Top 20 Albums Worldwide
Week 34'26 · Aug 21 – Aug 27, 2026
Three records carried over from last week, and all three are on their way down: last week's number 1, last week's number 2, and the record that held the top a fortnight ago. Four more are back after time away. The other 13 are debuts, and the calendar explains a lot of them: six of these albums came out on the Friday this chart week opened, and a seventh appeared without warning five days later. America leads the audience for all 20, without a single exception. Queens of the Stone Age turn up three times, and only once under their own name. Two of the top three belong to bands that no longer exist. And at the very top, a stack of tape from a Memphis studio in the autumn of 1977. Let us count them down.
This Week's Story
13 new arrivals, four returns, three records easing down, and not a single step up. America led all 20, and only Smoulder's German following came close to arguing. The threads did the rest: Queens of the Stone Age through three records, Loma Vista through three more, Geese through three again, and October 23 claiming three of its own. At the top, a band that ended 17 years ago, playing tape that waited almost 50. The autumn release schedule is only getting started. We count them down again in seven days.