LONDON: British rock icon David Bowie on Sunday reconquered his home charts by scoring his first number one album in 20 years with "The Next Day".

Bowie surprised the music world by breaking a decade-long musical silence in January when he unveiled a new single entitled "Where Are We Now?" to coincide with his 66th birthday -- his first release since the 2003 studio album "Reality".

The single was taken off "The Next Day", which this week became Britain's fastest selling album of 2013, the Official Charts Company announced Sunday.

The album notched up 94,000 sales, beating Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro's "Opposites" which sold 71,600 copies when it was released in January.

The last time Bowie topped the charts was in 1993 with "Black Tie White Noise".

Rumours had circulated that the musician was suffering from health problems and had retired with his wife and daughter in New York.

In reality, the legendary performer had returned to the studio to record the new album, described by Britain's Independent newspaper as "the greatest comeback album in rock'n'roll history".

Bringing with him his long-term collaborator Tony Visconti -- producer of 12 of his 24 albums -- Bowie secretly began work on the new album two years ago.