which reached No.6 in 2016 and has to-date consumption of 46,917 units.
The Darkness’ eighth studio album, ninth chart entry and fifth Top 10 set, Dreams On Toast was released in an abundance of variants – eight CD, six cassette and 13 vinyl – which help it to debut at No.2 (27,823 sales), equalling the band’s highest ever debut position, as achieved by their 2003 debut, Permission To Land. It achieves their highest first week sale since 2005, when their second album One Way Ticket To Hell…And Back, secured a debut/peak of only No.11 despite impressive consumption of 67,605 copies.
When it landed at No.2, Permission To Land’s first week consumption was 40,469 sales. Seven weeks later, it started a four-week run at number one but its highest weekly sale – and the highest of any album by The Darkness in any week – came 23 weeks after its debut, when it sold 89,477 copies at No.10 in the Christmas chart for 2003. Permission To Land’s to-date consumption of 1,446,315 units is well over twice as many as the rest of their output together.
Forever Is A Feeling is the fourth solo album by 29-year-old American indie singer/songwriter Lucy Dacus and the first to make the Top 75, debuting at No.5 (8,762 sales) to smash her previous personal best of No.85 set by her last release, Home Video, in 2021. Since then, of course, she topped the chart in 2023 with The Record, as part of occasional female indie ‘supergroup’ Boygenius, alongside Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker. With to-date sales of 89,010 copies, the Boygenius album has far outsold all of Dacus’ solo releases combined.
Barely a year since his debut mixtape, Do Not Disturb, peaked at No.17, much-praised 21-year-old Mancunian rapper Nemzzz debuts at No.6 with follow-up, Rent’s Due, on consumption of 8,701 units, including 304 USB sticks. Do Not Disturb is likely only a month away from going silver, with to-date consumption of 56,973 units.
A little over a year after it became her fifth No.1 album, Eternal Sunshine rebounds 102-3 (19,028 sales) for Ariana Grande. Absent from the Top 75 for 11 weeks and the Top 10 for 51 weeks, its return follows the release of a deluxe ‘Brighter Days Ahead’ edition, from which three new songs enter the Top 30 of the singles chart this week. Eternal Sunshine last month became the sixth album by Grande to surpass 200,000 units. Its tally now stands at 226,909 – behind all of her other No.1s, which are themselves behind her all-time most-consumed set, 2014 second album, My Everything, which peaked at No.3 and has a to-date tally of 638,720 units.
With new hit Ordinary – which is not on the album – pulling even further away at the top of the singles chart, Alex Warren’s debut album, You’ll Be Alright, Kid (Volume 1) continues to prosper, reaching a new peak for the third week in a row as it hurtles 30-10 (6,409 sales).
The rest of the Top 10: Short N’ Sweet (2-4, 15,271 sales) by Sabrina Carpenter, +-=÷× Tour Collection (6-7, 8,037 sales) by Ed Sheeran, Mayhem (5-8, 7,818 sales) by Lady Gaga and 50 Years: Don’t Stop (9-9, 7,096 sales) by Fleetwood Mac.
All four of The Lottery Winners previous albums dived out of the Top 200 on their second frame – and though it was No.1 last week, KOKO is no different, sliding out of the list on consumption of 1,088 units.
Also exiting the Top 10: So Close To What (8-11, 6,356 sales) by Tate McRae, The Highlights (10-12, 6,338 sales) by The Weeknd, Music (7-18, 5,160 sales) by Playboi Carti, I Said I Love You First (4-33, 3,757 sales) by Selena Gomez & Benny Bianco and The Great Western Road (3-152, 1,482 sales) by Deacon Blue.
The fifth and final new entry is Deep Thoughts (No.20, 4,911 sales), the ninth solo studio album and seventh chart entry for 32-year-old rapper Lil Durk, from Chicago.
Cleverly combining two strong brands, Now Presents…Clubland harnesses the unprecedentedly successful Now That’s What I Call Music series to the formerly blockbusting Clubland series and rockets 144-1 on the compilation chart this week with 3,385 sales – all CD - adding to the 85 it recorded last week from a distribution leak. Originated by the All Around The World label, Clubland spawned 27 No.1 compilations between 2002 and 2016 and a total of 56 Top 10 albums, with series consumption of slightly under 10m. units.
Overall album sales are up 4.35% week-on-week at 2,657,597 units, their highest level for 14 weeks and 13.81% above same week 2024 sales of 2,335,197. Physical product accounts for 341,741 sales, 12.86% of the total.
PHOTO: Deanie Chen
