James Bay's Electric Light denied Number 1 album by The Greatest Showman
You have to take your hat off to James Bay – landing a second Top 3 album is a big achievement.
The quest for Number 1 by his sophomore effort Electric Light, however, has been thwarted by the cast recording of The Greatest Showman, which returns to the summit, landing a 16th non-consecutive chart-topping week.
James Bay, whose debut album Chaos and the Calm topped the Official Albums Chart in 2015, settles for second place today, while last week's Number 1, Arctic Monkeys' Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino slips to 4, behind Post Malone's beerbongs & bentleys at 3.
New entries and high climbers
Las Vegas metal band Five Finger Death Punch score a second Top 10 with And Justice For None new at 7, and Korean pop sensations BTS land their very first Top 10 with third studio album Love Yourself: Tear at 8, and Courtney Barnett's Tell Me How You Feel is new at 9, her very first Top 10 album.
Teenage cellist and BBC Young Musician 2016 Sheku Kanneh-Mason re-enters at 11 with his debut album Inspiration, after he wowed the world with his performance at Saturday's Royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – this makes him the highest charting cellist of all time, beating Julian Lloyd-Webber, who peaked at 15 in 1990.
Irish band Ash return with Islands starting at 18, while American soul singer Leon Bridges' Good Thing rockets 57 places to 20 following his appearance on The Graham Norton Show.
Joe Bonamassa's British Blues Explosion: Live is new at 21; Canadian rapper NAV's Reckless goes in at 24; Parquet Courts celebrate their first UK Top 40, with Wide Awaaaaake going in at 27; Ray Lamontagne's Part of the Light is new at Number 28, and English rock band Half Man Half Biscuit go in at 33 with No-One Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get Your F**kin' Hedge Cut.
Two further albums make a a reappearance in the Top 40 this week: Rag'n'Bone Man's Human climbs to 38, while the biggest selling album of all time still has some life in it – Queen's Greatest Hits pops back into the top flight at Number 40.
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Velvet Android
Surely the news of the week is that this is a first ever Top 40 entry, single or album, for Half Man Half Biscuit – some 34 years into their career. "English rock band" is a weirdly reductive and frankly non-descriptive description of them, though.
First Top 20 entry for Ash since 2004, to boot.
Piran
Congratulations to James Bay, a #2 debut is still impressive! That said, I continue to love 'The Greatest Showman', so I still don't mind that dominating.
It's looking like Shawn Mendes' self-titled third studio album might hit the top spot next week. Good to see BTS earn their first Top 10 album too! :)
Marcothedonjuan
Hey Piran! :) SWEET 16 for The Greatest Showman! :)
Piran
Hey Marco! :)
Yeah, I wonder what the #1 album of the year will be in the UK... haha!