Take the white out of pink and you get “Red”! So this week Taylor Swift’s fourth album “Red” debuts at No.1 to become her second No.1 album and her second No.1 debut, as her last album “Speak Now” debuted at the top on 8th of November in 2010.
Taylor Swift - Red
This new set has already seen six singles released from it: “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” (HP-3, TW-26), followed by “Begin Again” (HP-20), “Red” (HP-30), “I Knew You Were Trouble” (HP-10, TW-27), “State of Grace” (HP-44) and debuting this week is “Everything Has Changed” (TW-75) featuring Ed Sheeran.
“Red” becomes the 656th No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2012) and the 515th for ARIA (1983 to 2012). It’s the second No.1 album for not only Taylor, but her record company Big Machine. The album is also the 239th for an American act to hit No.1 in Australia, plus the 96th for a Female performer. And Taylor joins three other female performers, Lady GaGa, Susan Boyle and P!nk, who have all now had two No.1 albums this decade. In fact Taylor’s former Top 10 albums both return to the chart this week, with “Speak Now” (HP-1×1, debuted & peaked November 2010) back in at No.96, and “Fearless” (HP-2×2, debuted November 2008, peaked March 2009) returns at No.59.
Taylor also scores the 314th No.1 debut at the top of the Australian Albums chart, and “Red” is now the fourth red titled album to reach the top, previously there has been “Red Rose Speedway” (July 1973, 3 weeks) for Paul McCartney & Wings, “Red Sails in the Sunset” (November 1984, 4 weeks) for Midnight Oil, and the last one was “Black Fingernails, Red Wine” (June 2006, 4 weeks) for Eskimo Joe.
After five weeks at No.1, P!nk’s “The Truth About Love” drops down one place to No.2, but it probably won’t move out of the Top 10 before Christmas, with so many more shows being added to her 2013 tour on an almost weekly basis. Last weeks two Top 3 debuts drop this week; down one spot to No.4 is “Triple J’s Like a Version 8”, but Guy Sebastian’s “Armageddon” drops five places to No.7. Birdy’s self-titled album and Mumford and Sons “Babel” only drop one place each to No.5 and No.6 respectively, and thanks to their new international tour starting here in Australia last week, Matchbox 20’s “North” only drops one place to No.10 this week.
Reece Mastin’s second album debuts at No.3 this week entitled “Beautiful Nightmare”. His self-titled debut album landed at No.2 the week before Christmas in 2011 and stayed within the Top 10 until the end of January 2012, achieving double Platinum in sales. This new set contains the current No.16 single “Rock Star” and former hits “Shut Up and Kiss Me” (HP-2, May 2012) and “Shout it Out” (HP-1×1, July 2012).
Paul Kelly’s seventeenth studio album debuts at No.8 this week entitled “Spring & Fall”, and becomes only his fifth Top 10 album in Australia. Eight is also the place his last Top 10 album debuted and peaked at back in July of 2007, that one being “Stolen Apples”, and Paul is also currently charting with his greatest hits collection “Songs from the South Volume 1 & 2” (HP-22) up eleven places to No.77 this week. His album discography is listed below…
LP#|Entry Date|HP|WI|Titles
A01|30-Mar-81|44|07|Talk
A04|22-Sep-86|15|39|Gossip
A05|07-Dec-87|19|23|Under the Sun
A06|21-Aug-89|10|15|So Much Water So Close to Home
A07|26-May-91|12|19|Comedy
A08|05-Apr-92|29|13|Hidden Things
L01|22-Nov-92|72|07|Paul Kelly: Live May 1992
A09|19-Jun-94|11|18|Wanted Man
A10|15-Oct-95|40|05|Deeper Water
G01|15-Jun-97|02|73|Songs from the South: Greatest Hits
A11|10-May-98|17|20|Words and Music
A12|25-Oct-99|36|10|Smoke (with Uncle Bill)
A13|20-Aug-01|07|14|…Nothing But a Dream
A14|23-Feb-04|13|14|Ways and Means
A15|06-Jun-05|22|18|Foggy Highway (with The Stormwater Boys)
G01|25-Sep-06|58|37|Songs from the South: Greatest Hits ®
A16|16-July-07|08|16|Stolen Apples
G02|17-Nov-08|22|48*|Songs from the South Volume 1 & 2
T01|01-Mar-10|11|10|Before Too Long: Triple J’s Tribute to Paul Kelly
A17|29-Oct-12|08|1*|Spring & Fall
Lee Kernaghan debuts right behind Paul at No.9 with his tenth studio album entitled “Beautiful Noise” (not the Neil Diamond 1976 No.1 album of the same name). And by debuting within the Top 10 it instantly becomes Lee’s seventh Top 10 album, plus his 2011 “Ultimate Hits” (HP-8×2) collection returns at No.78. Lee’s ARIA Album discography is also listed below (items with ** debuted within the Top 10)…
LP#|Entry Date|HP|WI|Titles
A01|07-Jun-92|58|06|The Outback Club
A02|05-Sep-93|35|42|Three Chain Road
A03|23-July-95|09|30|1959 **
A04|08-Mar-98|07|33|Hat Town **
X01|30-Nov-98|31|06|The Christmas Album
A05|31-Jan-00|16|17|Rules of the Road
A06|08-July-02|05|43|Electric Rodeo **
G01|25-Oct-04|16|18|The Big Ones: Greatest Hits Volume One
A07|08-May-06|06|34|The New Bush **
A08|23-July-07|05|23|Spirit of the Bush **
A09|16-Nov-09|13|19|Planet Country
G02|10-Oct-11|08|18*|Ultimate Hits **
A10|29-Oct-12|09|1*|Beautiful Noise **
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: The Black Keys national tour helps their repackaged “El Camino” (HP-3) album to climb back up four places to No.14. Angus Stone’s national tour begins November 1st in Sydney, and this week his album “Broken Brights” (HP-2) leaps back up fifty-seven places to No.18. Ed Sheeran’s newly charting single helps his “+” album back up into the Top 20 at No.19 (LW-27), whilst another former No.1 album “Ceremonials” for Florence + the Machine is back up thirteen places to No.26 on it’s one-year anniversary within the ARIA Albums chart, with a new re-packaged version of the album out in November.
The DVD for “Rock of Ages” (HP-4) has been out for a couple of weeks, which helps the soundtrack for the film to zoom back up forty-eight places to No.32 this week. Of Monsters and Men keep climbing with both their current single (“Little Talks” up to No.23) and album, as “My Head is an Animal” climb ten places to a new peak of No.33. Frank Ocean’s album “CHANNEL Orange” (HP-18) jumps back up thirty-three places to No.37, and also scoring a new peak are Alt-J, whose “An Awesome Album” jumps into the Top 50 for the first time, up nineteen places to No.44. Returning to the Top 50 also is Coldplay with “Mylo Xyloto”, up eleven places to No.48 ahead of their November tour.
DOWN DOWN: “The Sapphires” Soundtrack leaves the Top 10 for the first time since mid-August, whilst Muse and their current set “The 2nd Law” keeps halving itself, so far having charted 2-5-10 and now down to No.20. “Bless This Mess” for Lisa Mitchell falls from its debut of No.7 to No.24 this week, and Tame Impala drops thirteen places to No.25 with “Lonerism”.
Kiss and “Monster” (HP-7) is down twenty places to No.43, and after debuting at No.14 last week, Urthboy falls thirty-four places to No.48 with “Smokey’s Haunt”. Bat for Lashes also debuted last week, their “The Haunted Man” album this week it falls from No.21 to land at No.56, but the worst of last weeks debuts to tumble goes to both Ellie Goulding with “Halcyon” (16 to 73) and All Time Low with “Don’t Panic” (13 to 86). Falling hard out of the Top 100 are Evermore with “Follow the Sun” (from No.40) and “Vital” by Anberlin (from No.45).
The second and final album for DJ infused band Swedish House Mafia is entitled “Until Now”, and it debuts at No.12 on the ARIA Albums chart this week, with their previous album “Until One” not charting here in Australia. Current single “Don’t You Worry Child” zoomed up to No.3 this week to become their highest charting single in Oz. Debuting one place lower at No.13 is the fourth album for Stone Sour entitled “House of Gold & Bones Part 1”, which becomes their second highest charting album after “Audio Secrecy” debuted and peaked at No.6 in mid-September 2010. Previously they had charted with their second album “Come What(ever) May” (HP- 21, August 2006).
Melbourne duo Gypsy & The Cat enter at No.23 with their second album “The Late Blue”, their first set “Gilgamesh” initially debuting at No.24 in November 2010, but it climbed to No.14 in early February of 2011. Blues singer Gary Clark Jr. debuts at No.34 with “Blak and Blu”, his fifth studio album and first to chart here in Australia. And Sydney deathcore metal band Thy Art is Murder see their second album “Hate” debut at No.35, becoming their first ARIA Albums chart entry.
The ninth studio album for local musician Archie Roach becomes his first Top 50 placement ever on the ARIA Album charts. “Into the Bloodstream” debuts at No.49, and his former chart entries are listed below…
LP|Entry Date|HP|WI|Titles
A2|28-Apr-91|86|02|Charcoal Lane
A3|21-Mar-93|55|12|Jamu Dreaming
A4|10-Aug-97|52|06|Looking for Butter Boy
A5|05-Aug-02|59|05|Sensual Being
A9|29-Oct-12|49|1*|Into the Bloodstream
Lower 50: Cher Lloyd’s X-Factor appearance helps her “Sticks & Stones” (HP-30) album to bounce back up twenty-two places to No.51. Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” is back up nine places to No.60, with “Here” for Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros jumping up twelve spots to No.75.
Apart from the returning Taylor Swift and Lee Kernaghan albums, also back into the Top 100 this week is “Privateering” (HP-25) for Mark Knopfler at No.85, after one week out of the Top 100, “Between Two Lungs” (HP-3) for Florence + the Machine is back in at No.93 (164 weeks within the T100 now), Gin Wigmore’s “Gravel & Wine” (HP-29) is back in at No.98 and Usher’s “Looking 4 Myself” (HP-3) returns at No.99
Placido Domingo debuts at No.54 with the collection album “Songs”; Melbourne four-piece Redcoats enter at No.68 with their self-titled EP; with the final new entry of the week at No.92 being for Andre Rieu and the album “December Lights”.
Watch the Noise11.com Reece Mastin interview.
