Konk kicks Duffy off top slot

13:09 | Monday April 21, 2008

The Brighton band's 2006 debut album Inside In/Inside Out eventually spawned six Top 40 hits, and has sold 1,301,717 copies to date but it debuted much more quietly at number nine with first week sales of 19,098 and fell as far as number 61 before eventually peaking for a fortnight at number two behind Muse's Black Holes & Revelations.

Leona Lewis' success in America - where she became the first British female solo artist ever to simultaneously top the singles and albums charts - generated a great deal of coverage here last week, with the result that her debut album Spirit increased its sales week-on-week by 99.88% to 36,179, earning it a 5-2 leap. It's the highest position that Spirit has held since it completed its seven week run at number one some 16 weeks ago. Overall sales of the album now stand at 1,827,271.

Debuting at number 3 on sales of 34,769, E=MC² is Mariah Carey's highest charting album since 1997, when Butterfly fluttered to number two on first week sales of 28,758. The new album - from which introductory single Touch My Body reached number five last week - is Carey's third Def Jam effort, following 2002's Charmbracelet, which reached number 52, and 2005's The Emancipation Of Mimi. Despite Charmbracelet's low peak, it has sold 122,010, easily beating disastrous predecessor, Glitter, Carey's only (2001) Virgin album, which reached number 10 but has sold only 54,645 copies. The Emancipation Of Mimi has sold 621,352 copies.

Scouting For Girls' fourth single Heartbeat is getting massive radio support, and leaps 5-2 on the airplay chart, and 19-14 on sales as a consequence. The band's self-titled debut album, home to all their hits, also benefits, jumping 8-5 on sales of 15,901. It's the fourth rise for the former number one album in as many weeks, and takes its 31 week sales tally to 427,908.

After being the main performer on two Hannah Montana albums which wound up in the Top 10 of the compilation chart, 15 year old Miley Cyrus makes her artist album chart debut with The Best Of Both Worlds Concert CD/DVD set, which debuts at number 29 on sales of 4,711.

Scandanavian metal invades the chart for the second week in a row. Last week, Sweden's In Flames secured their second chart entry, and this week it's the turn of Finland's Children Of Bodom to break their duck, with sixth album Blooddrunk debuting at number 44 on sales of 3,742. The album is also the first chart entry for the Finnish Spinefarm label since its 1991 creation.

While The Kooks debut at number one, fellow Brighton-based alt-rock duo Blood Red Shoes slip quietly into the chart at number 47 (3,525 sales) with their debut set Box Of Secrets.

Veteran Canadian rockers Rush have been in existence since 1968, and the current trio of Lee, Lifeson and Peart have been unchanged since 1974. The band's 19th chart album, Snakes & Arrows Live debuts at number 70 on sales of 2,548, eleven months after the Snakes & Arrows studio set debuted at number 13. Despite its title, only seven of the 27 songs on the live 2CD set, recorded in Rotterdam, are from the 13 song studio album of the same name.

The Kooks' Konk album registered the highest artist album sale for four weeks last week, helping sales in the sector to a 1.5% improvement to 1,498,781. Despite another strong contribution from the AATW/Universal album Clubland Classic: The Album Of Your Life - which sold 40,875 copies on its second week at number one to lift its 20 day sales to 157,632 - the compilation sector dipped by 4.2% to 517,623, helping to drag overall album sales 0.46% lower at 2,016,404. That's 2.31% up on the same week in 2007, when 1,970,836 albums were sold, and the second week in a row that 2008 sales have exceeded 2007 numbers.