19 February 2024
Newsdesk
IDLES take on Paloma Faith for the UK’s Number 1 album this week, with both acts in with a chance of scoring their second chart-topping LP.
At the midweek mark, Bristol rock outfit IDLES – comprising Adam Devonshire, Joe Talbot, Mark Bowen, Lee Kiernan and Jon Beavis – take the lead at Number 1 with their fifth studio album TANGK.
The five-piece previously topped the Official Albums Chart for the first time in 2020 with Ultra Mono, and have scored further Top 10 entries with 2018 debut Joy is an Act of Resistance (5) and 2021’s CRAWLER (6).
But IDLES can’t get too comfortable just yet. In second place stands British pop singer Paloma Faith, with her bombastic sixth album The Glorification of Sadness (2) which could become Paloma’s sixth consecutive UK Top 10 record. She scored her first Number 1 in 2017 with The Architect.
Liverpudlian rockers Crawlers – aka Harry Breen, Liv May, Holly Minto and Amy Woodall - could complete this week’s all-new Top 3. Their debut album The Mess We Seem To Make (3) is on its way to becoming the four-piece’s first UK Top 10 entry.
Derby duo PET NEEDS, formed of brothers Johnny and George Marriott, are also looking to secure their first Official Albums Chart entry, with third collection Intermittent Fast Living currently on track to debut at Number 7.
Indie rockers Cast are expected to earn their first Top 10 in 25 years (and fourth overall) with Love is the Call (8), while former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett’s latest solo record The Circus and the Nightwhale could become his first Top 10 album in 44 years (9); he last entered the Top 10 with Defector in 1980 (9).
Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Legend is up eight places week-on-week (10) following the release of biopic Bob Marley: One Love, starring Kingsley Ben-Adir in UK cinemas. Legend last appeared in the Top 10 in August 2020.
In addition, the group’s ninth studio album Exodus – which contains songs such as One Love and Three Little Birds – plots a re-entry into the Top 40 at Number 36. It previously peaked at Number 8 in 1977.
Further down, US country rock group Blackberry Smoke aim for their highest-charting record in eight years on Be Right Here (11).
Jennifer Lopez’s ambitious ninth album This Is Me…Now could become her first record to debut inside the Top 40 in 13 years (19). A sequel to her 2002 LP This Is Me…Then, the album is being promoted with a big budget Amazon Prime Video feature film, with cameos from the likes of Post Malone, Kim Petras and Lopez’s husband, Ben Affleck, to whom the album is dedicated.
California indie-rock band Grandaddy are on track to score a fourth Top 40 record with Blue Wav (26), folk singer Katherine Priddy is on the approach to her first-ever Official Albums Chart entry with second album The Pendulum Swing (28), as are Glasgow-based band Shambolics with Dreams, Schemes & Young Teams (35).
And finally, rising pop starlet Tate McRae’s second studio album THINK LATER could also return to the Top 40 following its release on vinyl (39), with two of its biggest hits, greedy and exes, still present in the Top 40 of the Official Singles Chart. THINK LATER scored a Top 5 peak in December last year (5).
