Charts analysis: Green Day land fourth No.1 album

It’s a great day for Green Day, whose pithy 13th studio album, Father Of All… debuts atop the album chart, becoming their fourth No.1. In the seventh change of leadership of the chart in a row, it achieved consumption of 23,389 units (including 2,055 from sales-equivalent streams) – 24.26% down on its immediate predecessor, Revolution Radio, which also debuted at No.1 in October 2016 on consumption of 30,880 units. That, in turn, is well below the opening tallies of 89,385 and 79,770 that produced Green Day’s previous No.1 debuts, American Idiot (2004) and 21st Century Breakdown (2009). It is even further below their record weekly sale of 104,790 set by American Idiot on its 14th week of availability, in the sales period immediately prior to Christmas 2004, when it was ranked 13th in the chart. American Idiot is by far the band's biggest album, with to-date consumption of 2,307,385 units (2,209,930 pure sales), followed by their third album Dookie, which gave them their breakthrough in 1994, and has consumption of 1,016,491 (982,586 pure sales) copies, despite peaking at No.13. Including live albums and compilations, Green Day have placed 15 albums in the Top 75, and nine in the Top 10. Two of the rock/punk trio’s three members – leader Billie Joe Armstrong and bassist Mike Dirnt - have been with them since their formation in 1987, while Tre Cool joined in 1990. All are 47 years old. Incidentally, with 10 succinct tracks and a playing time of 26 minutes, Father Of All is little more than a third of the length of 21st Century Breakdown, whose 18 songs occupied more than 69 minutes. London duo Oh Wonder - Anthony West and Josephine Vander Gucht - have never had a single in the Top 75 nor a Top 50 entry on the radio airplay chart…but attract a sizeable following, and secure their second Top 10 album this week. Their eponymous 2015 first album debuted and peaked at No.26 (2,971), while their critically-lauded second album, Ultralife made it to No.8 (5,806 sales) on its 2017 release. Their third set, No One Else Can Wear Your Crown, equals Ultralife’s No.8 placing on higher consumption of 6,178 units. The rest of the Top 10: Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent (2-2, 14,593 sales) by Lewis Capaldi, Music To Be Murdered By (3-3, 10,543 sales) by Eminem, Big Conspiracy (5-4, 8,424 sales) by J Hus, No.6 Collaborations Project (8-5, 7,222 sales) by Ed Sheeran, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (6-6, 7,007 sales) by Billie Eilish, Heavy Is The Head (7-7, 6,972 sales) by Stormzy, Fine Line (10-9, 5,297 sales) by Harry Styles and Huncholini The 1st (9-10, 4,430 sales) by M Huncho. No.1 last week, Blossoms’ Foolish Loving Spaces slides to No.11 (4,083 sales), while Louis Tomlinson’s Walls takes an even bigger tumble in its second frame, diving 4-76 (1,458 sales). Finally seeing the light of day, 46 years after the fact, Live At The Royal Albert Hall 1974 debuts at No.18 (3,417 sales) for Bryan Ferry. When Roxy Music albums are added to the tally - and some compilations that have charted mix his solo material with Roxy recordings – it is Ferry’s 35th chart album. Hard rock quintet Those Damn Crows, from Bridgend in Wales released their introductory album, Murder And The Motive independently in 2016, before being snapped up by Earache Records. That album subsequently reached No.152 – but follow-up Point Of No Return makes a much bigger splash, debuting at No.14 (3,747 sales). Best known for back-to-back top two singles In For The Kill and Bulletproof, La Roux exploded onto the scene in 2009, with an eponymous parent album subsequently selling upwards of 400,000 copies. A singer/producer duo at that stage, their subsequent split left Elly Jackson to carry the name forward herself, and her 2014 second album, Trouble In Paradise reached No.6. After a difficult period, she returns with third album, Supervision, which debuts this week at No.20 (3,347 sales). Also new to the chart: Meet The Woo 2 (No.22, 3,257 sales), the second mixtape from 20-year-old Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke, arriving just 20 weeks after his uncharted debut, Meet The Woo; Country Fuzz (No.30, 2,485 sales), the fourth album and third chart entry for Southern rock trio The Cadillac Three, who reached No.33 with second album, Bury Me In My Boots in 2016, and No.16 with 2017 follow-up Legacy; A Pilgrim’s Tale (No.39, 2,106 sales), the eighth charted album for folk musician Seth Lakeman; Gold (No.68, 1,558 sales), the 14th chart album for late crooner Perry Como; and F**k The World (No.70, 1,541 sales), the first chart album for 24-year-old R&B/hip-hop artist Brent Faiyaz. Newly released on vinyl, in which format it achieved 34.04% of its consumption of 2,867 units in the latest frame, Rod Stewart’s recent No.1 album, You’re In My Heart, bounces accordingly, moving 55-26. Ahead of the late Whitney Houston’s hologram tour, The Ultimate Collection sprints 57-31 (2,454 sales) to achieve its best chart placing for nearly three years. Previously No.1 for eight weeks, Now That’s What I Call Music! 104 returns to No.1 (4,137 sales) on the compilation chart after five straight weeks at No.2, relegating its successor, Frozen 2, to runners-up position, with just 16 fewer sales. Overall album sales are down 2.01% week-on-week at 1,809,105, 3.51% above same week 2019 sales of 1,747,787. Sales-equivalent streams accounted for 1,331,843 sales, 73.62% of the total. Sales of paid-for albums are down 3.24% week-on-week at 477,262, 20.22% below same week 2019 sales of 598,251.

Charts analysis: The Weeknd scores first No.1 with Blinding Lights

When Blinding Lights dipped 20-41 six weeks ago, with consumption down for the third week in a row, it seemed somewhat unlikely that it would make a spectacular recovery and become the very first No.1 for The Weeknd…but that is exactly what it has done, advancing to the summit this week on sales of 62,512 copies (including 53,686 from sales-equivalent streams). With one of the more unusual chart trajectories of the 1,365 singles that have topped the chart, the track’s full history hitherto is 12-17-20-41-11-10-8-4-2-1. The Weeknd’s 36th hit, raising his track consumption to 18,925,498 units, Blinding Lights puts the 29-year-old from Toronto in equal third position for most UK hits by a Canadian, alongside Bryan Adams. Ahead are only Drake (94) and Justin Bieber (59). The Weeknd’s first chart entry was as featured vocalist on Drake 2012 No.37 hit, Crew Love. Bieber and The Weeknd are less likely to work together, as they have a rivalry dating back to when The Weeknd was dating Bieber’s ex, Selena Gomez. Blinding Lights is the sixth hit by The Weeknd to be co-written by Max Martin - the previous most successful being Can’t Feel My Face (No.3, 2015) - and is Swedish maestro Martin’s 19th No.1 , the others being: Britney Spears’ …Baby One More Time (1999), I Want It That Way (Backstreet Boys 1999), Oops!...I Did It Again (Britney Spears, 2000), I Kissed A Girl (Katy Perry, 2008), So What! (Pink, 2008), My Life Would Suck Without You (Kelly Clarkson, 2009), California Gurls (Katy Perry fear. Snoop Dogg, 2010), Dynamite (Taio Cruz, 2010), Domino (Jessie J, 2012), Part Of Me (Katy Perry, 2012), This Is Love (Will.I.Am feat. Eva Simons, 2012), Roar (Katy Perry, 2013), Problem (Ariana Grande feat. Iggy Azalea, 2014), Bang Bang (Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj, 2014), Love Me Like You Do (Ellie Goulding, 2015), I Don’t Care (Ed Sheeran & Justin Bieber, 2019), Beautiful People (Ed Sheeran feat. Khalid, 2019) and Take Me Back To London (Ed Sheeran feat. Stormzy, 2019). After dipping 2-3 last week, The Box returns to runners-up position for Roddy Ricch (54,557 sales), but the near exhaustion of the CD edition that powered it to No.1 last week sees Lewis Capaldi’s Before You Go subside to No.3 (48,781 sales). Recovering 6-4 (44,002 sales), Don’t Start Now has spent 13 weeks in the Top 10 thus far, making it Dua Lipa’s longest-running hit in the top tier. Meanwhile, her new single, Physical, debuts at No.12 (29,700 sales) becoming her 13th Top 75 entry and 10th Top 20 hit. Both tracks are from Lipa’s upcoming second album, Future Nostalgia. The rest of the Top 10: Godzilla (4-5, 41,945 sales) by Eminem feat. Juice WRLD, Someone You Loved (9-6, 36,238 sales) by Lewis Capaldi, Everything I Wanted (8-7, 35,607 sales) by Billie Eilish, Life Is Good (7-8, 35,145 sales) by Future feat. Drake, Roxanne (10-9, 32,563 sales) by Arizona Zervas and a resurgent Adore You (14-10, 30,257 sales) by Harry Styles, which replaces ACR casualty Own It (5-24, 22,158 sales) by Stormzy feat. Ed Sheeran & Burna Boy in the top tier. Rapper and YouTube personality KSI is off to his fastest start ever with Wake Up Call, which debuts at No.11 (29,801 sales), becoming his sixth Top 75 entry. The track also marks the maiden Top 75 appearance of featured guest, Trippie Redd, who has had 18 Hot 100 entries in his native USA. Also new to the chart: Only The Young (No.57, 9,660 sales), a track from Taylor Swift’s new Netfix documentary Miss Americana, and her 39th hit; Momentary Bliss (No.58, 9,571 sales), the 12th hit for Gorillaz, who last charted in 2013, the second hit for their featured guests Slowthai, and the first for Slaves; Get Me (No.61, 9,007 sales), the 59th hit for Justin Bieber, and the seventh for his guest, Kehlani; Charades (No.67, 7,992 sales), the eight hit for London rapper Headie One, and the first for Fred Again; What If I Told You I Love You (82-71, 7,457 sales), the second hit for Canadian rapper Ali Gatie; and If The World Was Ending (80-75, 7,199 sales), the introductory hit for Canadian singer/songwriter JP Saxe, and the third for featured vocalist Julia Michaels. Roses continues to bloom for SAINt JHN. Remixed for the dancefloor by obscure 19-year-old DJ Imanbek from Kazakhstan, the track, which previously moved 72-55-40, now jumps to No.21 (23,105 sales). Roses was originally a track on the Kitsune Maison Compilation Volume 18 in 2016, then appeared on SAINt JHN’s 2018 album, Collection 1. It started to take off in Europe last summer and has been a major hit in many territories before breaking here. Its consumption has increased in 12 of the last 13 weeks in the UK, and now stands at 95,422 units. There are also new peaks for: You Should Be Sad (24-17, 24,496 sales) by Halsey, Lonely (61-30, 18,780 sales) by Joel Corry, What A Man Gotta Do (34-31, 18,253 sales) by Jonas Brothers, Say So (45-35, 15,181 sales) by Doja Cat, Better Off Without You (42-36, 14,930 sales) by Becky Hill feat. Shift K3y, Suicidal (44-42, 12,565 sales) by YNW Melly, Power Over Me (48-43, 12,447 sales) by Dermot Kennedy, Ballin’ (64-46, 11,305 sales) by Mustard feat. Roddy Ricch, High Fashion (63-56, 10,000 sales) by Roddy Ricch feat. Mustard, Sugar (62-60, 9,267 sales) by Brockhampton, One Night (65-62, 8,795 sales) by MK & Sonny Fodera feat. Raphaella and July (74-66, 8,049 sales) by Noah Cyrus Singles sales are up 0.06% week-on-week at 20,938,673, 21.47% above same week 2019 sales of 17,238,250. Paid-for sales are down 6.17% week-on-week at 568,790 – 28.19% below same week 2019 sales of 792,029, and below same week, previous year sales for the 340th consecutive week.

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