Baby, break the Tension! Kylie Minogue is set to score her landmark 10th UK Number 1 album this week, with Tension II outselling the nearest competition more than 2:1 at the midweek mark.
Tension II already nets 28,800 chart units after just 48 hours on sale. It’s the sequel record to 2023’s Tension, Kylie’s most recent chart-topping album, which contained the UK Top 10 single Padam Padam.
Coming in at Number 2 midweek is Rag’n’Bone Man’s third LP What Do You Believe In?, which is on track to become the soulful vocalist’s third consecutive Top 3 album, having previously topped the Official Albums Chart with 2017’s Human and 2021’s Life By Misadventure.
Our last potential new entry in the Top 5 this week comes from Australian dance group and festival favourites Confidence Man, with their third record 3AM (LA LA LA) on track to become their UK Official Albums Chart debut, and first Top 10 album (4).
Following National Album Day on Saturday (October 19), for which this year’s theme was Great British Bands, several records from some of the country’s biggest exports are set to rise and re-enter the charts this week. Oasis’s Definitely, Maybe leads the pack, hoping to jump back into the Top 10 (6).
Other National Album Day LPs set to re-enter the chart include Suede’s A Dog Man Star (26), The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night (27) and Take That’s Everything Changes (28).
Elsewhere, celebrating the 40th anniversary of their debut album, trailblazing gay synth-pop outfit Bronski Beat could see The Age of Consent return to the Top 10 for the first time in 39 years, at Number 9 midweek. It originally peaked at Number 4 in 1984.
Gracie Abrams’ chart topping The Secret of Us could soar back into the Top 10 following the release of its deluxe edition, up 26 places midweek (10).
As One Direction fans continue to mourn the loss of member Liam Payne last week aged just 31, all five of the band’s studio albums are set to re-enter the UK Top 40 this week.
Leading the charge is their second album, 2012’s Take Me Home (12), followed by 2013’s Midnight Memories (13), 2015’s Made In The A.M. (15) and 2014’s FOUR (20), all of which are former UK Number 1 albums. The group’s 2011 debut record Up All Night also eyes uplift this week (33).
Over on the Official Singles Chart, three One Direction tracks could place on Friday; lead by emotional ballads Night Changes (13) and Story Of My Life (21), as well as the band’s iconic 2011 debut single What Makes You Beautiful (48).
Three of Payne’s solo tracks could also make appearances in the wider Top 100, lead by his final solo release Teardrops (66) (which should make its UK chart debut this Friday), and his two UK Top 10 solo singles, For You with Rita Ora (67) and Strip That Down with Quavo (73).
