Sun shines on formats' sales figures.(The Market)

With seven new entries to the singles Top 10 for the second week in a row and The Chemical Brothers and Rooster delivering the first of the new year's significant albums, sales of both formats enjoyed gains last week.

Singles sales improved for the third week in a row, climbing by 11.3% week-on-week to 333,887, their highest level for five weeks, although 31.5% fewer than in the stone week last year. Meanwhile, albums improved 7.3%, week-on-week to 2,412,789, up 8% on the same week last year.

With introductory single Galvanize remaining in the Top Five, The Chemical Brothers' new album, Push The Button, becomes their fourth number one album--a record for a dance act. It sold 58,364 copies last week, an 18.2% lead over The Killers' Hot Fuss, which slips to number two with its sales down just 44 units on the previous week to 49,389.

Push The Button's first-week sales are higher than the Chemical Brothers' last number one, Come With Us--which arrived exactly three years ago and opened with 49,811 sales--but fewer than Dig Your Own Hole which sold 62,793 copies the week it was released in 1997, and Surrender, which holds the Chemical Brothers' one-week record for selling 70,043 copies in its first frame in ...