Adele's 25 (XL Recordings) comfortably saw off the challenge of Coldplay's A Head Full Of Dreams (Warner Music) to start a third week atop the U.K. album chart today (Friday). Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself" (Def Jam/Universal) started a second week at No. 1 on the singles chart.
New Official Charts Company data shows 25 with a huge third-week sales tally of 354,000, to bring its total U.K. sales to date to a heady 1.593 million. It was the highest total in an album's third week since Take That's The Circus sold 382,000 in its third week in 2008.
Coldplay, for their part, have the highest-selling No. 2 album for five years, moving 236,000 units of their new set. It's their first studio album not to debut at No. 1, but in more cheery news, opening sales far outstripped those of last year's Ghost Stories (168,000) or 2011's Mylo Xyloto (208,000). Their current single "Adventure Of A Lifetime" climbed 15-9 to become their 16th top ten U.K. hit.