U.K. CHARTS: FAITHLESS TAKES IT

Dance act Faithless have scuppered indie act John Grant’s chance at a surprise #1 album, beating the singer/songwriter to the top of the U.K. Official Albums Chart by five places. Interscope star Selena Gomez is at #11, while eOne/SPV’s The Game comes fourth place.

Issued via their own label Cheeky Records and distributed via Sony, 20-year-old act Faithless have scored their third #1 album today in Blighty with best of compilation Faithless 2.0. The retrospective of their biggest hits features remixes by Avicii, Armin Van Buuren and Eric Prydz.

Its nearest competitor ended up being Asylum star Ed Sheeran with second LP x, which shot back up the charts this week, finishing nearly 2K combined chart sales behind Faithless.

Atlantic singer/songwriter Jess Glynne is still in the Top 5, holding at #3 this week with I Cry When I Laugh. And Grant rounds off the list with his third solo album Grey Tickles, Black Pressure (Bella Union).

Singles-wise, Justin Bieber spends his fifth week at #1 with “What Do You Mean” (Def Jam). The track is the second longest #1 of the year so far, beaten only by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ smash hit “Uptown Funk” (RCA). If Bieber manages to hold on for another week, he’ll be sharing that crown with Ronson and Mars. Standing strong at #2 is R.City and Adam Levine’s “Locked Away” (Kemosabe/RCA).

Drake has scored his highest charting single as a lead artist with “Hotline Bling” leaping from #8 to #3, beating previous best “Hold On We’re Going Home” which reached #4 in 2013.

Moving up two places to #4 is Naughty Boy, Beyonce and Arrow Benjamin collab “Runnin’ (Lose It All)”, out via Virgin in Blighty, while Republic Records/XO star The Weeknd vaults #23 to #5 with the first single from Beauty Behind the Madness “The Hills”.