U.K. MIDWEEKS: KING ARTHUR

Comeback king James Arthur is heading to #1 in Blighty with his second album, Back from the Edge (SYCO), while labelmates Little Mix are holding on strong for a third week atop the Official Singles Chart. There’s a few Halloween-themed releases seeing sales spikes too.

Thanks in part to a huge #1 lead single, Back from the Edge is 6k combined sales ahead of The Courteeners’ Mapping The Rendezvous (Ignition) at Official Albums midway stage. Last week’s #1, Elvis’ The Wonder of You (Sony Music CG), declines to #3. The third new entry in the Official Albums Top 5 is Madness with Can’t Touch Us Now (Universal), while Michael Buble’s Nobody But Me (Warner) moves down three places to #5.

Over on the singles chart, “Shout Out To My Ex” is ahead of Arthur’s “Say You Won’t Let Go” while Clean Bandit’s new track “Rockabye” (Atlantic U.K.) jumps four places to #3. The Weeknd f/ Daft Punk’s Starboy (Island) is a non-mover at #4 while The Chainsmokers’ “Closer” (RCA) moves down two places to #5.

Thanks to a performance on last weekend's X Factor results show, Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic” (Atlantic) is at a new midweek peak of #6, while Drake’s “Fake Love” (Island) zooms 28 spots to #9.

Finally, in celebration of the spooky holiday, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” (Epic) has re-entered at #42 with downloads increasing over 165% since last week, and the theme from the Ghostbusters movie is at #77 (a sales uplift of more than 107% from last week).