Kings Of Leon nab UK's top-selling digital album of all time

'We're number one!' Kings Of Leon's Caleb Followill gives the devil's horn salute to a crowd in Austin, Texas, 2009. © Andrew Goetz/Corbis

With their new album, Come Around Sundown, just weeks from release, Kings Of Leon have plenty to crow about - and some of it's due to their last record: Only By The Night, issued in 2008, which has been named the top-selling digital album in the UK.

According to official figures, the album has been downloaded 276,000 times, just ahead of Lady Gaga's The Fame with 261,000 downloads.

Martin Talbot, managing director of the Official Charts Company, predicted that while it will still take time for downloads to overtake CDs, "which still account for four of every five albums sold," he predicted that the number of legal download sites and the competitive cost of digital albums will see their popularity grow.

'With Kings Of Leon leading the way in the all-time list - Only By The Night becoming the first album to sell more than quarter of a million copies - it won't be long before we see the first half-million-selling digital album," Talbot said.

Folk rockers Mumford & Sons could hit that mark, as their record Sigh No More is 2010's biggest-selling digital album thus far.

But everybody has a long way to go to upend country-pop artist Taylor Swift, who, with 28 million song downloads, is the world's biggest-selling digital artist. For the moment, at least.

Meanwhile, read MusicRadar's exclusive track-by-track review of Kings Of Leon's Come Around Sundown. It's the only place you'll see the new record taken apart cut by cut.

Joe Bosso

Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar WorldGuitar PlayerMusicRadar and Classic Rock. He is also a former editor of Guitar World, contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.