Taylor Swift scores fastest selling female album of the year so far

Taylor Swift has notched up her second Official Albums Chart Number 1, as 1989 becomes the fastest-selling album of the year by a female artist.

The LP has shifted an impressive 90,000 copies in the UK in the last seven days, overtaking previous record holder The X Factor winner Sam Bailey, whose debut The Power Of Love sold over 72,000 copies in its first week of release, back in March.

The '80s inspired album includes Top 40 hits Shake It Off and Welcome To New York and is Taylor’s second consecutive UK Number 1 album, following 2012’s chart-topping Red.

Read: Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud claims longest climb to Number 1 ever!

Up one place to Number 2 today is Ed Sheeran’s X, followed by Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour, which re-enters the Top 5 at 3. Last week’s chart-topper, Ben Howard’s I Forget Where We Were, slides three places to 4, followed by George Ezra’s Wanted On Voyage (5).

New Entries and high climbers

Other than Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Number 1), there are five new entries in today’s Official Singles Chart Top 40.

Eurythmics singer Annie Lennox scores a sixth Top 10 with first release in four years, Nostalgia (9), while Cambridge rockers Mallory Knox score their highest charting album to date with Asymmetry (16).

Black Veil Brides score the second Top 40 album of their career with their self-titled LP (17), as Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens enters at 22 with his 14th album, Tell ‘Em I’m Gone.

This year’s Mercury Prize winners – Scottish hip-hop trio Young Fathers – enter the Top 40 for the first time today with Dead (35).

Read: Mercury Prize 2014 winners Young Fathers see 4000% sales increase this week

There are also eight re-entries into the Top 40 today. Leading the way are Led Zeppelin, who rack up two Top 20s with their IV (6) and Houses Of The Holy (14) reissues.

Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water (21), Sia’s 1000 Forms Of Fear (30), Phil Collins’ Hits (34), Gregory Porter’s Liquid Spirit (36), London Grammar’s If You Wait (38) and Jungle’s self-titled LP (40) all also re-enter the Top 40 this week.

The Official Albums Chart Top 10 is as follows. Click here to see the Official Albums Chart Top 100 in full after 7pm.

1	1989	TAYLOR SWIFT
2	X	ED SHEERAN
3	IN THE LONELY HOUR	SAM SMITH
4	I FORGET WHERE WE WERE	BEN HOWARD
5	WANTED ON VOYAGE	GEORGE EZRA
6	FOUR SYMBOLS	LED ZEPPELIN
7	MELODY ROAD	NEIL DIAMOND
8	AQUOSTIC - STRIPPED BARE	STATUS QUO
9	NOSTALGIA	ANNIE LENNOX
10	CHAPTER ONE	ELLA HENDERSON