Coldplay sail into pole position with X&Y
12 June 2005 - 17:46:05
Source: Music Week
Coldplay's third album X&Y sailed to the second highest first week sales in history last week, selling a stellar 464,471 copies, writes Alan Jones.
Only Oasis' August 1997 album, Be Here Now, has ever enjoyed a faster start. Former runner-up Dido's Life For Rent opened with 400,351 sales in October 2003.
A Thursday release, Be Here Now sold 356,000 on its first day alone and 696,000 in three days before the end of the chart week to debut at number one. It sold a further 235,000 copies the following week, and topped the million sales mark in 11 days.
X&Y accounted for more than one in six of all album sales last week, and far surpassed the first week sales of Coldplay's two previous albums. Parachutes sold 70,935 copies to open at number one in July 2000, while A Rush Of Blood To The Head sold 273,924 copies to do likewise in September 2002.
Both albums have enjoyed a major resurgence in sales in recent weeks, and Parachutes vaults 52-19 this week, while A Rush Of Blood To The Head jumps 48-23. It's 141 weeks since the former album climbed so high, and 71 weeks since the latter had such a lofty perch.
Coldplay's overall UK sales topped the 5m mark last week, with A Rush Of Blood To The Head contributing 2,395,483 to the total and Parachutes accounting for 2,176,284.
Despite Coldplay's massive contribution, sales of albums overall increased by a moderate 135,073 last week - 5.1% - to 2,773,367. That's their fifth highest level of the year, and their highest for 11 weeks. One album that missed out on the bonanza, however, was Geri Halliwell's Passion, which sold just 5,432 copies to debut at number 41. Of Halliwell's previous albums, Schizophonic opened at number four with sales of 31,274 exactly six years ago, while 2001's Scream If You Wanna Go Faster sold 35,356 copies to earn a number five debut in 2001. Although it had a better start, it went on to sell only 145,844 copies, compared to the 483,150 tally of Schizophonic.
All of the top five artist albums sold more than 50,000 copies last week, whereas Akon's Trouble album managed to top the charts with sales of just 38,003. The recent avalanche of albums from high profile artists has also overshadowed the compilation sector, which accounted for a paltry 17.0% of album sales last week. In 283 chart weeks since the turn of the century, its contribution was only lower once, 87 weeks ago, when it was 16.3%.
Although comprehensively dethroned, Oasis' Don't Believe The Truth sold a further 88,335 copies last week, to finish in second place, confounding predictions that White Stripes' new album Get Behind Me Satan would finish as runner-up to Coldplay.
Comprising 13 songs recorded in just 14 days earlier this year, Get Behind Me Satan - White Stripes' fifth album - enjoyed the biggest yet first week sales for the band last week, selling 70,631 copies to secure a number three debut. Released hot on the heels of introductory single Blue Orchid which reached number nine last week, it's the follow-up to Elephant, the band's 2003 album, which opened at number one with first week sales of 64,191 and a to-date tally of 738,743. The band's first three albums all fell short of the Top 40.
It's rare for singles to climb these days, and rarer still for their second week sales to outstrip their first week sales - but James Blunt's third single, You're Beautiful ticks both those boxes this week, jumping 12-6 with sales of 13,260 - a 14.2% improvement. Even more impressively, Blunt's debut album Back to Bedlam returns to its number four peak, with week-on-week growth of 46.4%. It sold a best-yet 62,121 copies last week, to take its overall sales to 201,768. Its sales have increased in each of the last eight weeks. When it was fist number four a fortnight ago, it was with sales of 27,989 - and when it was released last October, it attracted just 482 buyers on its first week in the shops.
Completing the Top 5 of the album chaft, Forever Faithless: The Greatest Hits slips 3-5 but suffers only a 2% dip in sales to 52,162.
In the same week that second single Ordinary People debuts at number 27 on the sales chart and jumps 35-20 on the airplay chart, R&B newcomer John Legend's debut album Get Lifted reaches a new peak. The album - a number four success in America where it has sold 1,203,919 copies so far - was released here in January but is only now taking off in a big way, moving 47-32-24-12 in the last three weeks. It sold 13,402 copies last week, to lift its cume to 106,071.
Elswhere in the Top 20 there are debuts for the Electric Light Orchestra and The Tears.
All Over The World: The Very Best Of The Electric Light Orchestra, which sold 16,986 copies to secure 11th place, the highest position for an album by the group since a 1994 'best of'. Meanwhile, The Tears' album Here Comes The Tears brings to fruition the much talked about reunion between Suede principals Bernard Butler and Brett Anderson attracted 12,938 buyers and debuts at number 15.
It's a little over 30 years since the consistently popular German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk made their UK chart debut with Autobahn but they're hardly the most productive band in the world, having released just two new studio albums in 20 years. This week, they register their ninth chart album in the form of Minimum Maximum, a double live set comprising 22 tracks recorded at 12 European, American and Japanese venues during their 2004 world tour. The album sold 8,223 copies last week, and debuts at number 29.
The buoyant artist album sector drew attention from the singles sector last week. Physical singles sales slumped 27% to 383,693 - a four week low - while downloads dipped 11% to 403,635, with the overall market shrinking by 19%.
Sales of Crazy Frog's Axel F dipped 39.9% last week but the record enjoys another easy victory on its third week at number one with 72,281 purchasers - treble the 24,709 sales of runners-up U2's City Of Blinding Lights. Axel F jumps 3-2 in the year-to-date rankings, leapfrogging McFly's All About You/You've Got A Friend. The top five singles year-to-date are (Is This The Way To) Amarillo - Tony Christie (1,048,237), Axel F (342,176), All About You/You've Got A Friend - McFly (325,900), Lonely - Akon (271,388), Let Me Love You - Mario (158,564).
U2's How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, is their first album to generate more than one number one single, with both Vertigo and follow-up Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own reaching pole position. New single City Of Blinding Lights is only prevented from making it three in a row this week by Axel F. U2 have had seven number ones. City Of Blinding Lights is their third number two, and 35th Top 40 hit. Its release helps lift the Atomic Bomb album 50-33 - its highest placing for 11 weeks.
Completing the top five, both Akon's Lonely and Gorillaz's Feel Good Inc slip a notch apiece (2-3 and 3-4), while Amerie's 1 Thing continues at number five. Lonely sold 18,150 copies, Feel Good Inc sold 16,558 copies and 1 Thing sold 13,621 copies. The number of singles to sell more than 10,000 copies fell from the 2005 high of 15 recorded last week to 13, while only the new singles from U2 and Jamiroquai sold enough copies to secure Top 10 debuts.
Jamiroquai return to the top tier with Feels Just Like It Should debuting at number eight. The introductory single from Dynamite- out next Monday (20th) - Feels Just Like It Should is Jamiroquai's highest charting single since Little L. The first single from the band's last album Funk Odyssey reached number five in 2001. with first week sales of 46,678 far eclipsing the 12,443 copies Feels Just Like It Should sold last week. Jamiroquai have now had 20 Top 40 singles in a little over 12 years as hitmakers.
Finally, a cover of the Manhattans' 1976 number four hit Kiss And Say Goodbye provides Birmingham reggae veterans UB40 with the introductory hit from their new album Who You Fighting For?
Debuting at number 19 with first week sales of 5,378. Kiss And Say Goodbye extends UB40's career as hitmakers to more than 25 years, and is their milestone 50th hit - a total surpassed only by two other groups - Status Quo and (if we count their collaborations with Cliff Richard) The Shadows.