Britpop stars Blur are locked in combat with occult rockers Ghost to top the UK album charts.
An update from the Official Charts company has revealed that the two bands’ new live albums, Blur’s Live At Wembley Stadium and Ghost’s Rite Here Rite Now (Official Motion Picture Soundtrack), are the frontrunners for UK number one.
Blur’s live album soundtracks the upcoming concert film of the same name and is currently ahead of Ghost’s offering.
If it claims the top spot, it will be the eighth number one album for Damon Albarn’s bunch, following Parklife (1994), The Great Escape (1995), Blur (1997), 13 (1999), Think Tank (2003), The Magic Whip (2015) and The Ballad Of Darren (2023).
The Ghost album is the soundtrack to their new concert/narrative film, which was released to global cinemas from June 20 to 23.
The band have never topped the UK charts but have thrice landed in the top 10 thanks to Prequelle (2018), Impera (2022) and the Phantomime EP (2023).
Metal Hammer gave the Rite Here Rite Now soundtrack a glowing nine-out-of-10 review upon its release on Friday (July 26).
Journalist Matt Mills wrote: “After the concert ends with an unsurprisingly rapturous Dance Macabre, the album epilogue comes from new studio track The Future Is A Foreign Land. An upbeat celebration of living in the moment, it’s this band’s first offering of new music since Impera, wetting everyone’s whistle for what’s to come.
“Ghost have made no secret of the fact Rite Here Rite Now is closing this latest album cycle, and after these 90 minutes of glee, their legions will march into their next era with the biggest grins on their faces.”
Albarn was recently in the news for disagreeing with Bob Dylan over the singer/songwriter’s move to ban mobile phones from his concerts.