Looking for all the world as if it would follow in the footsteps of every other chart-topping Taylor Swift album and spend a solitary week at No.1, Folklore was lagging as of the first few midweek updates.

Then EMI Records threw us all a curveball, announcing that the album's physical release (specifically the eight different CD editions) was to be brought forward three days. The first batch of D2C pre-orders were posted on Tuesday with copies delivered to stores ...