Taylor Swift is in complete control of the U.K. chart race with Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), the third instalment of her “Version” LPs.
Based on midweek sales and streaming data captured by the Official Charts Company, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) has already accumulated 48,0000 combined units (sales and streams), to lead the Official Chart Update.
It’s highly unlikely Swift can be caught. The new set, a rerecording of her third album, 2010’s Speak Now, is outselling the rest of the top 10 combined, the OCC reports.
Should it hold its spot when the chart proper is published, Swift would nab a tenth consecutive U.K. No. 1. That feat stretches over a little more than a decade, and would extend Swift’s lead as the female solo artist with the second most No. 1 albums in U.K. chart history, behind only Madonna, with 12.
Swift’s chart domination is especially impressive when considering her U.K. leg of The Eras Tour is booked for almost a year from now. Anticipation is sky-high for her live shows in Australia, where Swift currently locks up the entire top five on the ARIA Chart, a never-seen-before phenomenon.
Coming in a distant No. 2 on the U.K. chart blast is Wham’s retrospective The Singles: Echoes From The Edge of Heaven, which benefits from the debut of the ‘80s pop duo’s Netflix documentary. Echoes should give Wham, comprised of the late George Michael with Andrew Ridgeley, their sixth top 10 album as a duo.
Completing an all-new top 3 at the midweek stage is California soul trio Gabriels’ debut set Angels & Queens, new at No. 3, while iconic British singer and songwriter PJ Harvey’s I Inside The Old Year Dying is on course to become her first top 10 in seven years. It’s new at No. 4 on the midweek survey.
Also eying top 10 berths are D-Block Europe’s fresh mixtape DBE World, at No.7, and the Pigeon Detectives’ TV Show, at No. 10, for what could become the alternative rock band their first top 10 showing since 2008.
All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Albums Chart is published Friday (July 14).
