One Direction on course for huge Number 1 album with Take Me Home

The Anglo-Irish boyband’s debut album, Up All Night, was kept off the top of the Official Albums Chart last December by Rihanna’s Talk That Talk. Nearly twelve months on and its follow-up, Take Me Home, is outselling its closest competitor, Rod Stewart’s Merry Christmas Baby (2), by more than three copies to one.

With a current sales tally of 94,000 copies, One Direction could also take the title for the fastest selling album of 2012 away from Mumford And Sons. Back in September, Mumford And Sons’ second album, Babel, sold 89,000 copies at this same point during its first week on sale, and 158,000 copies by the end of the week. With One Direction leading the English folk band by 5,000 copies at this midway stage, will it be a double celebration for Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry and Louis by Sunday’s final whistle?

The Rolling Stones’ latest Greatest Hits package, GRRR!, is new in at Number 3, while iDos!, the second of US punk rockers Green Day’s new trilogy of albums looks set to debut at Number 4. Reigning chart topper, Robbie Williams, slides four places to Number 5 with his ninth studio album, Take The Crown.

New Entries

Outside of the four new entries in the Top 5, there are seven other new entries in today’s Official Albums Chart Update Top 40.

English tenor Alfie Boe is on track to debut at Number 8 with his latest album, Storyteller, while recently reunited US band Soundgarden are at Number 13 with King Animal, their first new material in 16 years.

Christina Aguilera’s seventh studio album, Lotus, is new in at Number 18, followed by Deftones’ Koi No Yokan, at 19. Steps’ new Christmas album, Light Up The World, enters at Number 22, while The Weekend’s Trilogy (29) and The Staves’ Dead & Born & Grown (33) complete this week’s Official Albums Chart Update’s new entries.

The Official Albums Chart Update Top 40 is as follows:

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