Rex Orange County Leads Midweek U.K. Chart With ‘Who Cares’

March 15, 2022 E Jazz Reporter

Who cares? Brits clearly do. Rex Orange County is on track for a first U.K. No. 1 with Who Cares, the English act’s fourth studio album.

Who Cares (via Columbia) rules the Official Chart Update, and should establish a career-best for the 23-year-old Hampshire singer and multi-instrumentalist.

Prior to Who Cares, the singer (real name Alexander James O’Connor) had a chart best of No. 5 with his previous LP, 2019’s Pony, his first with a major label.

Rex Orange County has been a name-to-watch in the alt/indie scene since 2017, when he guested on Tyler, the Creator’s Grammy-nominated album Flower Boy and broke out with his own single “Loving Is Easy,” alongside Benny Sings. He went on to finish runner-up in the BBC’s Sound of 2018 poll.

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His latest effort was inspired by a spontaneous trip to Amsterdam, and completed with Sings in just 10 days.

Who Cares leads an all-new U.K. Top 5, ahead of Swedish heavy metal group Ghost, whose fifth studio album IMPERA (Loma Vista) bows at No. 2.

Canadian rock veteran Bryan Adams starts at No. 3 on the midweek chart with So Happy it Hurts (BMG), his fifteenth studio LP. If it keeps its pace, So Happy would be Adams’s 11th U.K. Top 10 title.

Scottish alternative rock outfit Franz Ferdinand snag fourth spot on the chart blast with their career retrospective, Hits to the Head (Domino Recordings). If it holds its ground, Hits will give the band their sixth U.K. Top 10 album, and, potentially, their best position since 2009’s Tonight hit No. 5.

Completing the Top 5 is The Shires, with their fifth studio effort 10 Year Plan (BMG).

Further down the midweek tally, Liverpool rockers The Mysterines’ bow at No. 6 with Reeling (Fiction); Ella Henderson’s sophomore set Everything I Didn’t Say (Atlantic) is at No. 7; London-born, Melbourne-raised singer Thomas Headon could bag a No. 10 debut with his Victoria EP (Warner Records), new at No. 9; U.S. hip-hop artist Lil Durk starts at No. 10 with 7220 (Ministry of Sound); while the current No. 1, Stereophonics‘ Oochya (Stylus) tumbles out the top 10. Oochya slips 1-11.

The Official U.K. Albums Chart is presented late Friday, local time.