Wednesday 9th July 2014 by Alexandra Pollard | Photos by Artwork

Robin Thicke's Paula and more: the biggest album flops in recent memory

Ride on a wave of controversy, end up washed up

Robin Thicke - Paula: 530 copies sold. Are there some noughts missing there, you ask? No, they belong here - it reached No. 200 in the charts. His previous album sold over 25,000 copies in its first week. The Guardian have estimated that if this sad (read: happy) trajectory continues, his next album will sell ten copies.

Britney Spears - Britney Jean: Poor bloody Britney. The singer was forced into a recording studio with will.i.am to record her 'most personal album yet' - and the results? 'Work Bitch' and the worst sales of her career. After shifting just 6,400 copies in its first day on sale, Britney Jean charted at No.34. Ouch. Perhaps, if there truly is no such thing as bad publicity, the recently leaked version of 'Alien' supposedly without autotune will help with sales.

Icona Pop - This Is... Icona Pop: The problem with a hit as big as 'I Love It'? By the time the album comes out, everyone's sick of it... Despite scoring one of the biggest singles of 2013, the Swedish duo failed to turn that success into album sales, charting as dreadful No.86 in the UK. Admittedly, the album wasn't a patch on their original Swedish album...

Empire Of The Sun - Ice On The Dune: Bloody brilliant album, but not that anyone would know, because no one bought it. The Australian collective returned in 2013 with a bigger sound and much bigger hats, but the record buying public decided one dose of epic Aussie synth pop was enough. The album peaked at No.24 in the UK.

Nelly Furtado - The Spirit Indestructable: Nelly's fifth studio album, which she wrote and produced herself, had mild commercial success with the first single 'Big Hoops'. However the album had little chart impact and average reviews, unable to match the success of her 2006 album release Loose.

Leanne Mitchell: We don't know why, but viewers of The Voice has an exceptional talent for picking a winner who is destined to disappear. Despite winning the first series of The Voice, Mitchell's career probably hasn't been the fairytale she hoped it would be. Her debut album failed to make the top 100, selling less than 1,000 copies in a week. She was dropped by her label this year.

Kelly Rowland - Talk A Good Game: Unfortunately for the ex Destiny's Child singer, Kelly Rowland will always live in the shadows of Beyonce. Low album sales in the UK for her latest release prove just that - Kelly only managed to enter UK album charts at No 80.

LeAnn Rimes - Spitfire: You wouldn't know it, but the 'Can't Fight The Moonlight' singer has released 11 studio albums. However, despite her first album entering the US Billboard chart at No 1 in 1996, her eleventh, Spitfire, made a sad entrance in at No. 36.

No Doubt - Push and Shove: We are truly sorry to have to include the incomparably legendary Gwen Stefani in this list. But the fact is, No Doubt's second comeback single 'Looking Hot' only sold 680 copies in it's first week of release, reaching No. 397 in chart. After this, Push and Shove only sold 7000 copies in the UK, despite an X Factor appearance, which usually does wonders for artist sales. A disappointing comeback, but we're sure they'll bounce back.

Johnny Borrell - Borrell 1: It's strange. Despite the fact that, according to Borrell himself, he is more successful than Bob Dylan, his debut solo album only managed to sell 594 copies in its first week.

Tags: Robin Thicke

It's strange. Really odd. We would never have predicted it... but it seems, even if you already have a hugely successful sexually aggressive single under your belt, publicly pressuring your estranged wife to take you back doesn't equate to high record sales. It's a real head scratcher.

Though Robin Thicke's new album Paula has sold a modest 25,000 copies in the US, in the UK, and we have to say we're feeling quite patriotic about this, it's shifted just 530. Despite the back-handed publicity received by a disastrous #AskThicke Q&A on Twitter, resulting in such questions as: "Did you really write a rape anthem as a love song for your wife and are you still wondering why she left you?" and "Is your next 'hit' just a lyric sheet, with a Rohypnol sellotaped to it?", it seems the public have failed to even hate-buy Thicke's seventh album.

Sadly though, it's not just morally questionable sleazes whose albums fail to perform - there have been a fair few in recent years which flopped. Flopped badly. Sometimes for no real reason. Here's some of the saddest cases.