It’s a Taylor Swift takeover on the U.K. charts, as Midnights (via EMI) clocks up exceptional first-week numbers for her 10th No. 1.
Midnights and Arctic Monkeys The Car (Domino Recordings) fought an epic battle which, at the midnight point, saw both LPs surge past 100,000 chart sales.
There could be only one winner. Midnights made it a win for the ages and a personal best for TayTay.
According to data published by the Official Charts Company, Midnights notches 204,000 U.K. chart sales, a volume that’s more than double her previous personal best of 90,300, for 2014’s 1989.
The first week tally for Midnights easily beats the previous best for 2022, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, which accumulated 113,000 chart sales, and it’s the best first-week result for any title since Adele’s 30 raked-up 261,000 chart sales in November 2021.
Midnights was a streaming juggernaut too, racking up 72.5 million streams in its first seven days. That too is a year-best, overhauling the 53.9 million U.K. week-one streams for Harry’s House.
Swift now moves up the all-time leaderboard. With nine consecutive U.K. No. 1 albums, she overtakes Madonna to set a new chart record, by doing so in faster succession than any female artist, the OCC reports.
It took Swift just 10 years to achieve the feat, the time between her first leader with Red, in October 2012, and now Midnights, whereas Madonna took 21 years to reach double digits. The boss in that particular frame is the Beatles, with, nine chart leaders in just 5 years and 7 months, the time between the release of their debut album Please Please Me in May 1963 and The White Album in December 1968.
Also, Swift overtakes Kylie Minogue for outright second place in the list of female artists with the most U.K. No. 1 albums. Madonna leads that ranking, with 12. And Taylor extends her lead as the female solo artist with the highest tally of No. 1 albums this century.
With Midnights and “Anti-Hero” debuting at No. 1 on the respective charts, Swift becomes the first female artist to complete the chart double in nine years (Miley Cyrus was the last to do it, in August 2013).
Arctic Monkeys’ streak of six U.K. No. 1s comes to a screeching halt, thanks to Midnights. The Sheffield, England rockers’ latest album The Car revs up for 100,000-plus first week combined sales, an effort that would easily land the chart crown on most weeks.
Coming in at No. 3 on the fresh chart, published Oct. 28, is South London rapper Loyle Carner with Hugo (EMI), new at No. 3 for an equal career high.
Scottish ‘80s new wave legends Simple Minds start at No. 4 with Direction of the Heart (BMG), their 12th top 10 appearance; Kylie’s Impossible Princess (BMG) enjoys a return to the chart and a new peak position following its 25th anniversary reissue. Impossible Princess pushes to No. 5, surpassing its peak position of No. 10 in 1998.
Finally, alternative-rock outfit Dry Cleaning start at No. 11 with their sophomore album Stumpwork (4AD), while Norwegian ‘80s pop trio a-ha earn a No. 12 debut with True North (Music For Nations).
