U.K. MIDWEEKS: WILD ABOUT HARRY

Harry Styles has taken a commanding lead on the U.K. Official Albums and Singles charts, with Harry’s House (Columbia) on track to be the fastest-selling album of 2022. He has the top three singles to boot.

Harry’s House has racked up more than 61k in chart sales at the midweek mark, the highest tally since Adele’s 30 (Columbia) in November. He's already topped the full-week sales of his first two albums—2017’s Harry Styles totaled just under 57k in chart sales; 2019’s Fine Line chalked up 49k.

At singles, his “As It Was” is on track to becoming the longest-running #1 of 2022 at seven weeks, overtaking “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Disney’s Encanto. He could also be the third artist to claim the Top 3 of the Official Singles Chart—Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber did it previously—with “As It Was” on top, “Late Night Talking” at #2 and “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” at #3.

Besides Styles, new arrivals looking to make Top 10 debuts include The Heart Is Strange (ZTT), the debut album from German synthpop group xPropaganda, consisting of Claudia Brücken and Susanne Freytag, which is #2 at midweek. An expanded edition of The Clash’s 1982 set Combat Rock (Sony Music CG) is currently #3, one slot below its chart peak four decades ago.

The sixth studio album from Mancunian alt-rockers Everything Everything, Raw Data Feel (Everything Everything), sits at #5, followed by trap-wave artist M Huncho’s Chasing Euphoria (Island), at #6.

The 35th anniversary edition of Rick Astley’s 1981 chart-topper Whenever You Need Somebody (BMG) rolls into #9, and Europiana Encore (EMI), an expanded edition of Jack Savoretti’s 2021 chart-topper Europiana, is on course for #10. New releases from Beach House, Van Morrison, Porridge Radio and Rolling Blackout Coastal Fever are eyeing Top 30 debuts.

N-Dubz’s Greatest Hits (Around the World/Island) from 2011 rises 27 slots and is anticipating a new peak of #11 following the release of comeback single “Charmer” (Xploded), which is currently #15.