Stereophonics see off challenge from Kanye West to claim seventh UK Number 1 album

Plus there are new entries from James Blunt, Van Morrison, Cigarettes After Sex and more on this week's Official Albums Chart.

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Congratulations to Stereophonics, who land straight in at Number 1 on this week’s Official Albums Chart. The band’s eleventh studio record Kind becomes their seventh UK chart-topper.

Kind scores 30,000 chart sales this week, including just over 3,000 copies on vinyl, to take the top spot and lead an all-new Top 5.

Stereophonics join the likes of Take That, Coldplay, The Prodigy and Westlife in the Official Chart hall of fame as groups who have also amassed seven Number 1 albums. The Beatles remain the act to beat still, holding the overall UK chart record for the act with the most chart-topping albums - the Fab Four have a staggering 15 Number 1s under their belt.

Celebrating the news, the band told us: "Thank you very much for getting Kind to Number 1. We’re always trying to make new music and we appreciate your support. I hope you love the album as much as we do. We’ll see you all soon."

MORE: The UK's Top 40 biggest albums of 2019 so far

Kanye West debuts at Number 2 with his ninth record Jesus Is King, marking his sixth Top 10 album, and James Blunt claims a sixth consecutive Top 10 with Once Upon A Mind at 3. Rick Astley retrospective The Best Of Me is new at Number 4, and indie-pop singer-songwriter Rex Orange County makes his UK albums chart debut at Number 5 with his third record Pony.

Further down, Bruce Springsteen’s Western Stars: Songs From The Film - a collection of reworked tracks from his chart-topping album Western Stars that appear in a new documentary film – enters at 11; Van Morrison opens at 13 with Three Chords and the Truth; and Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s Colorado is new at 17.

AJ Tracey’s self-titled debut re-enters the Top 40 at 18 following a deluxe edition re-release, greatest hits album, Gold by Bay City Rollers lands at 20, and Editors’ retrospective Black Gold is new at 28.

Other new releases landing in this week’s Top 40 are Harry Connick Jr’s True Love: A Celebration of Cole Porter (29); Desert Sessions’ Vols 11 & 12 (33); Hawkwind’s All Aboard the Skylark (34); Cry by Cigarettes After Sex (36); and Boneshaker by Airbourne (39).