United Kingdom Music Week Report (excerpt) A miraculous return to number one Monday, May 1, 2023 by Alan Jones, London   Returning to No.1 to secure its third week in all at the summit, Miracle does so on consumption of 44,178 units (2,025 digital downloads, 42,153 sales-equivalent streams) for Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding, after fighting a rearguard action against American singer / songwriter David Kushner’s first Top 10 hit,
Daylight, which debuted at No.3 last week, and now moves to No.2 with consumption increasing 11.10% week-on-week to 43,911 units. Miracle’s sales are the lowest for a No.1 for 34 weeks, and the gap between the top two (267 sales) is the smallest since Saint Jhn’s Roses won out over The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights by 52,656 to 52,446 – a margin of 210 - 162 weeks ago in March 2020. Boosted to No.1 last week by CD sales, Lewis Capaldi’s Wish You The Best is impacted by their depletion, with the format contributing only 147 of the 33,260 sales that see the track dip to No.3. Replacing Drake’s Search & Rescue (10-12, 17,757 sales), React is the only new arrival in the Top 10 this week, advancing 12-8 (20,069 sales) for Switch Disco & Ella Henderson. Interpolating Robert Miles’ 1996 No.2 smash Children, it is Switch Disco’s first Top 10 entry and X Factor graduate Henderson’s eighth. The rest of the Top 10: People (4-4, 33,064 sales) by Libianca,
Calm Down (6-5, 28,286 sales) by Rema, Eyes Closed (5-6, 26,731 sales) by Ed Sheeran, As It Was (8-7, 20,931 sales) by Harry Styles, Forget Me (7-9, 19,840 sales) by Lewis Capaldi and Flowers (9-10, 19,089 sales) by Miley Cyrus. Overall singles consumption reaches a new high, climbing 2.13% week-on-week to a record 26,677,015 units – 11.34% above same week 2022 consumption of 23,960,141 units. Paid-for sales are up 4.82% week-on-week at 309,006 – 10.26% below same week 2022 sales of 344,349. Twenty years after their formation, and 16 years after their chart debut, Hertfordshire rock quartet Enter Shikari are No.1 for the first time, with seventh studio set, A Kiss For The Whole World, winning a closely-contested battle for chart honours to emerge victorious on first week consumption of 13,513 units (4,789 CDs, 4,689 vinyl albums, 1,264 cassettes, 980 digital downloads, 1,792 sales-equivalent streams). It is a rare case of an album’s overall chart position being greater than the sum of its parts, as it failed to top the list in any format, being No.2 on cassette, No.3 on CD, vinyl and digital downloads and No.62 on streaming. The 15th album to debut at No.1 in as many weeks, A Kiss For The Whole World is the follow-up to Nothing Is True And Everything Is Possible, Enter Shikari’s previous highest-charting set, which sold 11,657 copies when it opened at No.2 three years ago this week. A second album by Enter Shikari – Live At Alexandra Palace 3 – also makes its chart debut this week, opening at No.15 (4,377 sales). Since their 2007 chart debut, the band have had six Top 10 and nine Top 75 albums. Live At Alexandra Palace 3 clearly benefited from sharing its release date with the band’s new studio album. Their 2016 Live At Alexandra Palace release peaked at No.93, and Live At Alexandra Palace 2 failed to make the Top 200 in 2019. Record Store Day came and went last Saturday, with no fewer than 418 exclusive releases, some simply new formats, others previously unissued recordings, some singles but most albums. The one that lands with the heftiest thud is The 1975’s Live With The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Essentially a concert recording of 10 songs from their 2016 second album, I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It, it was recorded the same year in Blackpool, and debuts at No.2 (12,716 sales), after being released on CD, vinyl and cassette. Interestingly, it omits Justin Bieber cover Sorry and One Direction cover What Makes You Beautiful, which were part of the recording, and which do appear on the BBC Sounds recording of the gig, which is due to disappear from the BBC website shortly. All five of The 1975’s albums hitherto reached No.1. Almost 39 years after their introductory album, Eden, debuted and peaked at No.14, and more than 23 years after their last album, Temperamental, debuted and peaked at No.16, Everything But The Girl make a triumphant return, with 11th studio set, Fuse opening at No.3 (11,977 sales). Their 13th Top 75 album and fifth Top 10 entry, it is their highest charting set ever, and even topped a couple of the week’s sales flashes before fading. Record Store Day exclusive Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions is a live, acoustic version of Taylor Swift’s 2020 No.1 album Folklore. Available only on as a 12-inch grey vinyl double pack, and limited to 75,000 copies worldwide, it sold 11,132 copies to debut at No.4. It is Swift’s 12th Top 10 album, joining her most recent studio set, Midnights, which slips 3-7 (6,651 sales) on its 27th consecutive week in the Top 10. Most of Swift’s canon also eases this week – most notably Speak Now, which falls 71-81 (1,823 sales) – but with one exit and one entry, she maintains her personal best of eight concurrent Top 75 albums. No.1 on debut last week, 72 Seasons falls to No.6 (7,295 sales) for Metallica. The rest of the Top 10: The Highlights (2-5, 8,023 sales) by The Weeknd, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent (4-8, 5,521 sales) by Lewis Capaldi, Diamonds (6-9, 5,269 sales) by Elton John and SOS (5-10, 5,190 sales) by SZA. Overall album sales are up 6.34% week-on-week at 2,312,356, 14.42% above same week 2022 sales of 2,020,992. Physical product accounts for 379,994 sales, 16.43% of the total and up 37.20% week-on-week, primarily because of Record Store Day releases. Vinyl sales, at exactly 190,000, were up 121.81% week-on-week and exceeded CD sales of 182,819. Cassette sales surged 154.81% to 5,165.