The Royston Club are leading the pack in this week’s race to Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart.
The Royston Club, an indie-rock band from Wrexham, scored a Top 20 debut album in 2023 with Shaking Hips and Crashing Cars and now the Welsh band’s second studio album, Songs for the Spine, is setting the pace for a personal best.
However, The Royston Club face strong competition from mgk – the artist formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly – and Oasis. At present, Songs for the Spine is fewer than 1,000 units ahead of mgk’s seventh studio album, lost americana, and Oasis’s enduringly popular singles compilation Time Flies... 1994-2009, which are neck and neck in second place. Can The Royston Club and MGK hold off the streaming might of Oasis as the week progresses?
Meanwhile, Southern gothic singer-songwriter Ethel Cain is on course for a career best with her second studio album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You (4). She previously climbed to Number 10 with her 2022 debut Preacher’s Daughter.
Pennsylvania rockers Halestorm are also tracking for a career-best with their seventh studio set Everest (5), while UK garage icon Craig David could notch a seventh Top 10 album with his ninth studio record Commitment (7).
Right behind, Japanese rockers BABYMETAL are battling for their first-ever UK Top 10 album with fifth studio LP Metal Forth (8). Georgia rapper Gunna is also tracking for a career-first Top 10 album with his sixth long-player The Last Wun (10).
Gracie Abrams’ 2020 debut EP Minor is set to chart for the first time thanks to a five-year anniversary reissue on red vinyl (14). And her chart-topping 2024 album The Secret of Us could re-enter the Top 40 this week, too (16).
And finally, Ohio rock duo The Black Keys could notch a ninth UK Top 40 album with their 13th studio set, No Flowers, No Rain.
