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ALBUMS: Chris Brown debuts atop the album chart with his fifth studio set Fortune, while moving closer to racking up his second straight number one single from the album with Don't Wake Me Up.
It seals a remarkable reversal in fortunes for Brown, whose much-publicised conviction for domestic violence against Rihanna in 2009 was followed by a major slump in his career, which saw his next album, Graffiti peak at a lowly number 55, while five singles in a row on which he was lead act fell short of the Top 20.
Fortune is Brown's first number one album in the UK, and sold more copies last week - 29,980 - than any Brown album has in any week hitherto. His previous top tally of 20,011 occurred four years ago last week, when Exclusive leapt 142-6 after being reissued in a Forever edition. That album also provided Brown's previous highest chart position, reaching number three a week later, on sales of 18,157 copies. Brown's last album F.A.M.E. debuted and peaked at number 10, on first week sales of 18,509 in March last year. See singles analysis (below) for more on Don't Wake Me Up.
After debuting at number two last week, Maroon 5 remain runners-up, with Overexposed selling a further 18,818 copies, while Linkin Park, who beat them to the title, suffer a 1-3 dip (14,198 sales) with Living Things.
Aside from Chris Brown, it's a poor week for new entries, with debuts only for country/folk icon Mary Chapin Carpenter's Ashes And Roses (number 26, 5,259 sales), punk revivalists The King Blues' Long Live The Struggle (number 43, 3,131 sales) and veteran prog rock supergroup Asia's XXX (number 69, 1,834 sales).
Ashes And Roses is Carpenter's 11th studio album, and equals her highest chart placing, as set by Stones In The Road in 1994. Ashes And Roses' immediate predecessor, The Age Of Miracles, reached only number 101 in 2010. Long Live The Struggle is The King Blues' fifth and final album (they split in April), and their second to enter the Top 75, following Punk & Poetry, which reached number 31 last year. XXX is neither Asia's 30th album nor a set of extremely explicit tunes. Actually Asia's 12th album, the significance of its title is that it is 30 years since the release of their self-titled debut. XXX is the band's fourth chart album, coming 27 years after their third.
The Stone Roses triumphant return to the live arena has earned them much critical acclaim and - if reports are to be believed - millions of pounds. It has also sparked a major revival in sales of their catalogue. Their compilation, The Very Best Of The Stone Roses, which debuted and peaked at number 19 in 2002, and has been missing from the chart since 2005, re-entered at number 21 three weeks ago, before falling to number 38, then climbing back to number 21. It makes another modest improvement this week, climbing to number 20 with sales of 6,714 raising its career tally to 552,577. Although it cannibalises much of the band's iconic eponymous 1989 album, the latter disc also returned to chart duty last week, and now bounds 52-42 (3,132 sales). Number 19 first time around, The Stone Roses climbed as high as number five when issued in a 20th anniversary edition in 2009, and has thus far sold more than a million copies.
An appearance on The Graham Norton Show on BBC1 to sing their debut smash We Are Young helped Fun's album Some Nights to climb 28-23 (5,998 sales). The single (feat, Janelle Monae) bounces 9-7 (36,401 sales) on its 13th straight week in the Top 10, raising its career tally to 711,452.
BBC1 also ran the Paul Simon documentary, Under African Skies - about the making of his classic Graceland album - last Tuesday. It resulted in a major resurgence for the album, which rockets 45-6 (11,172 sales), beating both the number 40 peak it reached when issued in remastered form last Autumn, and the number 10 position it achieved four weeks ago, when it was released again as a double disc set, with the Under African Skies documentary DVD appended. Its current chart placing mark the album's highest position since March 1987, six months after its initial release.
After 71 straight weeks in the Top 10 followed by four out of it, Adele's 21 bounces 15-9 (8,006 sales).
Overall album sales are down 1.91% week-on-week at 1,536,945 - 4.89% below same week 2011 sales of 1,615,988.
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