David Bowie has scored his first number one album in 20 years with a record that is also the fastest selling of the year so far.
David Bowie’s The Next Day may be the greatest comeback album ever
The Next Day, recorded in secret over two years, shot straight to number one in its first week on release, shifting over 94,000 copies to become the fastest-selling album of 2013, the Official Charts Company said.
Bowie surprised fans and the music industry in January with the unexpected release of the single Where Are We Now? on his 66th birthday and the announcement that an album of fresh recordings would be issued in March.
He had shunned the limelight since suffering a heart attack on tour in 2004 and last performed on stage in 2006.
Produced by his long-time collaborator Tony Visconti, The Next Day is Bowie’s first new work since Reality a decade ago, and his first chart-topping success since 1983’s Black Tie White Noise.
Critics have showered praise on the album, which topped digital iTunes charts in 40 countries in the days after its release on March 8, according to Bowie’s official website.
“David Bowie’s The Next Day may be the greatest comeback album ever,” said The Independent’s Andy Gill in a five-star review.
The question will now be how the recording fares in the US, where Bowie has never had a number-one album.
Bowie outsold the second-highest new entry of the week by more than two to one: Bon Jovi’s What About Now which is at number two. The US rockers now have two albums in the top 40, as their Greatest Hits shot up 26 places to number 31.
Emeli Sande’s Our Version of Events slipped one place to number three, while last week’s chart-toppers Bastille fell three places to number four with Bad Blood.
This week’s top five is completed by Bruno Mars’s Unorthodox Jukebox.
In the singles chart, Justin Timberlake denied mid-week leader Nicole Scherzinger a second UK number one by claiming a third week at the top with Mirrors.
Nicole, a former Pussycat Doll, headed a tight race on Wednesday’s official chart update with the new Will.I.Am-produced single Boomerang, taken from her forthcoming second solo album.
As momentum slowed in the second half of the week, Boomerang slipped to number six with Mirrors holding strong to cement a third consecutive week at number one.
One Direction’s Comic Relief single One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks) is up four places to number two. According to Official Charts Company sales records, the biggest-selling Comic Relief single is still Tony Christie and Peter Kay’s Is This the Way to Amarillo which was at number one for seven weeks in 2005 and has sold 1.24 million copies.