Eclipsing the first week sales of any album by a group since One Direction’s third album, Midnight Memories, launched on sales of 237,338 units in November 2013, Coldplay’s latest studio album, Moon Music, goes into orbit high above the chasing pack on this week’s album chart, racking up stellar first week consumption of 236,796 units (182,166 CDs, 27,248 vinyl albums, 20,737 digital downloads and 6,645 sales-equivalent streams).

Effecting the 10th change of leadership of the chart in as many ...