Anne-Marie and Travis Scott enter an extremely close race for this week’s Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart, with less than 100 chart units currently separating UNHEALTHY and UTOPIA.
As it stands, Anne-Marie’s third studio album UNHEALTHY – which has already yielded the Top 10 hit Psycho with Aitch (5) and recently scored a second Top 20 hit with the title track featuring Shania Twain (19) – is ahead at Number 1.
But there’s no time to get comfortable, with Travis’s UTOPIA – his long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s influential Astroworld – kicking at Anne-Marie’s heels. UTOPIA is also set to flood three tracks into the Official Singles Chart Top 10 later this week.
The race is likely to go down to the wire, with both artists standing to gain their first UK Number 1 album. Anne-Marie has previously reached the Top 3 with 2018’s Speak Your Mind (3) and 2021’s Therapy (2), while Travis Scott has sunk three Top 40 albums to date; 2015’s Rodeo (22), 2016’s Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight (19) and the aforementioned Astroworld (3).
Meanwhile, Post Malone’s fifth studio album AUSTIN is expected to debut at Number 3, potentially his fifth UK Top 10 album, while Brummie pop-rock outfit Dexys (formerly Dexys Midnight Runners) could score their highest-charting LP since 1982 with sixth album The Feminine Divine, at Number 4 midweek.
Just outside the Top 10, musical legend Joni Mitchell’s first live concert performance in 22 years – her 2022 appearance at Newport Folk Festival – has been immortalised on Joni Mitchell At Newport (11), which looks set to become the icon’s highest-charting UK release since 1976’s Hejira, which also hit Number 11.
Finally, a brand-new vinyl and CD box set re-issue of The Rolling Stones’ greatest hits Forty Licks could make a re-entry at Number 20. Upon its initial release in 2002, the double compilation album peaked at Number 2.
