The Wombats are battling The Greatest Showman for this week's Number 1 album

Franz Ferdinand, Mist and Brian Fallon could also crack the Top 40 this week.

The Greatest Showman’s Motion Picture Cast Recording has spent five weeks at Number 1 – can The Wombats be the band to topple it?

The Liverpudlian rockers are the closest rivals to the movie’s inspiring collection of songs, but they’ve got ground to make up should they want to bag their first UK Number 1 album. The band’s fourth studio album Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life is currently at Number 2, 10,000 sales behind the popular soundtrack to the Oscar-nominated film (1).

Scottish indie quintet Franz Ferdinand are sitting pretty at Number 3 with their fifth record Always Ascending, while British MC Mist is at Number 4 with his latest EP, Diamond in the Dirt, which features collaborations with Jessie Ware and Not3s.

New entries and high climbers

A further seven albums look to impact Friday’s Top 40, the next highest being Tables Turn, the sophomore mixtape album from London rapper Fredo, at Number 6. Sleepwalkers, the second solo album from Gaslight Anthem lead vocalist Brian Fallon, could become his highest charting album, currently at Number 7. His debut LP Painkillers peaked at Number 13 in March 2016.

MGMT are eyeing a third UK Top 40 appearance with Little Dark Age (15), and Who Built The Moon? by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds is back on the climb, so far up ten places this week to Number 18.

More new entries set for the Top 40 include US musician Ezra Furman’s Transangelic Exodus (21), Damned Devotion by Joan As Police Woman (27), 40 Trips Around The Sun, Toto’s new greatest hits (28), and GoGo Penguin’s A Humdrum Star (34).

Finally, The Hunna’s debut album 100 could return to the Top 40 at Number 35 following its deluxe edition release on red vinyl.