Singles hold up while albums fall.(The Market)

With the effect of The Brits waning, Valentine's Day behind us and cold weather affecting much of the country, sales of albums dipped by 20.8% to 2,341,112 last week, marginally ahead of the year's lowest tally and exactly 3% down on the same week last year.

Taking advantage of a soft market, Jack Johnson's In Between Dreams surfs 6-1 in an unusually tight top five, where his sales of 46,749 narrowly shaded former chart champs The Arctic Monkeys (46,011), KT Tunstall (43,814), The Kaiser Chiefs (42,227) and Neil Diamond (40,338).

The latter act was one of three to have a new album debut on the Top 40--and all are over 60 years old. At 65, Diamond is the oldest, and his 12 Songs album is his highest charting album of new material since 1980, when his Jazz Singer soundtrack reached number three. Joining Diamond in the pensioners pop bonanza, 60-year-old Dolly Parton debuts at number 35 with the covers set Those Were The Days, while 61-year-old Ray Davies, best known as the Kinks' lead singer, follows a place behind with his solo debut Other People's Lives.

Meanwhile, after consecutive number four hits with Lay Your Hands and No Worries--the first two ...