Sam Smith looks set to make a return to the album top spot as his new album, The Thrill Of It All, takes an early lead on today’s Official Albums Chart Update.

Since its release three days ago (Nov 3), the singer's second studio album has shifted just over 60,000 units across physical, download and streaming equivalent sales. 

Sam's debut album In The Lonely Hour sold 102,000 in its first week on sale in June 2014 to open at Number 1. The collection went on to spend eight non-consecutive weeks at the chart summit and is set to return to the Top 20 this week, currently at 19. 

Sam's closest competition this week comes from a new Roy Orbison album, called A Love So Beautiful. The album, a collection of his best known songs and fan favourites re-worked by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, is currently at Number 2, 40,000 units behind Sam. 

If it holds on to the Number 2 spot, Love So Beautiful will equal 1989's Mystery Girl as his highest ever album chart position for a studio album. Two of his greatest hits collections have previously hit the top spot (1975's The Best Of... and 1988's The Legendary...).

Last week's Number 1 album, Michael Ball & Alfie Boe's Together Again, slips to 3, George Michael's Listen Without Prejudice holds at 4, and Pink's Beautiful Trauma is at 5. 

New entries and high climbers 

Bryan Adams's new retrospective, Ultimate, starts at Number 6 and could earn him a tenth Top 10 album, while Maroon 5's sixth album Red Pill Blues currently sits just outside the Top 10 at Number 11. 

Actress and singer Sheridan Smith opens at 12 midweek with her debut album Sheridan, Bob Dylan's Trouble No More - The Bootleg Series 13 is at Number 13, and South London rapper Dave is currently at 14 with his new EP Game Over. 

Elsewhere in the Top 20, Harry Styles's self-titled debut is leaping back up the chart following his recent BBC special, currently up from 38 to 16, and Welsh singer and radio presenter Aled Jones is at 17 with his final record in his One Voice trilogy, One Voice: Believe.

Further down, three new albums are on course to land inside this week's Top 40: Swedish band Lost Horizons are at 24 with Ojala, US country-pop singer Kelsea Ballerini is at 25 with Unapologetically, and Jane McDonald's Hold Back The Covers is currently at 32.