Charts analysis: Sabrina Carpenter's three hits have now spent six weeks in Top 5

As Sab Summer turns to Sab Autumn, Sabrina Carpenter’s domination of the singles chart continues, with latest smash Taste claiming its sixth straight week at No.1 – and Carpenter’s 18th in 23 weeks – on consumption of 52,878 units (501 digital downloads and 52,377 sales-equivalent streams). With earlier hits Espresso (3-3, 38,079 sales) and Please Please Please (5-5, 34,459 sales) holding steady in a static top six, she has had three songs in the top five for an unprecedented six weeks in a row. Espresso has spent 25 consecutive weeks in the Top 20, with cumulative consumption of 1,409,326 units; Please Please Please has been in the same region for 17 weeks with to-date consumption of 869,873 units; and Taste’s six weeks at No.1 have earned it to-date consumption of 358,376 units. In the first three quarters of 2024 – up to 27 September -Carpenter has the fourth highest track consumption tally of any artist, at 4,632,939 units, behind Billie Eilish (6,079,205 units), Eminem (7,109,568 units) and the artist who beats the three of them put together, Taylor Swift (21,815,108 units). Chappell Roan is Carpenter’s closest rival again this frame, spending her third straight week – and fifth in total – at No.2 with Good Luck, Babe! on consumption of 40,677 units. In the six months since it dropped, Good Luck, Babe! has achieved consumption of 844,276 units and has spawned upwards of 100 commercially available covers – orchestral, chiptune (8-bit), piano, techno, drum & bass, house, indie, rock, lullaby, hi-nrg, music box, male vocal and Japanese language versions among them – but the only one to achieve consumption in excess of 2,000 units is that by the aforementioned Sabrina Carpenter, whose take on the track was recorded for Radio 1’s Live Lounge, and is not available to buy, but has racked up sales-equivalent audio and video streams of 3,385 units in the last 15 weeks. One that isn’t a cover is Good Luck, Babe by Chappell. For stream and sale since 30 July, it is a completely different song with lyrics like ‘Gimme your liver, gimme your blood’ and ‘I’m drowning in p***y’. The second single from his upcoming sixth album, Hurry Up Tomorrow - following last month’s No.12 hit Dancing In The Flames – Timeless debuts at No.7 (29,446 sales) for Canadian singer The Weeknd, delivering his 54th Top 75 and 16th Top 10 hit. It also features American rapper, Playboi Carti, becoming his ninth Top 75 and second Top 10 entry, surpassing the first, earlier The Weeknd collaboration Popular, which reached No.10 last year, and also featured Madonna. The rest of the Top 10: Die With A Smile (4-4, 37,963 sales) by Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars, Backbone (6-6, 29,733 sales) by Chase & Status and Stormzy, Kisses (8-8, 27,814 sales) by Bl3ss, CamrinWatsin and Bbyclose, Hot To Go! (7-9, 26,669 sales) by Chappell Roan and Somedays (9-10, 25,959 sales) by Sonny Fodera, Jazzy & D.O.D. Guess (10-12, 22,673 sales) departs the Top 10 for the third time for Charli XCX feat. Billie Eilish. As Nines’ sixth and final album, Quit While You’re Ahead, debuts at No.4, two more songs from it make their singles chart debut. Solo cut Going Crazy leads the way (No.39, 11,220 sales), with Marnz Malone collaboration, Cold Hearted World 3 following at No.65 (7,129 sales). The latter is the first hit for currently incarcerated rapper Malone from Birmingham. Nines has had 20 hits, and also reaches a new peak with Tony Soprano 3 (59-44, 9,727 sales). Also new to the Top 75: Lights Camera Action (No.59, 7,649 sales), the lead single from Kylie Minogue’s upcoming album, Tension II, and her 63rd hit; Stars Will Align (No.69, 6,544 sales), a tropical house/alt-rock hybrid pairing Norwegian DJ Kygo and American band Imagine Dragons for his 18th hit, their 16th; and New Drop (88-73, 6,327 sales), the 13th hit for American rapper Don Toliver. Lights Camera Action debuts atop the Download Singles chart (2,506 sales), becoming Minogue’s third No.1 in that chart’s 20-year history. On its first full week on release, Heavy Is The Crown is the fastest mover, surging 66-18 (17,303 sales) to become Linkin Park’s 20th Top 40 hit, and the second from their upcoming eighth album, From Zero. There are also new peaks for: Wildflower (23-20, 16,595 sales), the 16th Top 20 hit by Billie Eilish; Diet Pepsi (37-22, 16,095 sales) by Addison Rae; Keep Up (51-50, 8,461 sales) by Odetari; and Too Cool To Be Careless (64-60, 7,491 sales) by Pawsa. Showing more staying power than seemed likely when it dipped 7-13 on its second frame, Little Mix star Jade’s debut solo single Angel Of My Dreams holds at No.28 (14,030 sales) on its 11th week in the Top 30, earning her a silver disc (a week after Is Your Love Enough became the 34th Little Mix song to reach that level) as it raises its to-date consumption to 212,382 units. Follow-up Midnight Cowboy - which Jade co-wrote with Raye – makes a much slower start, debuting at No.93 (5,358 sales). It includes an uncredited spoken word section from the current Dr. Who, Ncuti Gatwa. Overall singles consumption is up 271 units (0.0009321435925% week-on-week since you asked) to 29,073,045 units, 9.93% above same week 2023 consumption of 26,445,684 units. Paid-for sales are down 3.10% week-on-week at 288,827, 2.57% above same week 2023 sales of 281,578.

Charts analysis: Shed Seven score second No.1 album of 2024

Going for (Liquid) Gold: Seven acts with prior No.1s released new albums last Friday. Only one could debut at the chart apex – so it’s condolences to Nines, Ed Sheeran, Michael Bublé, Lady Gaga, The Lumineers and Gilbert O’Sullivan, and congratulations to Shed Seven, whose latest release, Liquid Gold, is a celebration of their trigesimal (30th) anniversary as a recording act, and in which they reimagine highlights from their catalogue in new, orchestral versions alongside new track All Roads Lead To You. Effecting a change in leadership of the chart for the ninth straight week, Liquid Gold racks up first week consumption of 25,622 units (14,955 CDs, 7,885 vinyl albums, 142 cassettes, 2,314 digital downloads and 326 sales-equivalent streams), arriving at the summit less than nine months after their sixth studio album, A Matter Of Time, earned the veteran alt-rock band their first ever No.1 on consumption of 17,756 copies. Shed Seven formed in York in 1990. Founder members Rick Witter, Paul Banks and Tom Gladwin and later recruits Tim Wills and Rob Maxfield are responsible for both A Matter Of Time and Liquid Gold, which earn Shed Seven the rare honour of securing two No.1 studio albums in the same calendar year. Several groups – including Led Zeppelin, Slade and Blue – have had two studio No.1s in a year, where one was a belated chart-topper from a previous year but the only groups to have two No.1 studio albums top the chart in the year of their release before Shed Seven are The Beatles and The Monkees. The Beatles did so in 1963, 1964 and 1965, whilst The Monkees did so in 1967, with their first two albums, The Monkees and More Of The Monkees (the first of these titles being a 1966 US release which didn’t come out here until 20 January 1967). Interestingly, the covers version of Liquid Gold – which was released in nine CD, 11 vinyl variants, one cassette plus several digital editions – includes Shed Seven’s take on You Can’t Do That, the original of which is on one of The Beatles 1964 No.1 albums, A Hard Day’s Night. Of the other acts with No.1 to their credit, the rest will be mentioned elsewhere in this column, but we should mention that The Lumineers’ concert set, Live From Wrigley Field, and Gilbert O’Sullivan’s Songbook – new versions of his old songs – fall short of the chart, on sales of 215 and 620, respectively. Had they pursued a different release strategy, it would likely be Bring Me The Horizon (BMTH) who would be celebrating their second No.1 album this week, rather than Shed Seven. BMTH’s seventh album, Post Human: Nex Gen, dropped digitally 18 weeks ago, debuting at No.5 on consumption of 10,250 units. It roars back onto the chart at No.2 this week, after being released physically for the first time, with consumption of 20,771 units including 7,763 CDs, 7,074 vinyl albums, 4,322 cassettes, 630 digital downloads and 982 sales-equivalent streams, and is five sales from becoming their eighth silver album with to-date consumption of 59,995 units. London rapper Nines’ sixth, and apparently final album, has the appropriate title Quit While You’re Ahead, and preserves his record of reaching the top five with every release, opening at No.4 (16,308 sales). Marking the end of his ‘mathematics era’, Ed Sheeran’s +--=÷× Tour Collection – which includes only previously released studio recordings, despite its title – becomes his eighth Top 10 album but the only one not to reach No.1, debuting at No.5 (12,285 sales). Dance, No One’s Watching is London-based jazz quintet Ezra Collective’s third album and their first Top 10 entry, opening at No.7 (9,966 sales). Their 2019 debut You Can’t Steal My Joy, peaked at No.70, and 2022 follow-up Where I’m Meant To Be reached No.24 when first released, and No.31 after it won the Mercury Music Prize the following year. The rest of the Top 10: Short n’ Sweet (2-3, 19,236 sales) by Sabrina Carpenter, The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess (3-6, 10,153 sales) by Chappell Roan, The Highlights (8-8, 7,483 sales) by The Weeknd, Time Flies: 1994-2009 (7-9, 7,132 sales) by Oasis and Hit Me Hard And Soft (11-10, 6,879 sales) by Billie Eilish. Blossom’s fourth No.1 album, Gary, beats a much hastier retreat from the summit than its predecessors, slumping to No.52 (2,694 sales). Also exiting the Top 10: The Tortured Poets Department (10-11, 6,395 sales) by Taylor Swift, Brat (9-12, 6,294 sales) by Charli XCX, In Waves (5-58, 2,567 sales) by Jamie xx, 143 (6-162, 1,295 sales) by Katy Perry and the now uncharted I Am (929 sales), No.4 last week for Tom Walker. Manchester rock quartet Pale Waves reached the Top 10 with their first three albums but fourth, Smitten, looks like missing out, debuting at No.13 (6,165 sales). Similarly, all seven prior albums by Newcastle alt-rock band Maximo Park have made the Top 15 but eighth effort, Stream Of Life, debuts at No.21 (4,545 sales). He has five No.1 albums under his belt, but Canadian crooner Michael Bublé’s 16th chart album - new compilation, The Best Of – occupies considerably lower ground on debut, opening at No.53 (2,666 sales). Lady Gaga also has five No.1s but similarly comes nowhere near a sixth with her surprise release Harlequin - a companion to the upcoming film Joker: Folie à Deux, in which she stars as Harley Quinn (sic). Comprises jazz standards and released only digitally at this stage, it delivers her 10th chart album, but has to settle for a lowly No.59 debut (2,547 sales). Also new to the Top 75: Mountain Music (No.46, 2,932 sales), the fourth and lowest charting album by Scottish singer/songwriter Nina Nesbitt; and You’ll Be Alright, Kid (No.47, 2,797 sales), the first album by 24-year-old Californian singer/songwriter Alex Warren. On the compilation chart, The Greatest Showman soundtrack is No.1 on consumption of 2,514 units (117 CDs, 49 vinyl albums, 43 digital downloads and 2,305 sales-equivalent streams), topping the list for the third week in a row, the 11th time this year, and 51st time in total. Overall album sales are up 2.80% week-on-week at 2,450,347 units, their highest level for 19 weeks and 10.58% above same week 2023 sales of 2,215,831. Physical product accounts for 345,453 sales, their highest level for 23 weeks, and 14.10% of the total.

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