Depeche Mode take on Justin Timberlake for albums crown

Justin Timberlake battles it out with Depeche Mode for this week’s Official Albums Chart Number 1.

After knocking David Bowie’s The Next Day off the top of the Official Albums Chart on Sunday, Justin Timberlake‘s The 20/20 Experience this week goes head to head with Depeche Mode in the battle for a second week at Number 1.

The US chart star not only notched up his third consecutive Number 1 album in a row, his latest full-length, The 20/20 Experience, also became the fastest selling album of 2013 with sales of nearly 106,000 copies during its first week.

However, this week Justin faces tough competition from returning electronic kings Depeche Mode, who’s thirteenth studio album, Delta Machine (Number 2), is just 4,000 copies behind The 20/20 Experience at this midway stage. Depeche Mode’s last Top 5 album was 2009’s Sounds Of The Universe.

This week’s Official Albums Chart Update Top 5 is completed by David Bowie’s The Next Day (3), Bastille’s Bad Blood (4), and The Strokes’ latest studio album, Comedown Machine, which is new in at Number 5 today.

New Entries

In addition to Depeche Mode (Number 2) and The Strokes (5), there are seven other new entries on this week’s Official Albums Chart Update Top 40.

Legendary guitarist Eric Clapton is set to debut inside the Top 10 on Sunday with his 20th solo album, Old Sock (10), while fellow guitar hero Joe Bonamassa is new in at Number 12 with his latest release, An Acoustic Evening At The Vienna Opera.

Birmingham-based indie rockers Peace enters at Number 14 today with their debut album In Love. Simple Minds’ new Greatest Hits collection, Celebrate, is at Number 14, closely followed by British heavy metal legends Iron Maiden’s Maiden England ’88 (20).

This week’s new entries are completed by OneRepublic’s Native (27) and Lil Wayne’s I Am Not A Human Being 2 at Number 28.

The Official Albums Chart Update Top 40 is as follows:

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