Bob Dylan on track for ninth UK Number 1 album with Rough And Rowdy Ways

Neil Young, Pheobe Bridgers and Lamb of God are heading for new Top 10 entries.

Bob Dylan is on course for his ninth Number 1 on the UK’s Official Albums Chart with Rough and Rowdy Ways.

The legendary American singer-songwriter leads today (June 22)’s Official Chart Update by over 3:1, outselling the rest of the Top 5 combined. Bob’s 39^th studio album has claimed the most CD sales and downloads of the past weekend since it was released on June 19.

Rough and Rowdy Ways – Bob’s first album of original material in seven years – is all but certain to become his landmark fortieth UK Top 10 album in a chart history spanning 56 years. If the record holds its momentum, it will mark the folk star’s ninth UK chart topper, and first for over five years since 2015’s Shadows In The Night.

This week’s bestseller so far on vinyl, Canadian rock singer Neil Young is on track to debut at Number 2 with his latest collection Homegrown. Featuring unreleased material from the 1970’s, the album could give Neil is highest-charting album in the UK for almost 26 years.

MORE: The Official Top 40 biggest albums of 2020 so far

Indie rock singer Phoebe Bridgers is on course for her first UK Top 10 with her second album Punisher at Number 3, and heavy metal band Lamb of God could claim their second top flight album with their self-titled tenth studio album at Number 7.

Following her passing last week aged 103, Dame Vera Lynn’s 100 may return to the Top 10 this week, currently at Number 10. The album saw Vera become the oldest artist, and first centenarian, to chart in the UK Official Albums Chart when the collection first entered the charts at Number 3 in 2017.

Released on picture disc vinyl this past week, David Bowie’s classic album Space Oddity looks to return to the Top 40 for the first time since 1973 at 17, while "revisited, remixed and remastered” collection The Rock Album from Whitesnake is at 20 at the midweek stage. Iron Maiden’s 1985 live album Live After Death could also return to the charts at 23, while an expanded edition vinyl release of The National’s fifth album High Violet is at 26.

Watford group The Spitfires and Norfolk rockers Bad Touch are on the cusp of their first Top 40 albums with Life Worth Living (30) and Kiss The Sky (33) respectively, and John Legend’s new album Bigger Love – currently only available on digital formats – could become his seventh Top 40 album (39).