Following the release of their new album last Friday, Hot Press flip-cover star Sam Smith has debuted at No.1 on the Official Irish Albums Chart with Gloria.

They're the second star from our current flip-cover special issue to debut at the top of the chart, following The Murder Capital's major success last week.

"Sam may be armed with a voice that could launch a few hundred ships, but the London singer-songwriter’s follow-up to 2020’s Love Goes aims big by adding cameos from exciting women in multiple genres plus Ed Sheeran," Kate Brayden wrote in her review of Gloria for Hot Press.

"Gloria is first-class pop music with soul," she added. "Watch this one eat up the charts."

Read the full review here.

The other highest newcomer on this week's chart is Bob Dylan with Fragments: Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series, Vol. 17, which has entered at No.15. The project was exclusively reviewed on hotpress.com by Anne Margaret Daniel last month.

"Not only does it contain new versions of the album’s songs, stripped down and remixed by Michael Brauer, and alternate versions of those songs, but studio outtakes of songs like ‘Mississippi' (one of Dylan’s finest, recorded for but not ultimately included on Time Out of Mind), a host of versions recorded live in concert, and some—both live and studio material—previously released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006 (2008)," she remarked.

"This is a man who loves what he does, clearly takes pleasure in the company in which he plays music in a studio or on stage, and so values those who have kept the old songs alive for centuries — just as his will be kept alive in time not yet come to mind."

Read her full exclusive review here.

Elsewhere of the Official Irish Albums Chart, Taylor Swift remains at No.2 with Midnights, Dermot Kennedy scores another week at No.3 with Sonder, The Weeknd jumps up to No.4 with The Highlights, and SZA drops to No.5 with SOS.

The only other newcomer in the Top 30 is Let’s Start Here by Lil Yachty, which has entered the chart at No. 27.

Pick up a copy of the current issue of Hot Press, featuring an in-depth interview with flip-cover star Sam Smith, in shops now – or order online below: