Elton John Album Is Lowest Selling No. 1 Of The Century

Elton John's first No. 1 album since 1990 logged the lowest sales for any chart-topper this century, according to official figures.

Good Morning To The Night, a dance collaboration with Pnau, sold only 14,342 copies in its rise to the top.

Alarmingly eight of the Top 10 lowest-selling No. 1s since 2000 have been released in 2012, with last week's Write It On Your Skin from Newton Faulkner needing only 16,647 sales, and Marina and the Diamonds' Electra Heart logging 21,358 in May.

It's a far cry from the week before Christmas last year, when all of the Top 9 albums sold upwards of 100,000 units.

The numbers are another reminder that, in the digital age, sales of whole LPs are continuing to decline. As users of online stores such as iTunes decide to cherry-pick a handful of songs rather than download whole albums, it is the singles chart that is becoming increasingly important.

Florence + The Machine's 'Spectrum (Say My Name)' sold 63,960 copies last week to retain its lead on that particular countdown.

She faces competition from Karmin and Conor Maynard in this week's market.