Wet Leg run the race of a lifetime as the indie-rock outfit scores the U.K. chart title with their eponymously-titled debut album.
The Isle of Wight outfit bows at No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart with Wet Leg, outselling the rest of the Top 5 combined and chalking up the second-biggest opening week for any chart-topping album in 2022, after Central Cee’s 23.
Led by Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, Wet Leg has the No. 1 album in Australia and the album is the best-seller on wax in the U.K., the OCC reports.
It’s a “landmark” chart, notes the OCC, as the Top 3 spots in the U.K. are occupied by independent label releases, the first time this has happened in 11 years.
Coming in at No. 2 is Father John Misty’s Chloe and The Next 21st Century (via Bella Union), a career best chart position for the U.S. artist; while Jack White’s Fear Of The Dawn (Third Man) starts at No. 3.
According to the charts compiler, the last time indie releases ruled the Top 3 was back in May 2011 — with Adele’s 21 (No. 1) and 19 (No. 3 both via XL) and Fleet Foxes’ Helplessness Blues (No. 2 via Bella Union). It’s just the third time in the 1,162 weeks that have elapsed since the turn of the century that indie LPs have occupied all of the top three positions.
“The fantastic first week by Wet Leg really is the tip of an independent iceberg, with the Domino release pipping Bella Union’s Father John Misty and Third Man’s Jack White to make for an indie treble,” comments Martin Talbot, CEO of the Official Charts Company. “Coming after chart topping successes for Stereophonics, Central Cee and Don Broco, this year is also underlining the independent sector’s power in uncovering and developing talent.”
Meanwhile, spoken-word poet and rapper Kae Tempest scores a first Top 10 entry with This Line Is A Curve (Fiction), new at No. 8, while Camila Cabello’s third album Familia (Columbia) lands at No. 9, for her second Top 10 appearance.
