Red Hot Chili Peppers outselling Ed Sheeran 8:1 in UK album chart midweeks

nme.com:

Red Hot Chili Peppers are currently leading the pack in the race for this week’s Number One album in the UK.On Friday (April 1), the California icons released their 12th studio LP, ‘Unlimited Love’, marking their first full-length project since 2016’s ‘The Getaway’.The album sees the band reunite with guitarist John Frusciante, who left Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2009.

He last appeared on the group’s 2006 Number One album ‘Stadium Arcadium’.In the midweeks, the Official Charts Company has revealed that ‘Unlimited Love’ is outselling its closest competition – Ed Sheeran‘s ‘=’ – by 8:1.

If it holds on until Friday (April 8), it will be RHCP’s fifth UK Number One album, and the band’s first in over a decade – their last being 2011’s ‘I’m With You’.The only other new act to crack the Top Five is Swedish extreme metal group Meshuggah, whose ninth studio album ‘Immutable’ currently stands at Number Five in the midweek chart.

If it maintains its position, it will become the band’s first ever UK Top 10 album, with their previous peak being 2016’s ‘The Violent Sleep of Reason’ (32).Rounding out the rest of the Top 5 so far are: Michael Buble‘s ‘Higher’ and Arrdee‘s ‘Pier Pressure’.Elsewhere in the Top 10, Harry Styles’ 2019 album ‘Fine Line’ jumps 22 spots to Number Six following the release of his new single ‘As It Was’, taken from upcoming third studio album ‘Harry’s House’.The Wanted’s ‘Most Wanted: The Greatest Hits’ sits at Nine following the tragic death of member Tom Parker, who passed away last week at the age of 33.