Image Courtesy of Republic RecordsThe big, beautiful prediction for Florence + the Machine's How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful came true. The band's third album has debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 137,000 equivalent album units sold in its first week, 128,000 of which were pure album sales.
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful gives Florence + the Machine their first number-one album and their best sales week, beating the mark set by their last album, 2011's Ceremonials, which debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 with 105,000 units sold in its first week. The group's debut, 2009's Lungs, peaked at number 14 on the chart.
Florence + the Machine is currently on tour in support of How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, including festival appearances at Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. The band had been touring with "stripped-down" shows after frontwoman Florence Welch broke her foot while performing at Coachella, but they're slowly returning to their regular live setup as Welch continues to heal.
Florence + the Machine will return to North America for another series of tour dates in October.
Copyright © 2015, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.