On Tuesday 4th August the Official Charts Company revealed the Top 40 best-selling and most streamed folk albums released in the July reporting period in the UK by UK and Irish artists in the Official Folk Albums Chart, produced by Sound Roots. The chart is first announced to the public on Tuesday 4th August at 7pm BST as part of the Official Folk Albums Chart Show presented by Folk on Foot via their YouTube channel.
Five new releases have entered the July chart
Mumford & Sons continue to hold the No. 1 spot with their album Prize Fighter (Island Records) for the fifth consecutive month.
Brand new at No. 6 is Holywell (Sony Music Ireland) by Damien Dempsey. A deeply personal collection of songs rooted in oral tradition, Damien explains: “These are songs I heard as a child, sung by my elders in houses and pubs at singsongs. Some are centuries old and many people don’t know them. For me, they’re like a holy well. When I sing them, they bring healing to my soul.”
Landing at No. 8 is Sam Carter Sings Nic Jones – Live at Celtic Connections (Captain). The live album expresses Carter’s lifelong love for revered folk singer Nic Jones and features songs from across Jones’ recorded output. Throughout, Carter’s performances showcase the captivating storytelling and innovative guitar work that has made Jones’s music so enduring.
Phil Odgers and John Kettle’s second volume of songs by Phil Ochs, The War Is Over (Vinyl Star), arrives at No. 13. After learning of Trump’s re-election as President of the United States in 2024, Odgers took refuge in the work of Phil Ochs. This album is a collection shaped by world events, steeped in anti-war themes and filled with stories of struggle and resistance. The War Is Over is dedicated to Phil Ochs’s memory and to the lasting impact he made on people, music and politics.
Multi-instrumentalist Cinder Well’s fifth album A Blooming Body (Hen House Studios) sits at No. 20. Through richly textured arrangements, this expands the sonic world of Cinder Well, resulting in a more immersive, visceral and unconventional collection of songs than listeners have heard before. On this new album, she pairs these moments of sonic restraint with lyrics that capture the “kind of harsh mundanity that life can carry,” – and herein lies a different kind of heaviness, found in rawness and honesty rather than conventional sonic weight.
At No. 40 is Dominion of Spells (Hudson Records), Emily Portman’s fourth studio album. Renowned for her luminous songwriting and distinctive voice in contemporary folk, Portman steps into bold new territory with an album that charts a heroine’s midlife journey through the dark woods in search of wonder. Drawing on ballads and folk tales, Dominion of Spells explores themes of burnout, misogyny, motherhood, miscarriage and personal transformation, weaving lived experience with rich mythic imagery and folk narratives.
The full Top 40 list can be viewed HERE
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