The xx land first Official Albums Chart Number 1 with Coexist

The xx will be celebrating today as they land their first Official Albums Chart Number 1 with Coexist.  A strong opening week sees the London trio outsell The Script’s #3 (Number 2) by more than 5,000 copies to claim the top spot with their hotly-anticipated second studio album. 

The unusual marketing campaign surrounding Coexist set out to recreate the word-of-mouth phenomenon of The xx’s 2009 eponymous debut.  The band shared an album stream of Coexist with one ‘superfan’ in the UK, ahead of the album’s US release date, in order to attempt to replicate the viral success of their debut album.  The online sharing behaviour of fans was tracked on a map visualisation, demand proved so high that the stream’s host site crashed 24 hours later from the millions of streams requested.

New Entries

The Script return to the albums fold this week with their third studio album, #3. The Script’s frontman and coach on the BBC’s hit reality TV show The Voice, revealed to OfficialCharts.com that long-time fans of his band will be pleasantly surprised by the album’s direction:

“People were probably listening to us missing their lost love, and wanting to slit their wrists!” laughed the singer. “But this is a record that you’ll be able to play in pubs and clubs. We’re loud and proud about what we do now!”

Watch the full interview below:

Awarded maximum marks by the likes of Rolling Stone, MOJO and Uncut,veteran US singer/songwriter Bob Dylan delivers a Number 3 today with new album Tempest. Tempest is Dylan’s 35th studio album, critics have hailed it his best work in years.

Coldplay receive a welcome post-Paralympics boost as their most recent album Mylo Xyloto jumps 16 places to Number 4, with all five of their studio albums present in the Official Top 100.  Emeli Sande bumps down one place to 5.

Former X Factor and Popstar To Operastar winner Joe McElderry scores his third Top 10 album with Here’s What I Believe (8), while British electronic duo Pet Shop Boys are new in at Number 9 with their eleventh studio album Elysium.

Meanwhile, the new 2.0 edition of David Guetta’s Nothing But The Beat Album notches up a Top 20 placing (13) and Billy Talent debut at Number 23 with Dead Silence.

Veteran US rockers ZZ Top’s La Futura is at 29 while Love This Giant (40) - the new collaboration from Talking Heads’ David Byrne and The Polyphonic Spree’s St. Vincent – completes the Top 40 new entries.

The Official Albums Chart Top 10 is as follows. Click here to see the Top 100 in full after 7pm.

© 2012 the Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.