Billie Eilish outselling Top 5 with HIT ME HARD AND SOFT

Plus, ZAYN aims for his first Top 10 album in nearly 10 years.

Billie Eilish is exploring bold new territory with her third studio album HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, and is currently outselling the rest of the Top 5 on her way to Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart.

HIT ME HARD AND SOFT sees Billie and her frequent collaborator, brother FINNEAS, expand her sonic palate with songs that dive into indie-rock and chamber pop, wrapped around a bracing emotional honesty.

It would be Billie’s third consecutive UK Number 1 album; her previous two LPs, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? (2019) and Happier Than Ever (2021) both debuted atop the Official Albums Chart.

ZAYN prepares to return to the UK Top 10 for the first time in 8 years with fourth solo album ROOM UNDER THE STAIRS (2), the country-influenced record would be his second solo Top 10 LP, following 2016’s chart-topping debut solo record Mind of Mine.

Guns’N’Roses guitarist Slash second solo record Orgy Of The Damned is looking to debut in the Top 5. Slash previously reached the Top 10 with three solo albums featuring Myles Kennedy; 2014’s World On Fire (7), 2018’s Living The Dream (4) and 2022’s 4 (5).

Portishead frontwoman Beth Gibbons’s first solo record Lives Outgrown also zooms in on a Top 5 debut (5), as a member of Portishead, Gibbons has claimed three Top 10 records.

Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band prepare to secure their second UK Top 10 album with Loophole (6) having previously reached Number 6 in 2022 with Dear Scott.

Further down, we could see Top 20 debuts from Kerry King with From Hell I Rise (16) and Jack Savoretti’s Miss Italia (17), his first album to be recorded entirely in Italian.

Welsh indie-pop artist Bright Light Bright Light could be celebrating his first-ever UK Top 40 album this week with Enjoy Youth (23), while Melanie Martinez’s debut album Cry Baby could return to the Top 40 for the first time in 9 years following a new physical re-release (33). It originally peaked at Number 32 in 2015.

Ferocious Dog’s Kleptocracy (35) could be the second Top 40 record for the English folk-punk collective, while 90s icons New Kids On The Block’s could claim their first Top 40 album in 16 years (and seventh overall) with Still Kids (37).

Finally, Clavish’s most recent mixtape Chapter 16 (38) could earn the London rapper his second Top 40 collection.