Blur's first album together in 12 years The Magic Whip arrived in the U.K. with great fanfare last week - and the welcome return to music is reflected in album sales. Yesterday (May 4), the new LP was deemed as Blur's sixth No. 1 album in its home country, beating out recent releases from Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and The Proclaimers.
The Magic Whip debuted atop the U.K. Album Chart this week, The Official Charts Company reports. The new album, which was led by singles "Go Out," "There Are Too Many of Us," and "Lonesome Street," bumped off last week's No. 1 album Josh Groban's Stages, which fell this week to No. 4.
The top 10 in the U.K. is filled with familiar releases - and actually every single album at the top of the charts has held the No. 1 position before. Between recent chart-toppers from Blur and Groban, Taylor Swift's latest album 1989 rose eight spots this week to No. 2 and James Bay's Chaos and the Calm rose two spots to No. 3.
Other former chart toppers in the top 10 include Meghan Trainor's Title (No. 5), Paul Simon's The Ultimate Collection, Sheeran's x (No. 7), Sam Smith's In the Lonely Hour (No. 8) and George Ezra's Wanted on Voyage and Imagine Dragon's Smoke & Mirrors at Nos. 9 and 10, respectively.
The release week was scarce overseas and new album arrivals on the chart followed. The highest new debut beneath Blur was The Proclaimers' Lets Hear It for the Dogs, which started its chart run at No. 26 between older releases from Olly Murs and Kendrick Lamar. Other new releases on the charts include Zac Brown Band's Jekyll + Hyde at No. 36, Jules Knight's Change of Heart at No. 45 and MG's self-titled album at No. 50.
