Blur score sixth number one album in 20 years with The Magic Whip

Midweek sales figures from the Official Charts Company revealed the new 12-track album was outselling the rest of the top five put together

Dave Rowntree with Blur in 2012 (Getty Images)

Blur have scored their first number one album in 12 years with their latest record The Magic Whip.

The album marks the band’s sixth chart-topping record after Think Tank (2003), 13 (1999), Blur (1997), The Great Escape (1995) and Parklife (1994).

The Magic Whip was announced out of the blue in February and is inspired by the band’s travels in Asia.

The album is Blur’s first number one a as a foursome since 13 in 1999, after which Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn left to pursue other projects.

The Britpop group will become the first ever to play Hyde Park four times after headlining British Summer Time Hyde Park on Saturday 20 June.

Elsewhere in the charts, Taylor Swift’s 1989 album leaps from tenth place to number two, while James Bay’s debut album Chaos And The Calm jumps two places to number three.

US rockers Imagine Dragons enter the chart at number 10 with their second album Smoke + Mirrors, and Mark Ronson’s Uptown Special re-enters the Top 40 at number 15.

Take That, who kicked off their UK tour this week, climb 42 places to Number 35 with III, and US country group Zac Brown Band score their first UK Top 40 album Jekyll + Hyde at 36.