Record beaker Adele denies Jason Mraz his first UK Number 1

Adele’s mega-selling 2011 second album, 21, has returned to the top of the Official Albums Chart, denying early leader Jason Mraz his first UK Number 1.

In Wednesday’s Official Chart Update, US singer / songwriter Mraz’s fourth studio album, Love Is A Four Letter Word, was in pole-position with a comfortable lead of nearly 2,000 copies. However, moving into the weekend, Adele shot ahead and has snatched the Number 1 spot from Mraz by just 44 copies.

In doing so, Adele has now amassed an impressive 24 career weeks at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart (23 weeks for her current album and one week for her debut release, 19) beating the chart record of US rapper Eminem who has spent 23 career weeks at Number 1. To add insult to injury, Eminem achieved his total across six albums, Adele has surpassed it with just two.

Adele has now equalled the chart record of US folk hero Bob Dylan, who has also spent 24 career weeks at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart. However, the Tottenham-born star still has a long way to go beat The Beatles who amassed a staggering 174 weeks at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart with 15 separate albums.

Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded slips one place to Number 3, while Lana Del Rey climbs two places to Number 4 with Born To Die. Jessie J completes this week’s Official Albums Chart Top 5 with Who You Are at Number 5.

New Entries

San Francisco rockers Train are the second highest new entry on this week’s Official Albums Chart. The band’s latest release, California 37, is new in at Number 10. Rugby‘s Spiritualized score their seventh Top 40 album; the band’s new album, Sweet Heart Sweet Light, is a new entry at Number 19, while trance stars Chicane score their fourth Top 40 album with Thousand Mile Stare debuting at Number 37. Power metallers DragonForce complete this week’s Official Albums Chart Top 40 with their fifth album, The Power Within, new in at Number 40.

Click here at 7PM to see the Official Albums Chart Top 100 in full.