Rex Orange County has scored his first UK Number One album with new LP ‘Who Cares?’.

The Hampshire-born singer-songwriter (real name Alexander James O’Connor) beat off stiff competition from Swedish rockers Ghost, whose new LP ‘IMPERA’ landed at Number Two, to take the top spot.

Rex Orange County’s fourth album follows on from the independently released ‘BCos U Will Never B Free’ (2015) and ‘Apricot Princess’ (2017), and the RCA released ‘Pony’ which landed at Number Five when it was released back in 2019.

“Thank you to everyone who listened to ‘Who Cares?’” Rex Orange County said upon receiving the news about the album’s achievement. “I’m so happy to have an Official Number One album in the UK, where I’m from. I appreciate all the love.”

Rex Orange County’s latest album was one of four new releases to land inside the Top Five. Ghost’s ‘IMPERIA’ debuted at Number Two; Bryan Adams‘ new record, ‘So Happy It Hurts’, landed at Three; and The Shires‘ ’10 Year Plan’ took the Number Five spot.

Rounding out the rest of the Top Five is Ed Sheeran‘s ‘=’ (Four), which has now been in the Top Five for 20 weeks.

Other new entries saw Lil Durk bag the Number Six spot with ‘7220’, his highest charting position on the UK chart to date. Franz Ferdinand’s greatest hits collection ‘Hits To The Head’ was another new entry at Number Seven, while Ella Henderson‘s ‘Everything I Didn’t Say’ debuted at Eight.

On the singles chart, Dave took the top spot for a second consecutive week with his latest track ‘Starlight’.

This week’s highest new entry goes to Aitch with ‘Baby’ at Number 2, which becomes the Manchester rapper’s seventh Top 10 single.

In a four-star review of Rex Orange County’s ‘Who Cares?’, NME‘s Sophie Williams wrote: “Even if there is no clear breakthrough moment for O’Connor on ‘Who Cares?’, there is something to be said for an artist that is this consistent, and this committed to uplifting his listeners.

“These 11 tracks simply encourage his audience to draw those curtains wide, to look at the sun outside that window, to keep moving forward.”