Back to Bedlam is the debut album from British singer-songwriter James Blunt, released by Custard Records in 2004. Much of the album is acoustic-tinged rock and folk pop. Tom Rothrock produced and mixed the album, he and Jimmy Hogarth produced the track "Wisemen", and Linda Perry produced the final song, "No Bravery". Blunt had a part in the writing of every song on the album. The album had a slow climb in the UK Albums Chart, but eventually reached #1 in July 2005 and has since become the best-selling album of that year and of the 21st Century in Britain. It has been on the New Zealand album charts for 32 weeks and has gone #1 with a 6× Platinum certification.
The album also reached #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and subsequently broke into the top ten of the American Billboard 200 (its highest position there so far is #2). It has been certified double platinum in the United States. It has also been listed by Soundscan as the 6th best selling album for 2006 with sales of 2.14 million copies.
In Australia, it reached #1 on the ARIA Albums Chart where it's certified 8x Platinum with sales of over 560,000 copies. ARIA also certified it as the best selling album of 2006.
To date the album has sold about 14 million copies worldwide. The album also entered the Guinness Book of World Records, with most albums sold in a year in the UK, when it sold 2,368,000 copies in 2005. However, the album was awarded as a 'worst album of the year' by the NME magazine.
