ALBUMS
A month after becoming the sixth French act to have a number one single, Daft Punk become the very first French act to have a number one album - and how!. While introductory single Get Lucky loses its crown after four weeks, Random Access Memories has a formidable first week, dashing to the summit on sales of 165,091 copies. That's the highest weekly sale by any album since Emeli Sande’s Our Version Of Events topped the Christmas 2012 chart on sales of 177,696. 58 albums have opened their careers with higher first week sales than Random Access Memories in the 21st century, although the last was Amy Winehouse’s posthumous Lioness: Hidden treasures, which launched in December 2011 with sales of 194,966.
Daft Punk's fourth regular studio album, Random Access Memories simultaneously eclipses the band's best chart position and sales week, both previously established by their second album Discovery when it debuted at number two on sales of 50,629 in 2001. Discovery is by far Daft Punk's biggest seller, with a to-date tally of 566,927 The band's debut album Homework, which debuted and peaked at number eight in 1997 on first week sales of 12,817, has sold 345,009 copies. Their most recent album, Human After All, which opened at number 10 in 2005 (18,524 sales) has thus far sold just 80,838 copies, a total eclipsed by both the compilation Musique Volume 1: 1993-2005 (122,487 sales) and their Tron Legacy soundtrack (128,595 sales, including the Reconfigured reissue) despite their lower (number 34 and number 39) chart peaks. Their concert set Live 2007 only reached number 86 but has also done well, accumulating sales of 53,613 copies so far. The earlier Alive 1997 didn't chart but has sold 15,517 copies.
It is interesting too look at the composition of sales of Random Access Memory last week. For the sake of comparison, Rod Stewart's Time - as befits a release by a heritage artist - sold largely (85.57%) on CD when it opened at number one the previous week, with digital squeezed to just 14.30%, and vinyl accounting for 0.13%. Although no slouch on CD, which accounted for 66,205 of its sales (40.10%), Random Access Memory sets a new record for digital sales, selling a massive 92,834 copies (56.23% of its total sales) in that format to easily beat the previous record of 83,675 sales set by Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto on the week of its chart debut in 2011. You may have noticed that leaves a further 6,052 – 3.67% - of Random Access Memory's sales unaccounted for. These were in the ancient and venerable vinyl format, and represent the third highest vinyl tally for any album in any week of the 21st century, being surpassed only by Radiohead's The King Of Limbs, which sold 12,964 copies and 11,960 copies in the format on its fifth and sixth weeks in the chart in 2011, following its belated release in said variant. Eight of the 14 biggest weekly sales turned in by vinyl in the 21st century were by Travis' The Invisible Band, which is the biggest seller in the format since 2000, with a to date tally of 28,675. The King Of Limbs is second (21,853) - and Random Access Memory is already 28th. Although Adele's 21 is by far the biggest selling album of the 21st century overall, it is only 24th on the vinyl list, with sales of 6,538.
Swept aside by Daft Punk, Rod Stewart's Time nevertheless stood up well against a tide of other new entries, and only slips to second place, with sales off a minuscule 9.10% at 52,373.
American indie band The National first made the Top 200 in 2005, when their third album, Alligator, reached number 165, Two years later, follow-up Boxer fared much better, reaching number 57 – and fifth album High Violet debuted at number five in 2010, scoring the band's highest weekly sale to that point - 18,272. Their sixth album, Trouble Will Find Me, opens 15.12% bigger, with 21,034 sales, debuting at number three.
Back in harness for the first time since 2005, Scots band Texas debut at number four (18,028 sales) with The Conversation. That easily beats the number 16 debut/peak of their last album, Red Book, but doesn't come near matching its first week sales of 27,205. It is their eighth chart album in all. Three of them reached number one, including their 2000 compilation The Greatest Hits, which remains their biggest seller with sales of 1,934,608.
Los Angeles alt. rock band 30 Seconds To Mars continue their upwards trajectory, with fourth album Love, Lust, Faith And Dreams debuting at number five (17,955 sales). They debuted at number 31 and peaked at number 15 with last album This Is War, which had inflated first week sales of 27,022 just before Christmas 2009. Second album, A Beautiful Lie, was also a grower, debuting at number 51 (4,141 sales) in 2007 and peaking at number 38, while their eponymous debut album, released in 2002, has never charted, although a rogue Wikipedia entry brought to my attention says it got to number 136.
All four of Demi Lovato's albums to date have made the top five in America. None have here - but Lovato's latest, Demi, is her first to breach the Top 40, doing so with some comfort as it debuts at number 10 (10,658 sales), hot on the heels of introductory single Heart Attack, which reached number three last week.
Crossover jazz artist Jamie Cullum's sixth album, Momentum, brings his fifth chart entry, debuting at number 20 (7,086 sales).
Australian hard rock band Airborne debuted and peaked at number 21 with 2007 debut Runnin' Wild and at number 19 with 2010 follow-up No Guts, No Glory. Third album Black Dog Barking opens slightly down on its predecessors, debuting at number 22 (6,083 sales)
Seesaw is the second collaboration between blues rockers Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa. It debuts at number 27 (4,868 sales) falling short of the debut/peak of their previous collaboration Don't Explain, which got to number 22 in 2011. Hart has been making albums since 1993, but apart from her Bonamassa collaborations she has only charted with Bang Bang, Boom Boom, which got to number 52 last Autumn. Bonamassa started recording in 2000 and didn't make his chart debut until 2007 but has been speeding ever since - Seesaw is his 13th chart album, including those Hart collaborations, solo sets and three albums as a member of Black Country Communion.
Albums in the Top 10 not mentioned thus far: Rudimental’s Home slips 5-6 (16,500 sales), Passenger’s All The Little Lights only holds at number seven (16,407 sales) despite increasing sales 31.52% week-on-week, Caro Emerald’s The Shocking Miss Emerald slides 4-8 (12,970 sales), and Gabrielle Aplin’s English Rain dips 2-9 (11,087 sales).
Not in that list, you will note, is Emeli Sande's debut album Our Version Of Events, which departs from the Top 10 after a record-setting 66 week run – four more than the previous high, set by The Beatles’ Please Please Me 49 years ago. Our Version Of Events falls 8-15 (8,906 sales) this week.
Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires Of The City suffers a 3-14 dip (9,437 sales), Agnetha Faltskog’s A slides 6-21 (6,964 sales) and Primal Scream’s More Light slumps 12-33 (3,736 sales) on their second week in the chart.
Now That's What I Call Music! 84 spends its ninth straight week atop the compilation chart, on sales of 18,739 copies.
Overall album sales are up 10.31% week-on-week at 1,563,469 – their highest level for eight weeks, and 19.08% above same week 2012 sales of 1,312,971.
SINGLES
His first two Top 10 singles featured Emeli Sande on lead vocals (one of them in cahoots with Wiley) but for his third, Naughty Boy recruited Sam Smith - and the combination is a huge success earning both their first number one hit with La La La storming straight to number one on first week sales of 145,326 copies. It's the first Top 10 hit for Smith, who was vocalist on Disclosure's Latch, which reached number 11 last November. The only number soingle to sell more copies in a week this year was Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, which sold 163,384 copies on its second week at number one. Speaking of which…
Becoming the first single to sell upwards of 100,000 copies for five weeks in a row this century, Get Lucky proves incredibly robust even as it slips to number two, with attention shifted to Daft Punk's new album. Get Licky sold 105,438 copies last week to cruise past Thrift Shop by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat Wanz) to become the year's biggest seller. After 37 days on sale, it has sold 711,449 copies.
The last single to sell upwards of 100,000 copies for five weeks in a row?. Cher's 1998 monster Believe, which actually recorded a six figure sale for each of its first 10 weeks in the shops (a phrase I can't really use about singles any more) with tallies of 167,751, 205,238, 186,768, 164,642, 139,132, 126,011, 114,633, 114,452, 123,699 and 120,292. Its latter stages were buoyed by the approach of Christmas, and its sales collapsed immediately afterwards, with tallies of 56,745 on its 11th week, as it dropped 3-4. It was number one for its first seven weeks, and remains one of the UK's most successful singles ever, with to-date sales of 1,770,757, including 25,735 in the last year.
Completing a very strong top three, Passenger's Let Her Go increases sales for the eighth week in a row, selling a further 74,162 copies. That’s 4.57% up week-on-week, and lift its cumulative sales to 319,985.
After gaining a toehold on the chart last week, when it was number 61 on the basis of two days sales, We Own It (Fast And Furious) catapults to number six (34,272 sales) for 2 Chainz feat. Wiz Khalifa. A major clue to the track's sudden take-off is provided by its parenthetical title - it is featured in the new Fast And Furious 6 film, which is currently number one in the box office chart.
Olly Murs registers his sixth Top 10 single, with Dear Darlin’ jumping 18-9 (32,094 sales). It is the third single from Murs’ third album Right Place Right Time, following the chart-topping Troublemaker (feat. Flo Rida), and Army Of Two, which reached number 12. The album climbs 28-25, achieving its highest chart placing for seven weeks on sales of 5,046 copies, which lift its career (26 week) cumulative tally to 714,356.
Elsewhere in the Top 10: Can’t Hold Us remains at number four for Macklemore & Ray Lewis feat. Ray Dalton (42,569 sales), Waiting All Night continues at number five for Rudimental feat. Ella Eyre (38,081 sales), Play Hard rallies 9-7 for David Guetta feat. Ne-Yo & Akon (33,872 sales), This Is What It Feels Like remains at number eight for Armin Van Buuren feat. Trevor Guthrie (33,691 sales) and So Good To Me ebbs 7-10 for Chris Malinchak (29,710 sales).
The 1975 reached number 19 in April with their debut hit Chocolate, and follow-up with The City, which debuts at number 30 (9,794 sales).
As high as number six on the initial midweek sales flashes, the Eurovision-winning Only Teardrops springs 99-15 (18,443 sales) for Denmark's Emmelie De Forest. It is one of nine tracks from this year's competition to feature in the Top 200 this week. The others: Tomorrow by Gianluca Bezzina (The Malta entry, number 66, 4,007 sales), You by Robin Stjernberg (Sweden, number 72, 3,720 sales), I Feed You My Love by Margaret Berger (Norway, number 80, 3,322 sales), Marry Me by Krista Siegfrids (Finland, number 102, 2,432 sales), Glorious by Cascada (Germany, number 129, 1,931 sales), Birds by Anouk (The Netherlands, number 158, 1,661 sales), What If by Dina Garipova (Russia, number 161, 1,641 sales). Plus, of course, Bonnie Tyler's UK entry Believe In Me, which slides 93-137 (1,842 sales). 2012 winner Euphoria by Loreen jumps 113-75 (3,451 sales).
Current hits that reach new peaks are: Still Into You by Paramore (24-17, 18,082 sales), Young And Beautiful by Lana Del Rey (43-23, 12,996 sales), #Beautiful by Mariah Carey feat. Miguel (27-24, 12,379 sales).
There’s no second crack at the Top 10 for StooShe’s Slip, which tumbles 12-28 (10,168 sales),
We are not always allowed to bring you information about sales achievements as soon as we’d like, because of embargoes, schedules and deadlines. However, we are pleased to confirm that The Kings Of Leon’s 2008 single Use Somebody became the band’s second million seller four weeks ago. Number 98 on the current chart, it sold 2,660 copies last week to raise its overall tally to 1,011,039. It is the UK’s 133rd million selling single in all, and the 34th single issued this century to hit seven figures. It is the second nillion seller for The Kings Of Leon: Sex On Fire, which was the single before Use Somebody, has sold 1,267,473 copies to date. The only other artist to have more than one million seller in the 21st century is Rihanna, who has crossed the barrier three times.
Overall singles sales are up 0.07% week-on-week at 3,354,063 – 8.44% above same week 2012 sales of 3,092,966.
