Take That’s ‘This Life’ Cruising to No. 1 – Billboard

Take That’s This Life (via EMI) will claim the U.K. chart crown.

With This Life, the members of pop royalty chalk up the biggest first-week sales for a British act in 2023, topping 103,000 chart units at the midweek stage, the Official Charts Company reports.

That’s more than the week one tallies for Lewis Capaldi’s Broken by Desire to be Heavenly Sent (95,000 combined units), Ed Sheeran’s – (subtract, with 76,000) and Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds (72,200).

This Life should mark the ninth No. 1 for Take That, now performing and recording as the trio of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen.

Previous, the lads reached the summit with Everything Changes (from 1993), Nobody Else (1995), Greatest Hits (1996), Beautiful World (2006), The Circus (2008), Progress (2010), III (2014) and Odyssey (2018).

In the week Kylie Minogue’s Australian record label home Mushroom caps its 50th anniversary celebrations, the princess of pop is set to mark her own milestone with a return to the U.K. top three.

Thanks to the release of a 35-year anniversary edition, Minogue’s debut album Kylie (via BMG) enters the midweek chart at No. 3. Following its release in 1987, Kylie held top spot on the Official U.K. Albums Chart for six non-consecutive weeks.

Close behind on the Official Chart Company is Michael Bublé’s Christmas (Reprise), which is poised for its annual return to the U.K. top 10. The Canadian crooner’s holidays classic fires-up 13-4 on the midweek list. Released in 2011, Christmas has clocked 96 weeks in the top 40, including five at No. 1.

Also eyeing the top 5 is The 1975 with their new live album At Their Very Best – Live from Madison Square Garden (Dirty Hit), new at No. 5 on the midweek tally. The MSG recording was cut during the British band’s tour in support of Being Funny in a Foreign Language, their fifth consecutive No. 1 in the U.K. Matty Healy and Co. have since announced an “indefinite hiatus” when they complete dates for the current Still… At Their Very Best world tour in late March 2024.

The late, legendary Tina Turner could land posthumous U.K. top 10 with Queen of Rock’n’Roll (Rhino). The career retrospective is set to enter the chart at No. 6, for what would be Turner’s 10th career top 10 album in the U.K. The eight-time Grammy Award winner died May 24 at the age of 83.

Finally, Scottish indie act the Trashcan Sinatras are about to lift the lid on their U.K. first top 40 appearance, thanks to a remastered and reissued version of their 1990 debut, Cake (via Last Night From Glasgow). It’s new at No. 10 on the Official Chart Update, and should easily eclipse its previous peak of No. 74. To date, the Trashcan Sinatras has a career best of No. 50 for 1993’s I’ve Seen Everything.

All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Albums Chart is published late Friday, Dec. 1.