A flurry of high-profile releases hit the market last Friday, and at the halfway stage of the week there are just 6,000 copies separating the Top 3. So with Michael Buble, Mumford and Sons, Little Mix, Boyzone, The Greatest Showman: Reimagined, Mariah Carey, Paul Heaton and more gunning for glory, who will win out?
According to the Official Charts Company, Buble currently holds a very narrow lead with his new collection, Love.
It is his tenth studio album, and will be his fourth to top the UK charts if it can hang on until Friday.
A hairline behind him are Mumford and Sons, whose new effort Delta is currently in second place. If they can leapfrog Buble by Friday, this will be their third number one.
And currently in the bronze medal position are Little Mix with LM5. The collection comes just a week after they were dropped from record label Syco as the latter decided to stop working with the girls’ management company. They have since joined RCA, another Sony label, and fans have hailed their new music as their best yet.
Outside of the incredibly close Top 3 are Boyzone at No4 with their final album, Thank You And Goodnight; with the immovable Greatest Showman soundtrack at No5.
The Greatest Showman: Reimagined, which sees chart stars singing songs from the hit film, is not eligible for the album chart but is the midweek No1 over on the compilation chart.
Of the other new albums this week, Paul Heaton of The Beautiful South starts at No6 with The Last King of Pop, while Down The Road Wherever by Mark Knopfler is currently at No8.
Fleetwood Mac’s boxset 50 Years – Don’t Stop is at No9, Buddy Holly orchestral album True Love Ways is at No14, the new deluxe edition re-release of Paloma Faith’s The Architect is No21, and Jean-Michel Jarre’s Equinoxe Infinity is No23.
Damon Albarn-fronted band The Good, The Bad & The Queen are at No24 with Merrie Land, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra are at No26 with their reworking of some Cilla Black classics, and Mariah Carey starts outside the Top 30, at No31 with Caution.
Her last set, Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse, peaked at No14 on our shores back in 2014; although hits package #1 to Infinity made it to No8 one year later.
Finally, Smashing Pumpkins’ reunion album Shiny And Oh So Bright – Vol. 1 arrives at No32; and Kate Bush’s first part of the Remastered series is one place behind.
This week’s charts will be confirmed on Friday.