Tag: The Official Charts Company

On Tuesday 2 July the Official Charts Company in partnership with English Folk Expo revealed the Top 40 best-selling and most streamed folk albums released in the June reporting period in the UK by UK and Irish artists. The chart was first announced to the public on Tuesday 2 July at 7pm GMT as part of the Official Folk Albums Chart Show presented by Folk on Foot via their YouTube channel.

There are 5 new releases in the June chart – including a new No.1!

Richard Thompson’s twentieth solo album Ship To Shore (New West) takes the No. 1 spot this month. Recorded at Applehead Recording in Woodstock, New York, the twelve-track album draws from the broad roots of Thompson’s influences, from English folk through jazz, country, classical and more. Mojo says of the album, ‘It is a record about defeat, despair and humiliation delivered with an unsettling avuncular twinkle.‘

Also, a new top ten entry for June, is another exceptional guitarist and songwriter, Bernard Butler, formerly of Suede, with Good Grief (355 Recordings), landing at No. 4. Butler’s folk influences go back through his career including many performances with folk guitarist Bert Jansch as well as producing albums for Sam Lee. The album marks a return to solo work after two and a half decades.

New at No. 5. is Linda Thompson’s Proxy Music (StorySound). Her first album in over a decade, it features guest vocals from Teddy and Kami Thompson, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, The Unthanks, Eliza Carthy and more. Launched at City Winery in New York on 30th June, the album title reflects Linda’s vocal challenges caused by the rare condition spasmodic dysphonia and therefore her call out to her ‘proxies’ to lend their singing to the project. The impressive album guest list also includes Richard Thompson on guitars.

In at No. 13 is Luireach (Glitterbeat) by all-female Irish vocal quartet Landless. Produced by John ‘Spud’ Murphy (Lankum, ØXN) and featuring Cormac MacDiarmada from Lankum (fiddle, viola, banjo), The Guardian describes Landless as, ‘a deliciously doomier Clannad‘. Hot Press describes the album as, ‘sinister and hypnotic, with harmony being the weapon of choice for the band.‘

Out Of The Rain (Gilded Wings), the fifth album from Blair Dunlop comes in at 23. Produced by Jim Moray, Spiral Earth says the album is ‘a celebration of spring, newness and freedom. Songs of metamorphosis and wide screen road trips prevail.’ KLOF magazine says, ‘this is a glorious welcome re-energised return that should comfortably reinstate Dunlop among folk rock’s upper echelons.’

The full Top 40 list can be viewed HERE