It’s a happy first birthday for The Art Of Loving, Olivia Dean’s hugely successful second album.
Released one year ago (September 26), Capitol-signed Dean’s second album has achieved global success with victories at the BRIT Awards, Grammys and MOBOs. It also played a big role in the wins for Polydor (Record Company) and Capitol (A&R) at the Music Week Awards.
The Art Of Loving has spent a year on the UK albums chart, including eight weeks at No.1. It is set to mark its 52nd consecutive week in the Top 10 today (September 25), based on early sales flashes that showed consumption increasing slightly week-on-week. Dean holds the record for the longest-running UK No.1 album by a British artist this decade.
In the US, The Art Of Loving has also been a presence on the albums rundown since release and peaked at No.3. It remains in the Top 10, following Dean’s first US festival headline appearance at Lollapalooza in Chicago last month. Her global tour continues next month with dates in Australia and New Zealand.
Given the consistent streaming consumption for the album in the UK, it’s no surprise that The Art Of Loving was No.1 overall at the halfway point of the year. Dean just missed out on an overall Top 10 ranking for 2025 when the album was only three months old, but it has been dominant for much of 2026 based on the weekly cumulative tally in consumption across sales and streams.
However, Music Week can reveal that Dean is in a tough contest with Michael Jackson for albums supremacy as we enter the final quarter of 2026.
The Art Of Loving has been out in front for much of the year and was still ahead in terms of year-to-date albums consumption as recently as last month. But Michael Jackson’s catalogue title The Essential (RCA) has pulled ahead in recent weeks.
For the chart week ending September 17, Jackson’s hits collection was on 498,360 units for the year to date (Official Charts Company), based largely on streams (accounting for 86.4% of consumption in 2026).
Although it was already a streaming perennial, The Essential has been propelled back into the Top 10 following the release of this year’s movie biopic, Michael. The compilation has spent two consecutive weeks at No.1 this year – in addition to the seven weeks at the summit in 2009 following Jackson’s death. It has total consumption to date of 2,556,568 units in the UK.
Meanwhile, Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving is close behind on 486,912 units for the year to date (11,448 less than The Essential), including 402,288 sales-equivalent streams, 78,530 physical copies and 6,094 downloads. Six of its eight weeks at No.1 were in 2026.
We expect the anniversary editions to bring renewed interest to an album that is already selling well
Lawrence Montgomery
The Art Of Loving has total consumption to date of 765,365 (including 598,313 sales-equivalent streams, 157,653 physical copies and 9,399 downloads).
Reflecting her appeal to a younger audience for vinyl, Dean was the UK Record Store Day ambassador this year. The Art Of Loving is approaching 100,000 sales on vinyl alone (95,750).
“The Art of Loving has been a very strong physical release for us,” said Rough Trade MD Lawrence Montgomery. “We’ve sold more than 8,000 copies across CD and vinyl in the UK, with sustained demand beyond its initial release. It’s a good example of how a major pop album can connect with Rough Trade customers: people coming in for the music itself, as well as fans who want to own a particular edition on vinyl.”
Fortunately for Dean, this week sees another roll-out of physical product around the first birthday, which could help The Art Of Loving to reassert itself against a streaming-led catalogue rival. The anniversary edition versions of The Art Of Loving include a silver vinyl LP and a CD and Blu-ray set.
“We expect the anniversary editions to bring renewed interest to an album that is already selling well,” said Montgomery. “The different formats give existing fans another way to engage with it and give new listeners a reason to pick up a physical copy. It’s too early for me to put a firm figure on demand for those editions, but we’re pleased to be stocking them.”
The Art Of Loving will also see further media coverage around its nomination at the Mercury Prize next month.
As the contest continues for the biggest album of 2026, Dean can at least be confident about the year-end singles rankings with Man I Need and Sam Fender collaboration Rein Me In leading the way so far.
Click here to read Music Week’s Olivia Dean interview from one year ago.
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