The album, by far and away 2011's top seller worldwide, has taken little more than seven months since release to break the 10 million mark and looks likely to reach 13 million sales by the end of the year.

At a time when even the biggest albums globally struggle to sell more than 5 million copies in a calendar year, the XL album's performance has been remarkable. And the story does not end there with 21 on course to reach ...