Taylor Swift returns to the No.1 spot on the ARIA Albums chart this week with “1989”, which by going back to the top for a fourth non-consecutive week is now her longest run at the top of the Australian Albums chart.
Taylor’s “Red” (TW-60) spent three straight weeks at the top from 29-Oct-2012 and now is surpassed by the four weeks for “1989”. Plus the margin between the top two albums is closer this week than last, as last week it was 900+ sales, this week its just over 500 sales, the closest of recent history was the 160 between Taylor and The Veronicas the week of 1-December-2014.
So Michael Buble and “Christmas” drop back a place to No.2 after thirteen accumulated weeks over the past four years, and with one more week of Christmas sales for the year, he could return to the top, as this past week Ch:7.2 played his 2014 Christmas Special, which will no doubt be repeated closer to the big day next week. The remainder or the top five albums all stay stable this week, with Ed Sheeran at No.3, AC/DC at No.4 and the second of three Aussie acts in the Top 10, Human Nature are at No.5 with their covers album “Jukebox”.
The “Frozen” Soundtrack is back up a place to No.6 this week, and landing the highest new entry of the week at No.7 is that third local act, 5 Seconds of Summer with their second chart entry and first live album “LiveSOS”, which instantly becomes their second Top 10 album too, as their self-titled album (TW-31) debuted at No.1 on the 7th of July this year. One Direction is down two places to No.8 with their “FOUR” album and holding at No.9 is Sam Smith with “In the Lonely Hour”, whilst down two to No.10 are The Foo Fighters with “Sonic Highways”.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: Pink Floyd are back up to No.11 with “The Endless River” and the compilation “Like a Version 10” is up five to No.14, whilst the heavily advertised collection “Selected Works 1972-1999” for The Eagles jumps back up seven to No.23. Ariana Grande’s fourth Top 20 from “My Everything” helps the former No.1 album back up five to No.36, whilst Calvin Harris is up six to No.37 with “Motion”, and thanks to his leap into the top five singles this week, the self-titled album for Hozier (HP-20) leaps back up thirty-three places to No.42.
DOWN DOWN: The self-titled album for The Veronicas leaves the Top 10 after three weeks, peaking at No.2 and down five to No.15 this week. The Hilltop Hoods drop back seven to No.18 with “Walking under Stars” and the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ soundtrack is back down seven to No.22. Another self-titled set, Dean Ray, is down seven to No.24 and dropping nine to No.27 is Guy Sebastian with “Madness”, which should rise back up now that the albums new single “Linger” is about to be issued. Justice Crew drop ten this week to No.33 with “Live by the Words” and down nine to No.40 are Tony Bennett & Lady GaGa with “Cheek to Cheek”, with Jessica Mauboy dropping eight to No.44 with her Platinum edition of “Beautiful”, whilst Vance Joy are down a place to No.45 with “Dream Your Life Away”, the only new album certification this week, now at Gold (●) in sales. After debuting at No.40 last week, J. Cole is down six to No.46 and dropping nine to No.48 is Katy Perry with “Teenage Dream”, whilst the only album from last weeks Top 50 to drop hard is Will Sparks with “Another Land” (35 to 94).
XMAS ALBUMS: Michael Buble and his “Christmas” album are still the highest selling again this week at No.2, with Human Nature holding at No.20 with “The Christmas Album”, followed by Pentatonix down five to No.26 with “That’s Christmas to Me”, but their 2012 collection “PTXmas” is up nine to a new peak of No.78. Mariah’s “Merry Christmas” is back down four to No.28 after which the next seasonal set is Lee Kernaghan with “Driving Home for Christmas” down a couple of places to No.53 and down a place to No.56 is Idina Menzel with her “Holiday Wishes” set. Andre Rieu debuted at No.46 last week with “Best of Christmas”, which this week tumbles down thirty-three places to No.79, whilst debuting at No.81 are the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra with “A Celtic Christmas”, which is the local ensemble’s third albums chart entry and second Christmas album as in December 2011 they spent a week on the charts at No.59 with “A Brandenburg Christmas”.
During the past year, Paul Kelly has released three EP’s entitled “The Merri Soul Sessions”, now a full album with the same title for Paul debuts at No.17, the album featuring such artists as Dan Sultan, Clairy Browne, Kira Puru and Vika & Linda Bull, and becomes Paul’s twenty-second albums chart entry (sixteen studio, two live, two best of and one tribute and soundtrack albums).
The third (pink) studio album from Nicki Minaj debuts at No.19 this week also becoming her third album to chart here in Australia. The set “The Pinkprint” currently has four singles in the Top 100, “Bed of Lies” (#7), “Get on Your Knees” (New #80), “Anaconda” (#86) and returnee “Only” (#93) and Nicki has previously charted with the albums “Pink Friday” (Dec 2010, HP-19; peaked Aug 2011) and “Pink Friday–Roman Reloaded” (HP-5, debuted and peaked April 2012).
The final two entries to the Top 50 are Carrie Underwood at No.49 with “Greatest Hits Decade #1”, becoming her third chart entry in Australia, and one place lower at No.50 is US neo-soul singer D’Angelo with his third studio album entitled “Black Messiah” and this becomes his first chart entry in Australia, plus the album is his first to feature the band The Vanguard.
Lower 50: Guns N’ Roses’ “Greatest Hits” is back up eleven places to No.62 and back up sixteen to No.73 are the G.H.’s for The Foo Fighters, whilst thanks to her appearance on the Graham Norton Show last weekend, Annie Lennox returns at No.85 with her covers set “Nostalgia” (HP-16), with further returning albums this week coming from Taylor Henderson with “Burnt Letters” (#87), “Lost in the Dream” for The War on Drugs (#91), “Greatest Hits…So Far” for Pink (#93) and “Abba Gold & More” for ABBA (#97).
Other than the aforementioned debut for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, there is only one other new entry in the lower 50, coming in at No.55 are the Smashing Pumpkins with their eight studio album entitled “Monuments to an Elegy”, which is their first new entry since July 2012 when “Oceania” debuted and peaked at No.8.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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