Kylie Minogue storms ahead in the race for this week’s Official Number 1 album, with Tension currently outselling the rest of the Top 30 combined.
Kylie’s 16th studio album – preceded by recent Top 10 hit Padam Padam and its title track Tension – could earn the Australian superstar her ninth chart-topping LP across a career spanning 35 years. Previously, Kylie reached the Official Albums Chart summit with 1988 debut Kylie, 1989’s Enjoy Yourself, 1992 collection Greatest Hits, 2001 record Fever, 2010’s Aphrodite, 2018 release Golden, 2019’s Step Back in Time: The Definitive Collection and 2020 LP Disco.
Elsewhere, Doja Cat looks set to debut at Number 3 with her fourth studio album Scarlet. The parent LP of current Official Number 1 single Paint the Town Red, Scarlet is on track to match the peak of Doja’s highest-charting album to date, 2021’s Planet Her, and become her third Top 40 album overall. Hot Pink provided Doja her first Official Albums Chart entry in 2019, peaking at Number 38.
Headie One and K-Trap’s first collaborative mixtape STRENGTH TO STRENGTH tracks for a Top 5 debut this week (4). The record could earn Tottenham rapper and singer Headie One (real name Irving Ampofo Adjei) his third Top 10 album, following 2019’s Music x Road (9) and 2020 chart-topper EDNA, while London-born rapper K-Trap (real name Devonte Kasi Martin Perkins) could score a career-best; 2022’s The Last Whip II being his highest-charting record to date (12).
Rounding out the possible new entries in the Top 5, Teenage Fanclub are on course to claim their highest-charting album in 26 years with Nothing Lasts Forever (5). The Glasgow-formed alt-rock group, comprising Norman Blake, Raymond McGinley, Francis MacDonald, Dave McGowan and Euros Childs last reached the Top 5 with 1997 LP Songs from Northern Britain (3).
Meanwhile, Bakar could claim his first-ever Top 10 record with Halo this week (8). The Camden-born experimental singer-songwriter, real name Abubakar Baker Shariff-Farr, previously peaked inside the Top 40 with 2022’s Nobody’s Home (31).
A multi-format deluxe reissue of Midge Ure’s 1985 LP The Gift could see the record return to the Top 20 for the first time in 38 years, at Number 19 midweek. The album peaked at Number 2 upon its initial release.
Stephen Sanchez looks set to earn his first-ever Official Albums Chart placing with debut Angel Face (25). The album includes Stephen’s Top 20 breakout hit Until I Found You, which he famously performed alongside Elton John during his headline Glastonbury Pyramid Stage performance back in June.
Following its release on physical formats, James Blake’s studio album Playing Robots into Heaven could impact the chart for the first time, possibly becoming his sixth Top 40 LP in the process (30).
Paul Rodgers’ Midnight Rose – his first album of original material in almost a decade – is on track to earn the British-Canadian multi-hyphenate a sixth solo Top 40 record (36). As lead vocalist of rock outfit Bad Company, Paul boasts a further seven Top 40 albums, plus seven more as frontman of Free.
Finally, Madonna’s compilation Madame X – Music from the Theater Xperience (Live) could see the Queen of Pop net a 26th Top 40 album (39).
