Returning to the top of the ARIA Albums chart for the second time together are John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John with their album “Two Strong Hearts”, which enters at the top of the chart this week, giving both acts new chart records in the process.
“Two Strong Hearts” becomes the 734th No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2015) and the 585th for ARIA (1983 to 2015), plus the sixteenth for the Sony (direct) label, with their last being almost a year ago when “Burnt Letters” for Taylor Henderson (21-Juy) debuted at the top of the charts, plus the album also becomes up the 381st to debut at the top of the Australian albums chart. John and Olivia previously hit No.1 together when they teamed up with Anthony Warlow for the concert series “The Main Event”, and the parent album “Highlights from The Main Event” which spent two weeks at No.1 in late November 1998.
John Farnham now has placed nine albums at the top of the Albums chart, and one in each of the previous four decades too, taking his tally of weeks at the top to 47, moving him one place ahead of Neil Diamond’s 46 weeks and placing John in third on the list of ‘Tally of Weeks at No.1: Albums’ behind Dire Straits (53) and The Beatles (126) in second and first respectively. Olivia Newton-John also moves up that list too from equal 65th to equal 52nd as she has now notched up eleven weeks from her four No.1 albums. John’s last No.1 album here was “The Last Time” in mid-October 2002 and Olivia’s was the aforementioned “The Main Event” album.
This new No.1 album becomes the third to feature and start with ‘Two’ in its title, the others being “Two Fires” for Jimmy Barnes (Sept 1990) and “Two Shoes” for The Cat Empire (April 2005), plus the first with a ‘Strong’ in the title and the ninth with a ‘Heart(s)’, the last one being only a few months ago when Madonna went to the top with “Rebel Heart” (16-March-2015). The album “Two Strong Hearts” becomes the 183rd for an Australian Act(s) to make it to No.1 and the fourth this year after Lee Kernaghan, Hermitude and Hillsong United, and the album becomes the fifteenth for a duo to reach No.1 here and the seventh for a Male/Female duo after previous chart-toppers Eurythmics (two #1’s), The Carpenters, Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson and then Angus & Julia Stone (two #1’s).
With the second No.1 single from her album staying put this week, Meghan Trainor’s debut album “Title” is back up a place to No.2 and last weeks returnee to the top spot “x” for Ed Sheeran is back down two places to No.3 this week. The entire top six albums are all current or former No.1 albums, with “How Big…” for Florence + the Machine down two places to No.4, “Empires” for Hillsong United blasting back up sixteen places to No.5 thanks to their July meeting and Justin Bieber’s visit to the church this past week, whilst holding at No.6 for a third week is Taylor Swift with “1989”.
Sydney act Thy Art is Murder see their third studio album entitled “Holy War” become their first Top 10 entry as the album debuts at No.7 this week, beating the No.35 peak that their second album (and first chart entry) “Hate” achieved in late October 2012. Right behind at No.8 is the debut album for US singer/songwriter Tori Kelly called “Unbreakable Smile” which features the recent No.21 single “Nobody Love” (TW-80). Sam Smith’s “In the Lonely Hour” is down a couple of places to No.9 this week and debuting at No.10 are Swedish hardcore punk act Refused with their fourth studio album and first in seventeen years called “Freedom”, plus this becomes their first ever entry to the ARIA Albums chart.
UP: Returning to the Top 100 at No.31 is the London Grammar album “If You Wait” at No.13, helped by the song “Strong” (TW-35) being performed on The Voice this past week. The “Frozen” soundtrack climbs back up to just outside of the Top 20 to No.21 and after debuting at No.32 last week, Tim McGraw stays stable at that position with his “35 Biggest Hits”. “The Very Best” for INXS is back up nine spots to No.34 and the soundtrack for “Guardians of the Galaxy” rises back up seven to No.35, whilst “V” for Maroon 5 is back up into the Top 50, rising thirteen spots to No.45.
DOWN: The five albums leaving the Top 10 this week are lead by the “Pitch Perfect 2” (HP-3×4, WI10-7) soundtrack, down one spot to No.11, “Drones” (HP-1×1, WI10-3) for Muse dropping seven to No.12, “Strange New Past” (HP-2, WI10-3) for Seth Sentry descends eleven to No.20 and after debuting in the Top 10 last week we say goodbye this week to Leon Bridges with “Coming Home” (8 to 17) and Hilary Duff with “Breathe in, Breathe Out” (4 to 25). The two albums which debuted just outside of the ten last week both drop a little this week, with “Dark Before Dawn” for Breaking Benjamin down five to No.16 and this weeks No.1 US album “Before This World” by James Taylor down ten to No.22. Hozier and his self-titled album drop eight to No.24, Of Monsters and Men see their “Beneath the Skin” album fall eleven to No.29, Adam Lambert falls fourteen places to No.36 with “The Original High” and The Hilltop Hoods drop twelve spots to No.37 with “Walking Under Stars” which is the only new certified album this week, notching up 2x ▲Platinum in sales now. Jamie xx is down seven to No.41 with “In Colour”, the “50 Shades of Grey” soundtrack drops nine to No.42, “+” for Ed Sheeran is down sixteen spots to No.46 and down ten to No.48 is Jason DeRulo with “Everything is 4”. Dropping hard from last weeks fifty are albums by Wolf Alice (41 to 58), Faith No More (46 to 62), The Rolling Stones (47 to 70), Madonna (50 to 75), Lindemann (17 to 78), Savage Garden (35 to 79), Everything Everything (29 to 81) and Oh Mercy (28 to 100), with The Offspring’s “Greatest Hits” set leaving the Top 100 from #49 last week.
The second studio album for US rapper Meek Mill debuts at No.26 this week entitled “Dreams Worth More than Money” and it becomes his first ARIA Albums chart entry here. The same circumstances are also in play for the No.33 entry this week too, Kacey Musgraves sees her second album “Pageant Material” become her first chart entry here too. And the final new entry to the Top 50 is the seventh studio album and third chart entry here for US heavy metal act August Burns Red, the set is entitled “Found in Far Away Places” and it debuts at No.43 becoming the bands first Top 50 entry as their fourth set “Leveller” and sixth album “Rescue & Restore” both peaked at No.93 in mid-2011 and mid-2013 respectively.
Lower 50: Climbing up fifteen places to No.54 is the “Greatest Hits” collection for Bon Jovi, AC/DC jump back up twelve to No.60 with “Rock or Bust” (possibly helped by the doco for Alberts ‘Blood + Thunder’, Galantis re-enter at a new peak of No.64 with their debut set “Pharmacy” now that the second single has jumped into the Top 30 this week and also returning are Hillsong with “No Other Name” at No.66. “Legend” for Bob Marley is back up eleven to No.65 and climbing twelve to No.74 is Neil Diamond with his “All Time Greatest Hits” set, with further returning albums coming from 5SOS with “LiveSOS” (#80), new ‘The Voice’ coach Jessie J with her recent album “Sweet Talker” (#83), “Born to Die” for Lana Del Rey (#88), the self-titled album for Royal Blood (#98) and the 2004 album “American Idiot” for Green Day (#99).
The only new entry in the lower fifty comes in at No.96, Lifehouse with their seventh studio album entitled “Out of the Wasteland”. This becomes the bands fifth ARIA Albums chart entry and first since the bands fifth album “Smoke and Mirrors” made it to No.75 in March 2010.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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