Scissors cut path to top 2004 sales.(The Market)

While last week proved a tough one for singles, album sales held up well, as the winter sales season started in earnest.

But the week's biggest winners, perhaps, were the UK-signed US act whose self-titled album sneaked past Keane to become the biggest-selling album of 2004.

Although it missed out on being the number one album for the week--selling 311 copies fewer than Green Day's American Idiot--Scissor Sisters sold 42,952 copies last week, to bring its 2004 sales tally to 1,594,259, thus pipping Keane's Hopes And Fears to the title of biggest-selling album of the year by the narrowest of margins.

The Keane album sold 1,593,677 copies--582 fewer--in the OCC "year'; which ended at the close of business on Saturday January 1 2005.

A stricter interpretation of what constitutes 2004--with the year running from the start of business on January 1 2004 until midnight on December 31 2004--would see 1,283 sales lopped off the Scissor Sisters' total and 871 taken from Keane's tally; making the Scissor Sisters' margin of victory a minuscule 170. Although released back in February--it debuted at number 11, with first-week sales of 21,395--The Scissor Sisters album didn't top the weekly list until July and never made it to the top of the year-to-date chart until New Year's Eve.

Across the week, some 4.350m albums were sold last week--51% down ...