Lana Del Rey’s Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd is the best-selling vinyl album of 2023 so far.
The self-analytical ninth studio LP from the alt-pop icon, Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd. became Lana’s sixth UK Number 1 album earlier this year. To date, it’s sold 34,000 copies on vinyl. Upon its debut, Did you know… provided Lana with her strongest opening week in nearly a decade, since Ultraviolence in 2014.
A brand-new showing in second place is Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), which extended Taylor’s record-setting run of 10 consecutive UK Number 1 albums. Still the only female artist to achieve this feat this century, Taylor is the female artist with the second-most Number 1 albums in UK chart history. Only Madonna, with 12 in total, has more. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) has now sold over 29,000 vinyl copies to date.
Blur’s The Ballad of Darren earns the title of the third-biggest vinyl album of 2023 so far, while the Top 5 is completed by Lewis Capaldi’s Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent (4), which still boasts the biggest opening week of any album this year, and Kylie Minogue’s Tension (5) proving one to keep an eye on as it enters the vinyl best sellers list after just one week on sale.
Also ranking in the Top 10 are Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ Council Skies (7) and the Gorillaz’s second Number 1 LP Cracker Island (9).
Elsewhere, other 2023 Number 1 albums to make the list include Foo Fighters’ But Here We Are (11), Boygenius’s The Record (12), Olivia Rodrigo’s recent chart-topper GUTS (13), Ed Sheeran’s – (21), Niall Horan’s The Show (22), Paramore’s This Is Why (25) and Metallica’s 72 Seasons (28).
Thanks to celebratory re-releases, several hit albums from yesteryear have returned to relevance, including the Courteeners’s St Jude (16) which hit Number 1 for the first time ever last year, De La Soul’s 1989 debut 3 Feet High And Rising (18), David Bowie’s revelatory 1972 record The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust celebrating its 50th anniversary (30) and The 1975’s self-titled debut (35) one of the most quietly influential albums in modern pop.
