Lewis Capaldi scores biggest opening week of his career so far – Music News

Lewis Capaldi’s fears and worries going into his second album can be officially cast aside, as the Scottish singer-songwriter lands straight in at Number 1 with the biggest opening week of his career to date, and the fastest-selling album of 2023 so far, the Official Charts Company can confirm.

Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent has outsold the rest of the Official Albums Chart Top 20 combined in the process. It surpasses the previous biggest opening week of the year – Ed Sheeran’s Subtract shifted 76,000 chart units in its first seven days on sale earlier this month – Lewis now claims the title with his second Number 1 album.

This week, Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent nets in excess of 95,000 chart units, it’s the most streamed, downloaded and physically purchased release of the week, and also the best seller of the past seven days in the UK’s independent record shops.

What’s more, the record outperforms the opening week of Lewis’s debut Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent, which totalled 89,000 chart units in its first seven days of release in 2019.

Lewis also claims the biggest opening week of any album since Taylor Swift’s Midnights in October 2022 (204,000 chart units), and the biggest first week for a male solo artist in 12 months, since Harry Styles’ Harry’s House reached the summit in May 2022 (114,000 chart units).

Broken By Desire… tops the Official Vinyl Albums Chart, too, proving the week’s most popular record on wax.

Speaking exclusively to Official Charts, Lewis Capaldi says: “What doth profit a man if he gains the world, but loses his soul? A f**king Number 1 album, baby!

“Thank you very much if you went out there and got the album this week. Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent is Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart. Beautiful stuff! Thank you everybody, I love you so much.

“Fastest-selling album of the year…it feels good! Thanks very much, guys – I’ll see you out there. Lots of shows, lots of smiles, lots of high fives. It means the world, I love you so much.”

Meanwhile, London-formed metal outfit Sleep Token claim their first-ever Top 5 album with Take Me Back to Eden (3). The group, comprising members Vessel, II, III and IV, last saw Top 40 success with 2021’s This Place Will Become Your Tomb (39).

Elsewhere, Def Leppard’s team-up with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Drastic Symphonies, nets the British rock group a ninth Top 10 LP (4), while the UK leg of Harry Styles’s Love On Tour sees his former Number 1 record Harry’s House lift four this week (5).

As she wows UK audiences on her RENAISSANCE World Tour, Beyoncé’s RENAISSANCE ascends seven (7), while Phantomime earns Swedish rockers Ghost their first-ever UK Top 10 album (8).

Ahead of her UK shows next month, SZA sees her second studio LP SOS rebound 10 spots back into the Top 10 (9).

Legendary New Jersey-born singer-songwriter Paul Simon nets a 22nd Top 40 album with Seven Psalms (28), as record producer Steel Banglez claims his first with The Playlist (29).

English prog-rock outfit Yes secure their 21st Top 40 LP with Mirror to the Sky (30) and, finally, The Smiths’ hits compilation The Sound of The Smiths returns to the Top 40 for the first time in 15 years following the sad news of bassist Andy Rouke’s death last week, aged 59 (39).

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