The U.K. albums chart battle is heating up as Red Hot Chili Peppers apply the pressure on the 1975.
Based on midweek data published by the Official Charts Company, the 1975 is out front with Being Funny In A Foreign Language (Dirty Hit), the British alternative rock act’s fifth studio album. If it holds its position, Being Funny will bring Matt Healy and Co. their fifth U.K. leader, following their self-titled 2013 debut; I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it (from 2016); A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships (2018) and Notes On A Conditional Form (2020).
The Chili Peppers could have a say in that.
The veteran California rockers start at No. 2 on the Official Chart Update with Return Of The Dream Canteen (Warner Records). It’s their 13th album and the follow-up to Unlimited Love, which led the U.K. chart in April of this year.
With their Return, RHCP should nab a 10th U.K. top 10 appearance, a track record that includes five No. 1s.
Rounding out an all-new top five on the chart blast is U.S. band Alter Bridge’s Pawns & Kings (Napalm), at No. 3; Atlanta rapper Lil Baby’s It’s Only Me (Motown/Quality Control), at No. 4; and Dexys Midnight Runners’ Too-Rye-Ay (Mercury), a reissue of the Birmingham, England band’s sophomore album from 1982, which featured the classic single “Come on Eileen”. The LP, which peaked at No. 2 following its original release, is set to return to the top 10 for the first time in 40 years, the OCC reports.
Also charging to the top ten is English indie rock act Big Moon, with Here Is Everything (Fiction), which is on track for a career-best No. 6, while Lightning Seeds should bolt into the top tier with See You In The Stars (BMG), the Britpop era band’s first LP in 13 years. It’s set to debut at No. 7, and could become the band’s highest-charting studio album in a 32-year career.
Close behind is the Vamps’ career retrospective Ten Years Of The Vamps (UMR/Virgin), which is poised to start at No. 5, for what would be the British pop band’s fifth top 10 record.
Finally, veteran artist and production mastermind Brian Eno is on track for a career solo high with his 22nd studio album FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE (Universal Music Recordings), starting at No. 10 on the midweek chart.
All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Albums Chart is published late Friday, Oct. 21.
