Charts analysis: Busted earn their first ever No.1 album with Greatest Hits 2.0

Twenty-one years after their eponymous introductory release became the first of their three No.2 albums, Busted top the chart for the first time, with new compilation/remakes set, Greatest Hits 2.0 becoming the 16th album to debut at No.1 in as many weeks. With a regular edition featuring new versions of re-recordings of songs from their first two albums and new song Good One, and a deluxe ‘guest features’ edition adding a plethora of collaborations with Jonas Brothers, Vamps, McFly, James Arthur, Wheatus and Hanson, among others, the set racks up first week consumption of 27,319 units (15,932 CDs, 3,868 vinyl albums, 1,631 cassettes, 3,656 digital downloads and 2,232 sales-equivalent streams). Galvanised by the band’s current 20th Anniversary/Greatest Hits arena tour, it topped all of the constituent format charts, except streaming, where it ranked 40th. Alongside its lofty chart position, the album has a higher first week sale than all but two of their five previous chart entries. Lower: their self-titled debut, which opened at No.30 in 2002 on sales of 8,607 copies, peaking 17 weeks later at No.2 on consumption of 36,645 copies; their third studio album, Night Driver, which sold 21,026 copies debuting at No.13 in 2016; and fourth studio album, Half Way There, which achieved consumption of 17,136 units opening at No.2 in 2019. Higher: their second studio album, A Present For Everyone, which sold 117,583 copies debuting at No.2 in 2003; and concert set Live: A Ticket For Everyone which sold 28,501 copies debuting at No.11 in 2004. Their overall UK albums exceed three million, with the individual tallies as follows: Busted – 1,235,269, A Present For Everyone – 1,160,719, Live: A Ticket For Everyone – 492,159, Night Driver – 65,583 and Half Way There – 40,474. In Busted’s biggest hit, Year 3000, they boast that ‘this song has gone multi-platinum’. It’s not multi-platinum yet, but then it’s also not Year 3000 yet. Its to-date sale of 1,064,984 is increasing at the rate of about 2,500 a week so far this year, which would see it go multi-platinum – double - in a little over a year. Born in Japan but resident in the USA, and with dual heritage, indie/pop singer/songwriter Mitski turns 33 next Wednesday (September 27), and scores her second consecutive Top 10 album and third Top 75 entry courtesy of The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We (No.4, 6,420 sales). Be The Cowboy earned Mitski a first UK chart toehold in 2018, peaking at No.64, and has remained popular ever since, accumulating 80,540 sales, while her sixth album and second charted set, Laurel Hell, opened at No.6 (5,876 sales) last year and has to-date consumption of 28,449 units. The highest-charting set by a Japanese-born artist is UK-based Rina Sawayama’s Hold The Girl, which debuted and peaked at No.3 a year ago this week, and which sees a 512.50% spike in consumption – up from 96 to 588 in the latest frame – after being released in its ninth vinyl variant (opaque white and cobalt blue vinyl, different sleeve) and third CD edition (different sleeve) last Friday (September 15), raising its overall UK consumption to 30,042 units. Sawayama is 42 days older than Mitski. Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts racked up higher streaming figures than any album thus far this year when debuting at No.1 last week – and although its pure sales dip 84.60% week-on-week from 32,107 to 4,946 units, it suffers a lesser 32.48% dip in sales-equivalent streams to 19,018 units, with overall consumption of 23,964 units as it dips to No.2. Her 2021 debut album, Sour, climbs 8-5 (5,458 sales) to secure its highest chart position for 59 weeks. Last week’s Top 10 was the first in which Taylor Swift had not featured this year. This week she has three re-entries: Midnights (11-7, 4,979 sales), 1989 (14-9, 4,621 sales) and Lover (13-10, 4,404 sales). The rest of the Top 10: The Highlights (4-3, 6,858 sales) by The Weeknd, 50 Years: Don’t Stop (7-6, 5,220 sales) by Fleetwood Mac and Diamonds (10-8, 4,837 sales) by Elton John. Exiting the Top 10: Utopia (2-15, 4,202 sales) by Travis Scott, Hit Parade (5-73, 1,899 sales) by Roisin Murphy, My Neighbours Don’t Know (9-106, 1,494 sales) by M Huncho, For That Beautiful Feeling (6-111, 1,458 sales) by Chemical Brothers, and – falling from No.3 to a position outside the Top 200 - Sea Of Mirrors (1,016 sales) by The Coral. Chart regulars for more than 30 years, rock trio Ash, from Downpatrick in Northern Ireland, debut at No.14 (4,273 sales) with Race The Night, their eighth studio album and 11th chart entry in total, achieving their highest chart placing since 2004. Also new to the chart: CMF2 (No.17, 3,972 sales), the second solo album by hard rock band Slipknot’s lead vocalist, Corey Taylor, three years after the similarly-titled CMFT reached No.11; It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day (No.20, 3,823 sales), the sixth studio album and fifth Top 75 entry for Californian fraternal rock duo 30 Seconds To Mars, whose last two albums both went Top 5; Relentless (No.25, 3,656 sales), the 12th studio album, 16th Top 75 album in all, and highest charting studio set by The Pretenders – still led by 72-year-old Chrissie Hynde - since 1994; Silence Between Songs (No.28, 3,409 sales), the second album by 24-year-old New York singer/songwriter Madison Beer, whose debut Life Support achieved the same debut position on lower sales of 2,603 in 2021; and Boy Meets World (No.32, 3,295 sales), the second album by 23-year-old New York rapper Sleepy Hallow, whose 2021 debut Still Sleep peaked at No.144 but has to-date consumption of 57,210 units. Outside the Top 40, the new entries are: Nostalgia (No.46, 2,341 sales), the fifth album, second and highest chart entry for 25-year-old rapper/singer Rod Wave from Florida; Foxtrot At Fifty + Hackett Highlights: Live In Brighton (No.51, 2,232 sales), the 18th solo chart entry for 73-year-old singer/songwriter Steve Hackett, who was a member of Genesis from 1970 to 1977; Revamped (No.59, 2,115 sales), a collection of rock remakes of earlier material by Demi Lovato, and her seventh chart album. Available only digitally at this juncture, the Sleepy Hallow and Rod Wave albums are streaming well but achieve incredibly low digital sales – two for the former and one for the latter. Fifty-two years after it became The Who’s only No.1 album, Who’s Next has been reissued in a super deluxe edition in several formats with much bonus material, including demos from their ‘lost album Life House, and returns to the chart at No.18 (3,936 sales). It’s week nine at No.1 on the compilation album chart for Barbie The Album, on consumption of 7,301 units (441 CDs, 205 vinyl albums, 67 digital downloads and 6,588 sales-equivalent streams). Overall album sales are down 1.34% week-on-week at 2,147,708, 15.60% above same week 2022 sales of 1,857,916. Physical product accounts for 261,365 sales, 12.17% of the total.

Charts analysis: Doja Cat secures second week at singles summit

Ending a run of four consecutive weeks in which leadership of the singles chart has changed hands, Doja Cat’s Paint The Town Red secures its second week atop the list on consumption of 54,414 units (1,188 digital downloads, 53,226 sales-equivalent streams). Its own dip in support – it is down 6.12% week-on-week - coincides with the release of Olivia Rodrigo’s new album Guts, which triggers a resurgence in support for both of that album’s previously released tracks, with former No.1 Vampire racking up a 40.72% increase in consumption as it rebounds 3-2 (43,651 sales), while Bad Idea Right? – which previously peaked at No.6 – posts a 77.96% gain as it jumps 12-3 (34,758 sales). It is a record fifth week in a row that the entire Top 3 has been populated by tracks from female solo artists. Rodrigo also lands her 10th hit in total and seventh Top 10 entry with Guts track, Get Him Back! (No.7, 28,445 sales). Nine further songs from the set are ‘starred-out’ between No.9 and No.19. A week after landing in the Top 10 for the first time in his career, Fred Again.. makes further significant gains with Adore U (feat. Obongjayar) jumping 9-4 (30,452 sales). There is also a new peak for Prada, which advances 7-5 (30,194 sales) for Cassö, Raye & D-Block Europe. The Fred Again track is even more successful in Ireland, where it climbs 2-1. The rest of the Top 10: Cruel Summer (2-6, 30,114 sales) by Taylor Swift, Desire (6-8, 27,265 sales) by Calvin Harris & Sam Smith, (It Goes Like) Nanana (5-9, 26,212 sales) by Peggy Gou and Disconnect (8-10, 25,078 sales) by Becky Hill and Chase & Status. Exiting the Top 10 are: What Was I Made For? (4-11, 24,528 sales) by Billie Eilish and Baddadan (10-13, 24,085 sales) by Chase & Status and Bou feat. Irah, Flowdan, Trigga & Takura. Little Mix singer Leigh-Anne (Pinnock) reached No.11 with her debut solo single Don’t Say Love in July with signed 99p CDs accounting for 38.73% (8,090) of its 20,888 sales. Follow-up My Love, feat. Ayra Starr, is available in three (unsigned) CD variants whose combined sales of 2,766 copies put it No.2 on that format’s chart, while accounting for 26.86% of its overall consumption of 10,297 units, enough for it to debut only at No.28. Ms. Pinnock has 45 Top 75 entries with Little Mix, 19 of them reaching the Top 10. Sixty years to the week since The Rolling Stones’ debut hit – a cover of Chuck Berry’s Come On – was at its peak position of No.21, the legendary band return to the chart with their 55th hit in total and highest-charting single since 2005 with Angry (No.34, 8,958 sales). It also debuts at No.2 on the CD singles chart (961 sales) and No.1 on both the 7-inch (906 sales) and 12-inch (1,285 sales) singles charts, the latter actually courtesy of a 10-inch single. The introductory single from their upcoming album Hackney Diamonds – their first for seven years – it means that they are the first act in chart history to have a span of newly-recorded hits spanning 60 years. Effectively reduced to a trio by the death of drummer Charlie Watts in 2021, they have an average age of 78.67 and thus take the record for the oldest group to have a hit from The Zimmers, who reached No.26 with their cover of The Who’s My Generation in 2007. In reality more of a large aggregation put together for a BBC show than a real ‘band’, the Zimmers had a reported average age of 78, and a likely average of 78.5 minus a fraction for the purportedly inflated age claimed by supposed oldest member Buster Martin. Also new to the Top 75: Slow Dancing (No.24, 12,133 sales), the first solo hit for BTS member V (no relation to British boy band V, who had three hits in 2004); rap collaboration Bongos (No.35, 8,949 sales), the 26th hit for Cardi B and the ninth for featured guest Megan Thee Stallion, three years to the week after they topped the chart with their controversial collaboration WAP; rap collaboration Tip Toes (No.52, 7,589 sales), the eighth hit for Clavish and the 27th for Aitch; and Water (No.55, 7,318 sales), a new TikTok sensation and the soulful debut hit for 21-year-old Tyla from Johannesburg in South Africa. Another viral success for a singer born in South Africa, Kenya Grace’s debut hit Strangers jumps 20-12 (24,350 sales sales), while an artist originally from Jo’burg but considered Australian, Troye Sivan, hits a new peak with Rush (22-21, 13,068 sales). It is the first time in chart history that we’ve had three simultaneous hits by acts born in South Africa. There are also new peaks for: Bittersweet Goodbye (23-22, 12,608 sales) by Issey Cross, City Boys (32-23, 12,398 sales) by Burna Boy, Relax My Eyes (39-33, 9,002 sales) by ANOTR & Abel Balder, DNA (Loving You) (54-43, 8,482 sales) by Billy Gillies feat. Hannah Boleyn, I Remember Everything (50-45, 8,370 sales) by Zach Bryan feat. Kacey Musgraves, Party All The Time (57-53, 7,497 sales) by Hannah Laing & HVRR, Back On 74 (73-69, 6,278 sales) by Jungle and Million Dollar Bill (72-70, 6,148 sales) by Beyond Chicago, Majestic & Alex Mills. Overall singles sales are up 0.33% week-on-week to 26,486,891 units, 13.27% above same week 2022 consumption of 23,383,522 units. Paid-for sales are up 4.48% week-on-week at 281,195 – 2.92% below same week 2022 sales of 289,648.

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