Album sales up again, as Usher tops chart

10:30 | Monday June 2, 2008

They also beat same-week 2007 sales of 1,979,725 by 3.7%. It is a welcome improvement, and one that is driven by higher sales in every segment of the chart, with end of month salary payments, half-term holidays and benign weather conditions doubtless all helping.

It’s certainly not due to a massive number one - the ninth different album to top the chart in as many weeks, Usher’s Here I Stand earns its place in the penthouse suite thanks to first week sales of 56,897 – higher than any album in the last three weeks but only the ninth best tally of the year.

Home to the recent number four single Love In This Club, the album is the 29-year-old R&B star’s third number one. Its opening numbers are some way adrift of 2004’s Confessions (98,272 sales) but ahead of 2001’s 8701 (42,706).

Perhaps surprisingly, only one of Usher’s four previous albums – Confessions - has reached number one album in America but sales projections suggest Here I Stand will be his second, with first week sales of around 400,000.

A fortnight after introductory single This Is An Emergency reached number 14, The Pigeon Detectives’ second album, Emergency, debuts at number five on sales of 31,066.

The Yorkshire band’s first album, Wait For Me, debuted at number three a year ago this week, on sales of 24,177. Said album spawned four Top 40 hits over the course of a 12 month period, and has remained in the Top 200 – with a low position of 129 – ever since its release. It falls 70-82 this week but sales of 2,414 push its cumulative tally into platinum territory, at 301,629.

Neil Diamond now boasts three simultaneous Top 25 albums. Diamond’s new set, Home Before Dark, slips 2-3 (36,370 sales) while his 1996 MCA compilation The Best Of Neil Diamond moves 8-9 (13,753 sales).

Now 2002 Columbia/Island compilation The Essential Neil Diamond is being re-promoted, and joins the party. Number 11 in 2002, it returns at number 22 (6,769 sales). A different Best Of Neil Diamond compilation on MCA has topped the budget chart for the last three weeks – and all are likely to benefit from ITV’s screening of An Audience With Neil Diamond last Saturday (31 May)

Two years ago this month, Scottish singer/songwriter Sandi Thom followed up her number one debut single I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker by taking the album chart’s top slot with her debut album, Smile It Confuses People, which sold 51,128 copies to lead the first-ever all new top five, in which she defeated the challenge of new releases from The Feeling, Ronan Keating, Paul Simon and Primal Scream – quite an achievement.

With first single The Devil’s Beat struggling to a number 58 peak, her second album The Pink & The Lily understandably makes a lower but creditable number 25 debut on sales of 6,569.

Sunderland’s Futureheads came close to breaking the Top 10 with their first two albums, reaching number 11 with their self-titled 2004 debut, and number 12 with News And Tributes.

They aren’t so close with third album This Is Not The World, which arrives two years to the week after their second, debuting at number 17 on sales of 8,669.

Its more muted reception could be because their latest single, Radio Heart, performed worse than its nine predecessors last week, peaking at number 65, despite help from CD and two vinyl versions. It’s the second single from This Is Not The World, following The Beginning Of The Twist, which did a lot better, reaching number 20 in March.

Something of a concept album, inspired by leader Jason Pierce’s near fatal 2005 health problems, Songs In A&E is Spiritualized’s first album since Amazing Grace in 2003, and debuts at number 15 on sales of 9,073, despite first single Soul On Fire’s failure to dent the Top 75.

The gospel-influenced Amazing Grace peaked at number 25, well below their two immediately prior studio albums, 2001’s Let it Come Down (number three) and 1997’s Ladies And Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space (number four).

It’s somehow appropriate that The Zombies are back from the dead, having recently marked the 40th anniversary of their classic album Odyssey & Oracle with a trio of performances of the album in its entirety at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire.

A new compilation, anthologising both their recordings as The Zombies, and subsequent solo material by lead singer Colin Blunstone, and band leader Rod Argent’s eponymous band, it charts this week at number 43 (3,715 sales) – and is the first ever chart album by the band, whose only Top 40 single, She’s Not There, reached number 12 in 1964.

Introductory single Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya) is off its peak, slipping 24-36, while Ashlee Simpson’s third album Bittersweet World makes its debut at number 57 (3,118 sales).

Simpson’s first two albums topped the chart in America but Bittersweet World peaked at number four last month. In the UK, Simpson’s 2004 debut, Autobiography, reached number 31, while 2005’s I Am Me peaked at number 50.

After successful treatment for a brain tumour for the second time, Russell Watson was profiled on ITV’s Tonight show last week, and his label issued a new 2CD version of his compilation, The Ultimate Collection. The original 2006 album peaked at number two and sold 311,035 copies. The “special edition” debuts at number 19 on sales of 8,508.

Welsh rockers Kids In Glass Houses gained a toehold on the singles chart last week, reaching number 62 with Give Me What I Want. Their first album, Smart Casual, makes a bigger impact, debuting at number 29 on sales of 5,811. Welsh sales of the album amounted to 17.2% of the total – a little more than double the market average of 8.5%.