ANALYSIS The Official UK Singles & Albums Charts are compiled by the Official Charts Company, based on a sample of more than 15,000 physical and digital outlets. They count actual sales and audio streams from last Friday to Thursday, based on sales of downloads, CDs, vinyl and other physical formats and audio streams weighted using SEA2 methodology. Alive & kicking: Tom Walker debut album races to the summit Q BY ALAN JONES t’s a great week for developing British talent, with Lewis Capaldi continuing atop the singles chart, while Tom IWalker’s first long player, What A Time To Be Alive, coasts to an easy No.1 debut on the album chart on sales of 36,679 copies (including 4,158 from sales-equivalent streams). Originally slated for release last October, What A Time To Be Alive houses Walker’s introductory smash hit single Leave A Light On, which reached No.7 last June, and follow-up Just You And I, which gets ever closer to matching that, climbing 10-8 in the latest frame. Walker – who was born in Glasgow and raised in Greater Manchester – is the first UK male singer/songwriter to debut at No.1 on the album chart since Rag‘N’Bone Man did so with No.1 Human in February 2018. Walker’s success denies veteran Canadian singer/songwriter Bryan Adams the opportunity to register his fourth No.1 Tom Walker - What A Time To Be Alive (Relentless) album. Powered by the incandescent title track, which he This week’s sales: 36,679 | Physical: 23,547 | Downloads: 8,974 | penned with Ed Sheeran, Adams’ 14th studio album, Shine A Streams: 4,158 |Total sales to date: 36,700 | Light, debuts at No.2 (16,684 sales), matching the debut and peak of his last studio album, 2015’s Get Up, but not its first week sales of 17,846 copies. seen him chart at least one new title for an unprecedented 32 While Adams and Walker wrote or co-wrote every track years in a row since his 1988 debut. on their albums, they mostly did so with collaborators, while Weezer have released 13 albums since their 1994 debut, the third and final debut in the Top 10 consists entirely of six of them eponymous and two of them already this year. In material written only by Andrew Hozier-Byrne, better known recognition of the colour of its cover, and to distinguish it from as Hozier. The second album from the 28-year-old Irishman their previous self-titled sets, their latest is listed as Weezer Wasteland, Baby! (No.6, 12,415 sales) comes more than four (Black Album), and becomes their 11th Top 75 entry, debuting years after the first, the eponymous Hozier. Wasteland, Baby!’s at No.73 (1,588 sales), a mere five weeks after their covers set tally includes 1,312 vinyl albums and 1,468 cassettes, earning it Weezer (Teal Album), debuted at No.60 (1,718 sales). the No.1 slot on those format charts. Also new to the chart: The West End Cast Recording of After three weeks at No.1, Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next Heathers (No.24, 3,196 sales); Ulfilas’ Alphabet (No.28, 2,964 dips to No.3 (15,105 sales). His time: sales), the second chart album from Sundara Karma; Shelby The rest of the Top 10: The Greatest Showman Tom Walker has (No.30, 2,894 sales), the second album by rapper Lil Skies; soundtrack (2-4, 14,370 sales), Bohemian Rhapsody (4-5, already racked up The Best Of Everything: The Definitive Career Spanning Hits 12,782 sales) by Queen, A Star Is Born (3-7, 10,889 sales) by two Top 10 singles Collection 1976-2016 (No.38, 2,482 sales) by the late Tom Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper, Staying At Tamara’s (5-8, Petty; Mad Move (No.41, 2,248 sales), the second chart entry 8,391 sales) by George Ezra, The Platinum Collection (8-9, for London rap/drill exponent Loski; Good At Falling (No.64, 6,615 sales) by Queen and Always In Between (7-10, 5,281 1,781 sales), the first album by The Japanese House; I, The sales) by Jess Glynne. Mask (No.66, 1,751 sales), the sixth chart entry for Swedish When I Get Home is the fourth album and second Top 75 metal band In Flames; and Rap Or Go To The League (No.74, entry for R&B singer Solange – Beyoncé’s sister – opening at 1,587 sales), the first chart entry for 2 Chainz. No.18 (3,658 sales). MTV Rocks: Indie Revolution opens atop the compilation While She Sleeps score their fourth Top 40 entry in as chart (5,381 sales). many releases, opening at No.21 (3,355 sales) with So What? Overall album sales are up 5.97% week-on-week at 1,747,279, Daniel O’Donnell’s new compilation The Gold Collection 1.62% above same week 2018 sales of 1,719,407. – a 60-song, 3CD set that is retailing for as little as £5 – debuts Sales-equivalent streams accounted for 1,128,036 sales, 64.56% at No.23 (3,235 sales). It is the 57-year-old Irish crooner’s 38th of the total. Sales of paid-for albums are up 18.30% week-on- Top 40 album and 42nd Top 75 album in a career which has week at 619,243, 23.33% below same week 2018 sales of 807,677. musicweek.com 11.03.19 Music Week | 35.