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‘More’ was released on June 6th and was Pulp’s first album in 24 years. Lead singer, Jarvis Cocker, spoke about what inspired the band to start writing again: “when we started touring again in 2023, we practiced a new song called “Hymn of the North” during soundchecks & eventually played it at the end of our second night at Sheffield Arena. This seemed to open the floodgates: we came up with the rest of the songs on this album during the first half of 2024. A couple are revivals of ideas from last century. The music for one song was written by Richard Hawley. The music for another was written by Jason Buckle.”

“The Eno family sing backing vocals on a song. There are string arrangements written by Richard Jones & played by the Elysian Collective. The album was recorded over 3 weeks by James Ford in Walthamstow, London, starting on November 18th, 2024. This is the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record. It was obviously ready to happen. These are the facts. We hope you enjoy the music. It was written & performed by four human beings from the North of England, aided & abetted by five other human beings from various locations in the British Isles. No A.I. was involved during the process. This album is dedicated to Steve Mackey. This is the best that we can do. Thanks for listening.”

Little Simz looks to land a personal best with sixth studio release ‘Lotus’ this week (number 2), as ‘Fame Is A Gun’ by Addison Rae aims to break into the Singles Chart Top 20, whilst the singer’s debut album ‘Addison’ is expected to debut at Number 3.

Pulp’s new album ‘More’ is available to purchase on the band’s official Bandcamp.

Wilson said it was “an honour”, adding: “Ever since my dad brainwashed me as a kid by playing The Dark Side of the Moon on repeat, Pink Floyd have been my favourite band. They are my Beatles, deeply ingrained in my musical DNA. I first saw Pompeii from a grainy print at a local cinema. It made an incredible impression on me with its untethered and exploratory rock music made by four musicians who seemed to epitomise the notion of intellectual cool.”

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NME awarded the ‘Pompeii – MCMLXXII’ concert film four stars in a review. It said, in part: “As such, Pink Floyd At Pompeii: MCMLXXII captures a moment that’s as bygone as the good citizens of Pompeii themselves. Here was an uncompromising, visionary band who, over the four years since losing their frontman Syd Barrett, had been given several avant-garde experimental albums to explore their new identity: 1970’s ‘Atom Heart Mother’, for instance, featured a cow on the cover and a roadie eating breakfast for 13 minutes.”

If the band holds the spot until Friday, they’ll add their latest release to their list of chart-topping albums, making the seventh alongside ‘Atom Heart Mother’ (1970), ‘Wish You Were Here’ (1975), ‘The Final Cut’ (1983), ‘The Division Bell’ (1994), ‘Pulse (Live)’ (1995) and ‘The Endless River’ (2014). This milestone would see the iconic British band make it on the list of other artists with the most UK number 1 albums such as George Michael or Blur.

In the midweek charts this week, Sabrina Carpenter’s latest album ‘Short’N’Sweet’ is making its was back up into the Top 3 whilst Ed Sheeran’s ‘+-=÷× (Tour Collection)’ re-enters the Top 5, pushed by the announcement of his eighth studio album ‘PLAY’ and the strong debut of his new single ‘Old Phone’. Erasure’s frontman Andy Bell’s first solo album ‘Ten Crows’ also made it in the Top 5, currently tracking at number 4 whilst singer-songwriter Andrew Cushin is aiming for his first Top 10 album with his latest release ‘Love Is For Everyone (10)’ with Alex Warren’s ‘You’ll Be Alright, Kid (Chapter 1)’ is following close behind at number 12.

Final chart positions will be confirmed this Friday by the Official Charts Company. The band’s movie is available for purchase of their official website.

Chappell Roan reigns supreme on the Official Albums Chart, catch up on everything here https://t.co/rsgUcipaCg

— Official Charts (@officialcharts) January 17, 2025

Chappell Roan’s debut album has made numbers in the UK and around the world after a few of her songs started gaining popularity online. The album was originally released in late 2023, and it took a couple months to debut on UK charts; it first appeared in the top 100 in April of 2024 at number 68 and slowly made its way up the charts finally reaching the top twenty in July. Ever since, the album has become a charts staple and has spent 40 weeks in the top 100, 31 of which were in the top ten.

It previously peaked at number one in August, spending one week topping charts. Last week, we saw the album charting at number seven: this week’s jump is due to a new vinyl edition being released, which not only pushed the album to number one on charts but also sent it straight to number on Official Vinyl Charts, where it had previously peaked at number one multiple times.

Chappell Roan’s first single to appear on the UK Singles Chart was ‘Good Luck Babe’, which now counts more than a billion streams on Spotify. The song peaked at number two and has, so far, spent 41 weeks on charts. Off of her debut album, ‘Casual’, ‘Hot to Go’, ‘Pink Pony Club’ and ‘Red Wine Supernova’ have also appeared on charts, with ‘Hot To Go’ peaking at number four.

Chappell Roan’s popularity has risen drastically after she was featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk YouTube segment, where her vocal skills and personality were highlighted and her talent became a viral sensation.

Chappell Roan has previously visited the UK on a sold-out tour which took her to London, Manchester and Glasgow. In the summer, she will perform at Leeds and Reading festival alongside Hozier, Travis Scott and Bring Me The Horizon. She is also a strong candidate for Glastonbury Festival, whose line-up is set to be released in the upcoming months.

While the artist has hinted at new music quite a few times since her debut album has brought her new levels of fame, she has yet to confirm whether a new album will be coming out in 2025.

Earlier this year, Chappell Roan was named BBC’s Sound of 2025 winner.

goodbye forever brat summer.

— Charli (@charli_xcx) September 2, 2024

The album battled the re-released The Tortured Poets Departments by Taylor Swift during its opening week and every week since has yet to peak beyond its Number 2 spot during its release.

As Brat became the soundtrack to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, along with the inspiration for many brands this summer, Charli declared ‘brat summer’ was over and ‘brat autumn’ had begun when she released a new version of the legendary album on October 11.

kamala IS brat

— Charli (@charli_xcx) July 22, 2024

Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat features back to back remixes of the album’s original tracks but with contributions from some of the biggest names in music. The remix album sees ‘Sympathy is a knife’ with Ariana Grande, ‘Talk talk’ with Troye Sivan, ‘Guess’ with Billie Eilish and ‘Spring breakers’ with Kesha.

 

 

 

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As Brat has continually trended all over social media for the last few months bringing a heightened commercial enjoyment of electronic-dance pop, the release of its remix album furthers Charli’s presence in the genre – reimagining these tracks whilst cementing them further in the genre.

This creative strategy clearly appealed to fans as the album fought its way to the Number 1 spot at the weekend after facing 19 weeks in the charts.

Brat’s battle to Number 1 this week occurred alongside James Blunt’s re-release of his 2004 album Back to Bedlam. Blunt challenged his listeners with an incentive to get the album to Number 1 by promising to legally change his name if the goal was achieved.

Back to Bedlam fell short of the Number 1, meaning Blunt isn’t going to be renamed to Blunty McBluntface, as the re-release only made it to number seven on this week’s chart. This is an impressive debut, 20 years after its original release, given the album spent 10 weeks at Number 1 back in 2004.

I’m currently number 4 in the @officialcharts. Blunty McBluntface is coming for you @Charli_xcx pic.twitter.com/aQIOEG1ufx

— James Blunt (@JamesBlunt) October 14, 2024

The top 5 for the Official Albums Chart this week saw The Mighty Several by former The Beautiful South frontman Paul Heaton at Number 2, Short N’ Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter at 3, Moon Magic by Coldplay at 4 and The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan at 5.

The momentum of Brat has changed the projection of Charli xcx’s career and placed her at the forefront of the mainstream with a culture-defining album, which merited the Number 1 spot during this week’s chart.

Speaking on their win from L.A, 5 Seconds of Summer have stated, “What’s up, UK! We did it! We’re the f*cking Number 1 album! We honestly just can’t believe it. Thank you everyone, so much. We love you. You’re amazing. I’m going to cry now.“

Consisting of members Luke Hemmings, Calum Hood, Ashton Irwin and Michael Clifford, the group’s fifth studio album garnered great success within multiple charts. It has been confirmed that the release’s highly profitable week consisted of 78% physical sales, becoming this week’s most physically purchased record as well as the most downloaded album within the UK.

The band’s recent album was released on 23rd September 2022 via BMG Rights Management; work began on 5SOS5 immediately after the release of CALM. The album’s existence and release were announced during the band’s Take My Hand World Tour, held across the Summer this year; the band performed the singles “Easy For You To Say” and “Blender” for the first time live. The hitmakers proceeded the album’s launch with the singles “Complete Mess“, “Taken My Hand“, “Me Myself & I“, “Blender“, and “Older“.

Elsewhere within this week’s UK album charts, Lap 5 by D-Block Europe places in second place. The British hip hop collective last landed within the UK album chart’s top 5 in 2020 with The Blue Print: Us vs Them; the release marked their first studio album but was preceded by multiple mixtapes. The group’s recent release has been named this week’s most streamed album and marks their seventh release to break into the top 40 and third UK top 5; D-Block Europe first entered the top 5 with their 2019 mixtape PTSD, which reached number four.

Landing at number three this week is Gulp! by Sports Team; the British alt-rockers released the album on 23rd September 2022. Marking their second studio album, Gulp! is the band’s first entry into the top 3 and has been named this week’s number one record on the Official Vinyl Albums Chart as well as the Official Record Store Chart. The band’s recent album comes two years after the release of their debut album Deep Down Happy; the album dropped in 2020 and entered a chart battle with Lady GaGa’s All Time Low, Sports Team’s first chart entry positioned at number two.

As stated in NME Martin Talbot the Chief Executive at the Official Charts Company, said: “Congratulations to BLACKPINK. Being any kind of chart first is a record which can never be taken away, so for their new album ‘Born Pink’ to become the first UK Official Number One by a K-pop girl group is a fantastic achievement – and puts them in the record books forever!”

The rest of this week’s UK top five includes Suede‘s Autofiction at Number Two, the band’s highest chart position since 1999. The London-based rock group also claimed the best-selling album in UK independent record stores this week,. Then Rina Sawayama‘s Hold The Girl at Number Three, Marcus Mumford‘s (self-titled) (Number Four), and Pink Floyd‘s Animals reissue (Number Five).

The album was accompanied by the release of a vibrant video for the lead single “Shut Down,” which paid homage to some of BLACKPINK’s prior collective and solo releases. There where visual references to their singles “Kill This Love,” “Ice Cream,” “How You Like That,” Rosé’s “Gone,” Lisa’s “Money,” and Jennie’s “Solo”. BLACKPINK also shared two tracks from Born Pink prior to its release – first, “Ready To Love,” which premiered as part of the band’s virtual concert with PUBG. In August, they then returned with their vivacious single “Pink Venom,” which upon release broke Spotify and YouTube records for a K-pop girl group and racked up the views for the biggest music video premiere of 2022 so far. You can view the music video below.

Additionally according to The Korea Times quoting YG Entertainment citing data from Hanteo Chart, (a local market tracker) the album broke the record for the biggest first week sales by a K-pop girl group in history by selling more than 1.54 million copies in the first week of its release. BLACKPINK are also set to embark on a world tor kicking off with a pair of dates in Seoul before heading to North America and Europe which will include two shows at The O2 in London.

Speaking on his win, Williams has stated, “Thank you to everyone who’s supported the album: everyone who’s bought it, streamed it, downloaded it and reviewed it. I’m so pleased that it’s gone to Number 1, and whilst it feels strange to be receiving an award during these sombre times, I wanted to thank you all for your support and dedicate this to the fans, who I never take for granted. I really appreciate it, thank you so much.”

OFFICIAL CHART RECORD BREAKER.@RobbieWilliams overtakes Elvis Presley as the solo act with most UK Number 1 albums in history with #XXV.

Congratulations, Robbie! https://t.co/43bmmaxUao

— Official Charts (@officialcharts) September 16, 2022

Before One Direction took the world by storm, Take That captured the nation’s hearts, arguably laying the groundwork and formula for future boybands. Williams joined the boyband in 1990 at the young age of 16 and quickly became a favourite for many. In 1996, with boyband fever still in swing, Take That broke the hearts of many when they announced their split. Whilst a member of Take That, Williams scored four number one albums within the UK, including the greatest hits album Odyssey; the figure is five UK number one albums.

During the same year as Take That’s disbandment, Williams embarked on his hotly anticipated solo career. Throughout the Stoke-on-Trent native’s career as a solo artist, he released fourteen studio albums, all but one has placed at the top spot. The singer’s eighth solo studio album, Reality Killed the Video Star, was released in 2009 and placed at number two on the UK album charts. The singer’s recent release, XXV, is Williams’ third greatest hits collection to secure the number one position.

Although Williams is now the record holder, The Beatles still hold the first place as the act with the most UK number one albums. The fab four have accumulated fifteen UK number one albums throughout their career, first securing the top spot in 1963 with their debut album Please Please Me. The group have featured within the UK charts even after their split; in 2000, the group’s greatest hits album entitled 1 spent an impressive 174 weeks at the top of the charts.

Famed Beatles band member Sir Paul McCartney is still untouched and remains the individual who has collected the most number one albums. The singer has accumulated twenty-three number-one albums throughout his long career; the figure includes his time spent in the Beatles, Wings and as a solo performer.

Speaking on his recent win, Jamie T told OfficialCharts.com, “Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the support on the album. Thank you for the Number 1!“. The “Calm Down Dearest” singer took to social media to announce his award; within the post, the singer also confirmed the date for an upcoming show. The concert will see Jamie T headline a homecoming show at London’s Finsbury Park; the singer will perform to an audience of 45,000, marking his biggest show to date. The singer-songwriter will be joined by a roster full of special guests, further details concerning the event will be announced in due course.

My first ever number one album And to celebrate we’re gonna be playing Finsbury Park next summer. Tickets on sale next Friday at 9am pic.twitter.com/c4WHMfIvLt

— Jamie T (@jamietmusic) July 29, 2022

Otherwise known as Jamie Alexander Treays, the singer’s number one album was released on 22nd July 2022 via Polydor Records. The Theory Of Whatever was proceeded by three singles, “The Old Style Raiders“, “St. George Wharf Tower“, and “Between The Rocks“. Before its release, Treays began to tease and promote the album’s release; on 27th April 2022 the singer confirmed The Theory Of Whatever’s release. The Theory of Whatever is the first release of new material since Jamie T’s break; the singer’s previous album Trick dropped in 2016.

Although The Theory Of Whatever is Jamie T’s first number one album, the singer has cracked the album charts top 5 four times before. The songwriter’s debut album Panic Prevention was released in 2007 and reached number 4 within the charts; the release was praised for its use of themes concerning youth culture and lyrical content. The singer’s second album Kings & Queens dropped two years later and charted at number 2; the album’s lead single “Sticks’ n’ Stones” also sired chart success and position within the singles charts top 20. Jamie T scored a hat trick in 2014 when Carry On Grudge reached number 4 within the album charts; Trick also charted well and placed at number 3.

Congratulations to @VivaBananarama on their highest-charting album in 34 years https://t.co/wRMJxMyIcx pic.twitter.com/s0oJWO5DBm

— Official Charts (@officialcharts) July 29, 2022

Elsewhere within this week’s album charts, pop icons Bananarama have scored their highest position within the UK Official Album charts in 34 years. The duo’s twelfth studio album Masquerade has charted at number 22; the album marks their first top 20 release since The Greatest Hits Collection. The compilation album was the band’s first Greatest Hits LP and was released via London Records in 1988; via its original release, the album placed at number 3 on the UK Albums charts.

Earlier this month, Jamie T confirmed that he had added further dates to his upcoming The Theory Of Whatever Tour. Due to start this November, the headlining tour originally consisted of 10 dates and was initially meant to start on 10th November 2022 with a set in Newcastle. Due to popular demand, the singer added two more stops and will now kick off the tour on 8th November 2022. The second new date has been scheduled to close the series of live shows on 23rd November 2022 at Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse.

Doing some acoustic shows to celebrate the album release. Album and ticket bundles on sale tomorrow at 10am https://t.co/poEeGoV2p8 pic.twitter.com/LiciXdIe6I

— Jamie T (@jamietmusic) July 14, 2022

Prior to setting out on his UK tour, Jamie T will perform a series of album release shows in celebration of The Theory Of Whatever. The string of intimate live shows are set to start today with a set at Southampton’s Engine Rooms in partnership with Vinilo Records, the seventh and last show will take place on 8th August at Bristol’s Thekla with Rough Trade Records.

Jamie T UK Tour Dates

Acoustic Record Store Tour

30/07/2022 – Engine Rooms/Vinilo Records – Southampton
01/08 – Chalk/Resident Records – Brighton
02/08 – Empire/HMV – Coventry
04/08 – Brudenell Social Club/ Crash Records – Liverpool
05/08 – Liquid Room/Assai Records – Edinburgh
07/08 – Hanger 34/Jacdranda Records – Liverpool
08/08 – Thekla/Rough Trade Records – Bristol

The Theory Of Whatever UK Tour

08/11/2022 – O2 Academy – Glasgow
10/11 – O2 City Hall – Newcastle
11/11 – O2 Academy – Birmingham
12/11 – O2 Academy – Leeds
14/11 – O2 Academy – Glasgow
15/11 – O2 Academy – Sheffield
17/11 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester
18/11 – Alexandra Palace – London
21/11 – University Great Hall – Cardiff
22/11 – Guildhall – Portsmouth
23/11 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester

Click here to purchase tickets.

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The album has proved a huge commercial success with over 44,000 chart sales, a large percentage of the figures owing to physical sales, 79% of the album’s sales are attributed to physical formats. Due to these incredible statistics, the album has also topped the Official Vinyl Album Chart and Official Record Store Chart. Whilst accepting his award, Ezra spoke to OfficialCharts.com concerning his win, “Officially Gold Rush Kid, thanks to you beautiful people, is Number 1 and that means the world to me. I hope you’re well, see you soon!”

This week’s number one album was released on 10th June via Columbia Records and was proceeded by three singles. The first track to be taken from the album was “Anyone For You (Tiger Lilly)”, the single was released on 28th January 2022 and debuted at number 32 within the UK singles charts. The second track taken from the chart-topping album was released on 22nd April 2022, “Green Green Grass” charted at number 6 on the UK charts and marked the singer’s seventh track to land in the top ten. The third single to be released, “I Went Hunting” was released on 2nd June 2022 and is the eighth song on the album’s tracklist.

Ezra’s latest hit album marks his third consecutive UK number one album, both of the singer’s previous albums also placed high within the UK album charts. The 29-year-old artist first saw chart success with his debut album Wanted On Voyage, the album was released on 30th June 2014 and debuted at number three on the UK charts. Due to the album’s great popularity, several months after its release the album jumped two positions to place at number one. The singer’s second studio album was released in 2018, Staying at Tamara’s secured its number one position soon after its release and contain the number one single “Shotgun”.

Elsewhere within this week’s charts, Styles’ second studio album has re-entered the album charts, Fine Line has charted at number six. Placing below Styles’ newest album is = by Ed Sheeran, the album has proved its staying power by positioning at number three. Placing at number four this week is What Came Before by Chase & Status, the electronic duo’s sixth studio album was released earlier this year to great applause. Closing the top five is American artist Post Malone’s Twelve Caret Toothache, the rapper’s fourth studio album was released on 3rd June 2022 and peaked at number three last week.

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The former One Direction member’s new album Harry’s House debuted at the number one position within this week’s album charts. Completing the chart double, Styles also secured this week’s number one single with “As It Was”, marking eight consecutive weeks at the top spot. The English singer songwriter released his top charting album on 20th March 2022 via Columbia and Erskine Records, Harry’s House marks Styles’ third studio album and was received with great critical and commercial success.

The Official charts have confirmed that the album has sired over 113,00 chart sales making the release this year’s fastest selling album to date, a record last held by Adele for her album 30. The album’s impressive chart sales also mark a personal best for the singer, Harry’s House has become the singer’s more profitable opening week. In 2017, the singer’s debut album achieved 57,000 UK chart sales within its first week and in 2019 Styles’ first week for Fine Line sired 49,000 chart sales. The singer’s recently released album has also placed at the top of this week’s Official Vinyl Album chart, the album secured the top spot by outselling the remaining of the top 40 combined.

Styles’ chart-topping album’s lead single has also proved its selling power with over 80,000 chart sales. After eight weeks at number one “As It Was” has been crowned the longest running number one single of this year thus far. With over 8.9 million streams, the single has overtaken its opening week’s count and has also been crowned this week’s most streamed single in the UK.

With the release of Harry’s House, Styles has also dominated this week’s singles charts, all of this week’s top three singles are taken from the singer’s new album. The second track to be taken from the album was released on 20th May 2022, “Late Night Talking” has placed at number two within this week’s singles charts. Closing the top 3 is “Music For A Sushi Restaurant”, the song is the first track on the album and is an un-released track that Styles premiered at this year’s Coachella festival during his headlining set.

Over the weekend, Styles is set to take the stage for Radio 1’s Big Weekend, the singer will appear in Coventry on Sunday 29th May 2022. Performing alongside Styles on the Main stage are George Ezra, Becky Hill, Chase & Status, Dermot Kennedy, Jax Jones, Lorde and Mabel. The festival kicked off on Friday 27th May 2022 with performances from a host of acts across three stages, ticketholders were treated to sets from Disclosure, BOYOCA, Danny Howard and many more acts.