Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) already has the biggest opening week of the year

Taylor has already outpaced the full opening week sales of Lewis Capaldi's second album.

Taylor Swift already secures the biggest opening week of any album so far in 2023, with 1989 (Taylor’s Version) currently outperforming the rest of the Top 40 combined on its way to Number 1.

Over the weekend, the re-recorded edition of Taylor’s fifth album (originally released in 2014) has pulled in a staggering 148,000 chart units, blowing away the previous title holder, Lewis Capaldi’s second LP Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent (which accumulated over 95,000 chart units during its first week on sale).

This means Taylor is well on the way to securing her 11th overall UK Number 1 album, likely extending her record as the female solo artist with the most chart-topping albums this century.

See where every Taylor Swift song and album has charted in the UK here.

At Number 2 midweek, OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) are on the way to claiming their eighth Top 10 album (and first in six years) with Bauhaus Staircase, while Duran Duran’s spooky Danse Macabre is expected to bow at Number 4, which would become the band’s 12th Top 10 LP.

James Blunt’s Who We Used to Be could gift the British singer-songwriter his eighth consecutive Top 10 album (5), while UK grime MC CASisDEAD’s debut album Famous Last Words (6) and tenor Alfie Boe’s Open Arms – The Symphonic Songbook (7) are also on track for Top 10 placings.

This week’s Top 10 would be completed by new entries courtesy of Simple Minds’ new live recording New Gold Dream – Live from Paisley Abbey (8), Billy Bragg’s greatest hits compilation The Roaring Forty 1983-2023 (9) and American rock band Gaslight Anthem, on their way to a third Top 10 album with History Books (10).

Elsewhere, indie-pop group Fizz are set to make their Official Chart debut with first album The Secret to Life (12), and a deluxe re-release of Prince & the New Power Generation’s Diamonds and Pearls is heading for a Top 20 re-entry (14), having initially peaked at Number 2 in 1991. Read more about the legacy of Prince’s Diamonds and Pearls here.

Irish icon Daniel O’Donnell’s How Lucky I Must Be is predicted to become his 43rd Top 40 album at 18, while The Kills could see their first studio album since 2016, God Games, land at Number 23.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the final album from Nirvana, In Utero, approaches a Top 40 re-entry at Number 24 following a deluxe re-issue. The last record Kurt Cobain worked on before his untimely death, In Utero debuted and peaked at Number 1 in 1993.

Close behind, US R&B savant Brent Faiyaz is looking to secure a second Top 40 entry with his new mixtape Larger Than Life (25).

Finally, US psychedelic-soul outfit Black Pumas could be celebrating a debut entry on the Official Albums Chart with Chronicles of a Diamond (39).