J Hus, Taylor Swift & Rita Ora jostling in three-way race for Number 1 album

Could we be heading for a photo finish?

J Hus leads a three-way race for this week’s Official Number 1 album against Taylor Swift and Rita Ora.

Beautiful and Brutal Yard, J Hus’s third album and first in three years, is currently eyeing-up a Number 1 debut. If it holds on, it would be the Stratford MC’s second chart-topping album, following 2020’s Big Conspiracy. His acclaimed Mercury Prize-nominated 2017 debut Common Sense peaked at Number 6.

But with fewer than 2,000 chart units currently separating the Top 3, we could be in for a photo finish to this week’s race.

MORE: See where every J Hus song and album has charted in the UK here

Last week’s chart-topper, Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), is at Number 2 midweek, while Rita Ora’s first album in nearly half a decade, You & I, is expected to debut at Number 3, which would mark the British pop star’s second Top 10 LP. Discover more about the making of the album in The Official Chat with Rita Ora here.

Further new entries in the Top 10 could come from Glaswegian singer-songwriter Gerry Cinnamon with Live At Hampden Park (4), US alt-pop singer PVRIS, who could earn her second Top 10 LP with Evergreen (5) and Lauren Spencer Smith, hoping for a big debut with her first full-length album Mirror (6).

Rising British R&B star Mahalia’s second record IRL is on track for Number 9, in what would be her first Top 10 entry on the Official Albums Chart.

Legendary Queen guitarist Brian May could see the expanded, 30th anniversary collection of his solo EP Star Fleet Project re-enter the Chart at Number 13, its highest position ever (having peaked at Number 35 in 1983).

American rapper Lil Tjay is on track to secure a third Top 40 album with 222 (24), and Joel Corry’s singles collection Another Friday Night (28) is looking to become the British hitmaking DJ’s first-ever entry on the Official Albums Chart.

Pop auteur Charli XCX’s forward-thinking 2017 mixtape Pop 2 could enter the chart for the first time ever this week at Number 29, thanks to a 5-year anniversary edition, while Siouxsie’s re-issue of 2007 debut solo album Mantaray could see it hit a new peak of Number 34.

Finally, Bastille’s debut LP Bad Blood celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and the newly-released edition Bad Blood X could help push the former Number 1 record back into the Top 40 (38).