Dermot Kennedy flies straight in at #1 on this week’s Official UK Albums Chart with his debut album Without Fear (Island). Kennedy also scored his first U.K. Top 10 single as “Outnumbered” hit #8.
He’s the first Irish artist to score a chart-topping debut album in almost 20 years: Ronan Keating did it last with Ronan in July 2000.
Three other new releases enter in the week’s Top 10 this week, beginning with Summer Walker’s Over It (Polydor) at #7. She also scores her first U.K. Top 40 single as “Playing Games” rockets 68 slots to #25.
Simple Minds’ seventh live album, Live in the City of Angels I (BMG), opens at #8; and Easter Is Cancelled (Cooking Vinyl) is The Darkness’ fourth Top 10 album, opening at #10.
Last week’s #1, the 50th anni edition of The Beatles’ Abbey Road (Apple), dropped to #2.