Elbow take giant lead in the race for this week’s Number 1 album with Giants of All Sizes

Babymetal, Freddie Mercury, Gary Numan and Big Thief are on track for new entries.

Elbow are leading the race for this week's UK Number 1 album with their brand-new record Giants of All Sizes.

The group's eighth studio collection is racing ahead of the competition in the latest Official Chart Update, currently outperforming their closest competition - Ed Sheeran's No.6 Collaborations Project – by 5:1 following the weekend's initial sales and streams.

If the album keeps up its current momentum, Giants of All Sizes will mark Elbow's third consecutive chart-topping studio album following 2014's The Take Off and Landing of Everything and 2017's Little Fictions. Click here to view Elbow's full UK chart history.

Meanwhile, Japanese kawaii metal band Babymetal are eyeing up a Top 10 debut with Metal Galaxy, their first album as a duo, at 6, ahead of new definitive Freddie Mercury solo collection Never Boring at 8. Freddie's remastered debut solo album Mr Bad Guy could also return to the Top 40 at Number 34.

MORE: The Official Top 40 biggest albums of 2019 so far

Gary Numan currently occupies Numbers 10 and 11 with 40^th anniversary early recordings versions of his albums Replicas – recorded with former group Tubeway Army - and The Pleasure Principle, his chart-topping debut solo album from 1979.

The fourth album by Brooklyn indie rockers Big Thief, Two Hands, is on track to be their first UK Top 40 entry this week (17), while Italian goth metal group Lacuna Coil could also spring into the Top 40 for the first time with Black Anima (18). UK rock five-piece Wayward Sons are also on the cusp of their first chart placement with The Truth Ain’t What It Used To Be (23).

More new entries that could enter the Official Albums Chart Top 40 this Friday are: 2020 by Richard Dawson (25); Lil Tjay's True 2 Myself (27); a reissue of Queen's 1978 album Jazz on pink vinyl (28); David Bowie's VH1 Storytellers (29); Gold from Ace of Base (30); Kim Gordon's No Home Record (38); and Dead South's Sugar & Joy (40).