Could Alt-J be heading for Number 1?: "We're squirming!"

Alt-J are storming ahead in this week’s albums race with This Is All Yours, the second studio album from the trio – who consist of guitarist/vocalist Joe Newman, drummer Thom Green and keyboardist/vocalist Gus Unger-Hamilton.

This Is All Yours is the follow up to the band’s Mercury Music Prize-winning debut An Awesome Wave, which peaked at Number 13. If their sales momentum continues into the weekend, This Is All Yours will land independent act Alt-J their highest charting album to date and their first Number 1.

On hearing they are leading the race to Number 1, a nervous Gus tells OfficialCharts.com: "I’m literally squirming. Even if we do end up at Number 1, maybe I’ll still be a bit sceptical!"

The record currently sits nearly 9,000 copies ahead of its nearest competitor, British electronic musician Aphex Twin whose sixth studio album, Syro, debuts at Number 2 midweek.

Meanwhile, just three days after his 80th birthday, Leonard Cohen’s thirteenth studio album Popular Problems enters at Number 3.

Barbara Streisand’s Partners and Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour both slide two places to Numbers 4 and 5, respectively.

New Entries

Further to Alt-J’s This Is All Yours (Number 1), Aphex Twin’s Syro (2) and Leonard Cohen’s Popular Problems (3), there are ten new entries in today’s Official Albums Chart Update Top 40.

American blues rock singer Joe Bonamassa is on track for his second Top 10 album with Different Shades Of Blue (6), while British rapper Professor Green is set for his third Top 10 with Growing Up In Public.

Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga’s Cheek To Cheek enters the chart at Number 11, followed by Erasure with their sixteenth studio album The Violet Flame (12).

As legendary musical Miss Saigon approaches its 25th anniversary the 2014 Original Cast Recording makes its Top 40 debut at Number 18.

US singer/songwriter Lenny Kravitz is on track for his fifth UK Top 40 album with Strut (22), while British blues guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor is set to score her first with The Dirty Truth (23).

Yungen’s Project Black & Red (26), David Bowie’s Sound & Vision (30) and Goat’s Commune (32) are all also set to enter the Top 40, as 2015 Glastonbury headliner favourites Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours climbs 90 places to re-enter the Top 40 at Number 14.

The Official Albums Chart Update Top 40 is as follows. The Official Albums Chart Top 100 will be posted in full, here, on Sunday at 7pm.

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