Behold domination.

1. Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia”
2. Taylor Swift – “Opalite”
3. Taylor Swift – “Elizabeth Taylor” 

In 2017, Ed Sheeran managed to get sixteen tracks into the top 20 simultaneously, because his fans were hammering the entirety of his album. The chart company responded by introducing the three-song rule, which limits each artist to three tracks (not counting features on other people’s records). Although the rule applies more broadly, its original justification was actually pretty reasonable: there’s a singles chart, and there’s an album chart, and if people are listening to the whole album then that ought to be reflected on the album chart, instead of counting as sixteen singles.

It’s in weeks like this that we get to be thankful for that rule change. “The Life of a Showgirl” enters the album chart at number 1. It has twelve tracks. If it wasn’t for the three song rule, they would all have placed within the top 15. The top ten would consist of nine Taylor Swift tracks plus Olivia Dean (who would have heroically clung on against the deluge to place at number 6). Instead we get… well, the first three tracks on the album, although track one is also the official single and has a proper video.

“The Fate of Ophelia” and “Elizabeth Taylor” are strong pop songs and you can see why they’d get cherrypicked anyway – even if the actual point she’s making in “Fate of Ophelia” is a bit obscure. (Travis Kelce is a better boyfriend than Hamlet? That’s not a high bar.) “Opalite” is not such an obvious stand out and you suspect that its early position in the track listing has helped it out. In fact, the tracks would mostly have placed in something close to track list order, though the title track does better than that, probably because it has a guest appearance by Sabrina Carpenter. And people seem to have been unusually keen to skip “Ruin the Friendship”.

It’s her 14th number 1 album, a number slightly inflated by some albums reaching number 1 both in their original version and as the “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings. The sales numbers are astronomical, absolutely crushing the rest of the market. “Life of a Showgirl” registered first week sales and streams equivalent to 423,444 sales, of which over 320,000 were physical sales. Those numbers are heavily distorted by a large number of variant physical editions, but they don’t place any sort of qualifier by its chart position – the album would comfortably have been number 1 on its streaming. Counting its variants, it outsold (and outstreamed) the rest of the albums top 100 combined.

Whatever the merits of the album – and the reviews are mixed – Taylor Swift is simply in a different commercial league from anyone else in music.

She isn’t our only new entry this week, though – we have three chart debuts down at the bottom end.

30. TKANDZ & Cxsper – “Now or Never” 

They’re both teenagers – Tkandz is a rapper from Essex, and Cxsper is a producer from Telford. The hook is basically just a looped royalty-free sample – if you’re really interested, it’s “jc_et_140_vocal_loop_kit_phoebe_full_C#min.wav” from Elise Trouw’s “Beats You Can Sing: Drum and Vocal Pack” – but I quite like this.

36. EsDeeKid & Rico Ace – “Phantom”

More UK rap. This has been out for months but it’s been climbing from the lower reaches for the last month; I assume it’s picked up on TikTok somewhere.

40. Tame Impala – “Dracula”

Hold on, what? Tame Impala? In the singles chart? Tame Impala’s last two albums, in 2015 and 2020, both reached number 3. But they’ve never previously got a single above the mid-50s. This isn’t even the lead single from their upcoming album – it’s the third single, with the first two placing at 87 and 79. Then again, it’s hardly a typical Tame Impala track – it’s a rare venture into more or less straight pop-soul, to surprising success.

This week’s climbers:

• “Make Me Feel” by Oskar Med K climbs 33-29.

Oh. And the six tracks leaving the top 40 are:

• “Daisies” by Justin Bieber had a week at number 1 and lasted 12 weeks.
• “Sapphire” by Ed Sheeran peaked at 5 but lasted nine weeks in the top 10, and seveteen in the top 40.
• “Stay (If You Wanna Dance)” by Myles Smith was a new entry at 32 last week.
• “Dealer” by Lola Young re-entered at 35 two weeks ago.
• “Dior” by MK featuring Chrystal was a re-entry at 40 last week.
• “Gorgeous” by Doja Cat was a new entry at 34 last week.

On the album chart, Taylor Swift is obviously number 1, but there are a few new entries that clearly don’t feel they’re competing for the same audience.

5. James Morrison – “Fight Another Day”

His sixth top ten album. His previous studio album, released in 2019, was his first to miss the top 10, so he’ll probably be satisfied with this.

15. Ash – “Ad Astra” 

Nothing if not consistent. This is their ninth studio album; its predecessor got to number 14. They’re very much a first-week fan-sales act – it’s been over 20 years now since an Ash album lasted a second week in the top 40.

16. Idlewild – “Idlewild” 

It’s taken Idlewild ten albums to get around to releasing a self-titled one. The last Idlewild album was six years ago and reached number 22 – this is their highest position since “Warnings/Promises” made the top 10 in 2005. It’s unlikely to last a second week, though.

25. Good Neighbours – “Blue Sky Mentality” 

Debut album. It includes the single “Home” which hung around the top 40 for months last year.