Charts analysis: Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department goes platinum in second week at summit

Eleven new albums debut on the Top 75 this week but none of them is strong enough to unseat The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD), which secures an easy second week at No.1 for Taylor Swift on consumption of 49,698 units. It now has sales to date of 319,789. Selling 4,694 CDs, 3,224 vinyl albums, 35 cassettes, 1,174 digital downloads and achieving 40,571 sales-equivalent streams in its latest frame, TTPD draws 18.36% of its total from sales and 81.64% from streaming, a big switch from last week when it was 70.79% sales and 29.21% streaming. It is the fourth of 12 No.1 albums by Swift to spend its second week on the chart at the apex – the others being Folklore, Midnights and 1989 (Taylor’s Version). TTPD has the highest second week consumption yet for a Swift album, replacing Midnights, which fell 76.47% second week to 48,113 units in 2022. Ahead of Swift on the first couple of sales flashes but never in with a real chance of becoming No.1, because of her far superior streaming power, the Pet Shop Boys’ new set, Nonetheless (No.2, 22,419 sales) nonetheless gave the veteran synth-pop duo their highest chart position since compilation Alternative reached No.2 in 1995. The 15th studio album by the pair – 64-year-old keyboards player Chris Lowe and 69-year-old vocalist Neil Tennant – it extends to more than 38 years their impressive, uninterrupted run of Top 10 studio albums. It is the most of any duo – Erasure, who started their album chart career the same year, and have been more productive, issuing 19 studio albums, (including four No.1s in a row) have overall been less successful, with only eight Top 10 albums in total, and no more than five in a row, a third of The Pet Shop Boys’ ongoing total. Including compilations, live sets, soundtracks, mini albums et al, The Pet Shop Boys have had 19 Top 10 and 29 Top 75 albums but 1993 release Very – their fifth studio album – remains their only No.1. Nonetheless’ sales-equivalent streams of 811 units - less than 1/50th of those of TTPD – failed to earn it a place on the Top 200 artist album streaming chart. However, it was easily No.1 album on both physical and overall paid-for sales, with a total of 21,608, comprising 10,815 CDs, 7,761 vinyl albums, 527 cassettes, 1,218 blu-ray discs and 1,287 digital downloads. First week consumption of Nonetheless were 33.70% above the 16,768 start made by the last PSBs album, 2020’s Hotspot, and their highest since their 10th studio album Yes opened with sales of 27,639 in 2009. St. Vincent racks up her third straight Top 10 entry, and fifth Top 75 entry with eighth album, All Born Screaming, debuting at No.5 (6,989 sales). The 41-year-old singer/songwriter – real name Annie Clark – played keyboards, guitars, drums and even a theremin on the album, also writing every track (one with Cate Le Bon) and producing the set. Her blockbusting debut album, I Cry When I Laugh, opened at No.1 on consumption of 59,117 units in 2015, and follow-up, Always In Between, shifted 36,449 copies repeating the position in 2018 but Jess Glynne’s third album – entitled simply Jess – makes a more subdued debut this week, entering at No.6 (6,829 sales). I Cry When I Laugh has to-date consumption of 1,510,678 units, Always In Between 577,641. Liverpool band The Zutons’ energetic brand of indie rock resulted in Top 10 placings for all of the three albums they released before disbanding in 2009. Returning in 2018, they have finally released their fourth album, The Big Decider, sixteen years after the third. Produced by the legendary Nile Rodgers, it debuts at No.7 (6,753 sales). All of their current members – 43-year-old singer/rhythm guitarist Dave McCabe, 45-year-old drummer Sean Payne and 41-year-old saxophonist Abi Harding – have been stalwarts of the band since before the release of their 2004 debut, the No.6 success Who Killed The Zutons, which remains their biggest-seller (674,565 sales). The rest of the Top 10: The Highlights (4-3, 8,340 sales) by The Weeknd, Guts (6-4, 7,209 sales) by Olivia Rodrigo, Cowboy Carter (3-8, 6,716 sales) by Beyonce, Stick Season (7-9, 6,133 sales) by Noah Kahan and 50 Years: Don’t Stop (8-10, 5,701 sales) by Fleetwood Mac. Exiting the Top 10; Gold: Greatest Hits (10-11, 5,446 sales) by Abba, Rumours (9-27, 3,779 sales) by Fleetwood Mac, Dark Matter (2-123, 1,583 sales) by Pearl Jam and UB45 (5-176, 1,228 sales) by UB40. No.89 when first released last November, Icelandic singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Laufey’s second album, Goddess, has been released in a new, expanded edition across all formats and makes its and her introductory Top 75 appearance as a result, opening at No.13 (4,945 sales). Also new to the Top 75: Boy (No.22, 4,058 sales) a seven song, 23-minute EP by Australian singer Luke Hemmings, who has topped the chart as a member of 5 Seconds Of Summer but only reached No.51 with his only full length solo album, When Facing The Things We Turn Away From in 2021; PartyNextDoor 4 (No.26, 3,850 sales), the fourth album and fourth Top 75 entry by Canadian R&B singer/songwriter PartyNextDoor; Hyperdrama (No.34, 3,190 sales), the fourth album and highest chart entry by French duo Justice, arriving 17 years after their debut and more than seven years after their last album; Forgiveness Is Yours (No.61, 2,331 sales), the fourth album and third chart entry for eclectic London-based sextet Fat White Family; Against All Odds (No.63, 2,283 sales), the first chart entry by 26-year-old Liverpool drill rapper Michael Graham as Mazza-L20; and Parked Car Conversations (No.74, 2,062 sales), the fourth album and third chart entry for Irish band, Picture This. No.40 in 1998, Roseland NYC Live by Portishead is the subject of a slightly late 25th anniversary edition. Remastered and expanded, it re-enters at No.51 (2,459 sales). Teddy Swims has released a 1.5 edition of his debut album I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1), adding four new tracks. It responds by jumping 95-33 (3,262 sales) to achieve its highest position for 13 weeks. Its return to No.1 on the compilation chart reflecting only how weak that market is, The Greatest Showman soundtrack – from 2017 - secures its 42nd week at the apex in total on consumption of 2,766 units (141 CDs, 44 vinyl albums, 55 digital downloads and 2,526 sales-equivalent streams). Overall album sales are down 9.93% week-on-week at 2,460,878, 5.06% above same week 2023 sales of 2,342,365. Physical product accounts for 330,216 sales, 13.42% of the total.

Charts analysis: Taylor Swift scores fourth No.1 single and third chart double

Taylor Swift simultaneously registers her 12th No.1 album, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD), and fourth No.1 single, with lead track Fortnight (feat. Post Malone). It is her third chart double. Far out pacing the chasing pack – including all 30 of the other tracks on the album – Fortnight enjoys a terrific first week, achieving consumption of 93,451 units (1,534 digital downloads, 91,917 sales-equivalent streams), the highest figure for a No.1 single this year. It is also the highest of Swift’s career, replacing the debut week of her introductory (2017) No.1, Look What You Made Me Do (88,247 sales). Swift’s fourth No.1, Fortnight is the second No.1 and 34th hit in all for rapper Malone, who previously reached the summit in 2017 with 21 Savage collaboration, Rockstar. Swift also bags a No.3 debut with the TTPD’s title track (60,243 sales) and a No.4 debut (59,225 sales) with Down Bad. Under primary artist rules, only the top three are allocated chart positions – but the 28 other tracks on TTPD are ‘starred-out’ between No.4 and No.32, while all are among the top 65 titles in the Top 200 Combined Tracks chart, where neither VAR or primary artist rules are in operation. Of those missing the cut, the top titles are: I Can Do It With A Broken Heart (58,271 sales), So Long London (57,946 sales) and My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys (54,959 sales). The least popular track is Robin (14,590 sales). They all help to massively increase Swift’s already incredible career singles consumption, which rises 1,426,710 units week-on-week to 76.689,117. Although all of Swift’s albums suffer reduced consumption as TTPD takes precedence, her career album consumption is up 298,209 units week-on-week to 9,105,235 units. Its two-week run at No.1 rudely curtailed, Too Sweet slips to No.2 (66,073 sales) for Hozier. Swift has now had 73 Top 75 entries, 54 Top 40 and 29 Top 10 hits putting her second to Madonna in the first two categories amongst women, and fourth behind Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Rihanna in Top 10 hits by females. On a more whimsical note, Swift spends much of her time on TTPD dissing two British former boyfriends, if the tabloids are to be believed, and she also seems to have absorbed some English idioms and words, not least Fortnight itself. The term, commonly used here for two weeks or 14 days, is rarely heard in America, and has never been used in the title of a hit song before, although most other words for the passage of time have, with second (first used on a hit title in this context in 1989), minute (1962), hour (1963), day (1953), week (1960), month (1995), year (1965), decade (2004) and century (1973) all preceding it. Fortnight has been used in some hit lyrics previously, including Bitch (No.2, 1971) by The Rolling Stones, Just Checkin’ (No.59, 2000) by The Beautiful South and Samantha (No.63, 2017) by Dave & J Hus. Swift mentioned whiskey in her 2017 No.15 hit Gorgeous but not on Fortnight, ending the sequence of No.1 hits using the word ‘whiskey’ in their lyrics (Texas Hold ‘Em and Too Sweet). The only drink-related lyric in Fortnight is ‘functioning alcoholic’. Espresso became Sabrina Carpenter’s first ever Top 10 hit last week, and continues to grow, advancing 6-5 (58,053 sales). The rest of the Top 10: Beautiful Things (2-6, 49,161 sales) by Benson Boone, I Like The Way You Kiss Me (3-7, 48,067 sales) by Artemas, Lose Control (4-8, 42,174 sales) by Teddy Swims, Texas Hold ‘Em (5-9, 36,133 sales) by Beyonce and Austin (7-10, 35,050 sales) by Dasha. Their chart positions negatively impacted by Taylor Swift’s Top 10 triple, the tracks by Boone, Artemas and Dasha nevertheless increase consumption. Taking their leave of the Top 10: We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love) (8-11, 28,748 sales) by Ariana Grande, Illusion (9-19, 20,526 sales) by Dua Lipa and Forget About Us (10-31, 15,348 sales) by Perrie. Drake’s new diss song Push Ups debuts at No.14 (23,328 sales), becoming the Canadian rapper’s 143rd Top 75 and 94th Top 40 hit. With two joint Top 10 hits to their credit – Audacity in 2019 and Ain’t It Different in 2020 – London rap heavyweights Stormzy and Headie One have joined forces again for Cry No More. Debuting at No.33 (14,471 sales), the track also features US producer Tay Keith. It is Stormzy’s 44th Top 75 single, Headie One’s 28th and Keith’s second. Two foreign language hits impact the Top 75 for the first time this week: Gata Only (76-58, 8,882 sales), is the Spanish language introductory hit of reggaeton artists FloyyMenor (18-year-old Alan Felipe Cepeda Galleguillos) and Cris MJ (22-year-old Christopher Andrés Álvarez García), possibly the first Chileans to make the chart. Meanwhile, Pedro (No.67, 7,953 sales) is an Italian language hit by Jaxomy, Agatino Romero & Raffaella Carra. The first hit for German DJ and producers Jaxomy (from Berlin) and Romero (Hamburg), it is effectively a remix of Carra’s 1980 No.5 Italian hit whose titular hero is cast as a juvenile tourist guide in New Mexico, and is namechecked no fewer than 64 times in the 2m 24s song. It is the second UK hit for Carra - who died in 2021 – exactly 46 years after her first, Do It, Do It Again, which reached No.9 in 1978. Also new to the chart: Malicious Intentions (No.41, 11,443 sales), the second hit for Croydon drill/rap artist Pozer; Starburster (No.62, 8,683 sales), the first hit for Dublin band Fontaines DC; and Joga Bonito (No.69, 7,495 sales), the 30th hit for London rapper AJ Tracey. Shaboozey’s rap/country hybrid, Bar Song (Tipsy) surges 41-16 (22,224 sales), while 19-year-old Philadelphia singer/rapper Lay Bankz’s Tell UR Girlfriend, jumps 31-19 (20,921 sales). Both are first hits on their second week in the chart. There are also new peaks for: Belong Together (13-12, 27,116 sales) by Mark Ambor, Good Luck Babe (33-21, 19,100 sales) by Chappell Roan, We Ain’t Here For Long (52-47, 10,446 sales) by Nathan Dawe, Cry (68-55, 9,582 sales) by Benson Boone and Outside Of Love (62-59, 8,838 sales) by Becky Hill. Overall singles consumption is up 2.22% week-on-week to 29,802,552 units - their highest ever level, and 11.72% above same week 2023 consumption of 26,677,015, units. Paid-for sales are up 15.25% week-on-week at 305,776 – 1.05% below same week 2023 sales of 309,006.

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