The Lathums have scored the UK’s Number One album with their debut album How Beautiful Life Can Be, beating Drake and more to achieve the accolade.
The Wigan Indie rock band who featured on Granada Introducing in 2020 and played their first gig just two years ago, said their “smiles couldn’t be any wider” as they celebrate their chart-topping debut.
They released their first full-length last week (September 24), and held off competition from fellow UK band Public Service Broadcasting, as well as North American stars Drake, Olivia Rodrigo and Lil Nas X. You can hear the band’s lead single from their debut album below.
It has recently been confirmed that the band has hit the top of the charts, beating Public Service Broadcasting, whose new album Bright Magic charts at Number Two.
This means that British bands have accounted for more than a quarter (28%) of album chart-toppers so far in 2021 – compared with 17% in 2020 and 15% in 2019.
Speaking of the honour of finishing at number one The Lathums frontman Alex Moore told Official Charts: “We’re four friends from Wigan who just love making music and are at Number 1 with our debut album, it’ll take a while for this one to sink in. It proves what’s possible for young, British artists with a pure-at-heart ambition to reach people with songs like ours, making friends every step along the way and finding that dreams can come true.”
He then went on to say “‘How Beautiful Life Can Be’ is about seeing the good in things, holding on and coming through difficult times with a smile at the end. Today our smiles couldn’t be any wider. Thank you.”
You can see the band celebrating their number one position in the charts.
Watch @thelathums react as How Beautiful Life Can Be claim a “momentous” Number 1 debut on the Official UK Albums Chart: https://t.co/Zh394hTJDr pic.twitter.com/JiX4j638Sf
— Official Charts (@officialcharts) October 1, 2021
The band celebrated the release of the album last Friday, with a special hometown show at The Monaco in Hindley. Fans gathered to sing along to many of the band’s popular tracks.
A few days later, the group then treated fans to an extended version of the album, which included the tracks that didn’t make the initial cut. At one point during the week, both versions occupied number one and two positions in the Itunes chart.
Elsewhere on this week’s Official Albums Chart, last week’s chart-topper from Drake, Certified Lover Boy, drops to Number Three, while another new entry in the Top Ten comes from Natalie Imbruglia, whose album Firebird charts at Number Ten.
