AC/DC land their fifth No.1 album in Australia this week as the bands seventeenth studio album “Rock or Bust” debuts at the top of the ARIA Albums chart on sales of ▲Platinum first week out.
“Rock or Bust” becomes the 722nd No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2014) and the 573rd for ARIA (1983 to 2014), whilst it’s also the 371st album to debut at the No.1 spot. It also becomes the fifth No.1 album for the Alberts Record label, with the previous four all being AC/DC albums, “Back in Black” (returns TW-79; 1wk, 9-March-1981), “Live” (2wks, 22-Nov-1992), “Ballbreaker” (1wk, 8-Oct-1995), and their last was “Black Ice” (1wk, 27-Oct-2008).
AC/DC now join nine other acts who have notched up five No.1 albums like Neil Diamond, Celine Dion, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Silverchair, Metallica, Powderfinger, Michael Buble and Coldplay, whilst it’s the first time that the word ‘Bust’ has appeared in a No.1 album, it’s only the second ‘Rock’ titled album (the other was “Deep Purple in Rock” in June 1971) and more weirdly, only the third title with ‘or’, the other two being “All or Nothing” for Milli Vanilli (April 1990) and Matchbox 20 with “Yourself or Someone Like You” (May 1998).
This new No.1 becomes the 179th by an Australian Act to make it to the top of the Australian Albums chart, the last one being Vance Joy back in mid-September, and it’s also the 338th by a group, whilst AC/DC were originally the seventh Australian act and sixth Australian group to hit No.1 back in 1980.
After returning to the top last week, Taylor Swift drops back a place to No.2 with “1989” followed at No.3 by Michael Buble with “Christmas”, which this past week in 2011 (5-Dec-2011) it spent it first of five initial weeks at No.1, whilst this week in 2012 (10-Dec) it returned to the top for four further weeks, and next week last year (16-Dec-2013) it spent a further three weeks at the top, so could next week be a fourth run at the top (a first in Oz LP chart history too).
Ed Sheeran holds at No.4 with “x’, which notches up a 3x▲Platinum certification, whilst dropping two places to No.5 are One Direction with “Four” (the album bypasses and doesn’t stop at its namesake too), whilst back up three places to No.6 are Human Nature with their covers album “Jukebox”.
The debut album for former 2010 Australia’s Got Talent winners Justice Crew enters at No.7 this week entitled “Live by the Words”, which contains five of their singles (the first three they released are not featured on the album), including their 2014 No.1 “Que Sera” (TW-54) and their most recent entry “Rise & Fall” (TW-56). After debuting at No.2 last week and now dropping six places to No.8 is the self-titled album for The Veronicas and down a place to No.9 are The Foo Fighters with “Sonic Highways” and down three to No.10 is Nickelback with “No Fixed Address”.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: The “Frozen” Soundtrack is back up three places to No.11 and is newly certified 3x▲Platinum, whilst current tourist Katy Perry is back up one spot to No.12 with “Prism”. Barbra Streisand holds at No.20 with “Partners”, which has now been certified ▲Platinum in sales, the same sales cert also applies for the self-titled 5 Seconds of Summer album which is back up to No.22 after their recent ARIA Award win. Now that the DVD and Blu-Ray for “Guardians of the Galaxy” is out, the soundtrack is back up eight places to No.23 and up a spot to No.34 are Sheppard with “Bombs Away”, which is now Gold (●) in sales, the same goes for Ariana Grande with “My Everything” which is back up a couple of places to No.46 and The Eagles collection “Selected Works 1972-1999” is back up nineteen places to No.47.
DOWN DOWN: The two dropouts from this weeks’ Top 10 both debuted within it last week, “Madness” for Guy Sebastian which picks up a Gold (●) sales certification but is down eight to No.14 and the self-titled album for X-Factor runner-up Dean Ray from No.5 to No.17 this week, whilst winner Marlisa is down three to No.21 too. David Guetta debuted at No.11 last week with “Listen”, which this week drops seventeen places to No.28 and down ten to No.31 is Garth Brooks with “Man Against Machine”, whilst after returning last week at No.19, Jessica Mauboy’s Platinum edition of “Beautiful” is down fourteen spots to No.33. Calvin Harris drops nine spots to No.37 with “Motion” and also down nine to No.38 is the self-titled album for Angus & Julia Stone, with “Teenage Dream” for Katy Perry dropping fifteen places to No.41. Leaving from last weeks Top 50 are Slipknot, You+Me, Arctic Monkeys, Flight Facilities (41 to 64), “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” Soundtrack (46 to 67), Iggy Azalea (32 to 69), Kerser (49 to 78), Knife Party (47 to 85), Olly Murs (27 to 92) and leaving the Top 100 from last weeks fifty are Boyzone with “Dublin to Detroit” from No.43.
XMAS ALBUMS: So far Michael Buble has the only festive season album within the Top 10 this week, with “Christmas” jumping up seven to No.3, whilst the next seasonal album is a return at No.26 for a sixth time, Mariah Carey with “Merry Christmas” (HP-2, Dec 1994), with the album returning to the Top 20 (2012) and Top 30 (2013) over the past two years. Right behind at No.27 is the Human Nature set “The Christmas Album”, which climbs six places this week, whilst Pentatonix and their “That’s Christmas to Me” album jumps up eighteen spots to a new peak of No.36. In the lower fifty you can find Xmas themed albums for Lee Kernaghan with “Driving Homes for Christmas” (63 to 56), whilst debuting at No.97 is current singles chart long-runner Idina Menzel (Let it Go is at 49 weeks) with her seasonal set “Holiday Wishes”, her first ARIA Albums chart entry.
ARIA Awards winner Chet Faker sees his current album “Built on Glass” drop four places to No.19 this week, but one spot higher he debuts at No.18 with the live set “iTunes Sessions”. The next new entry occurs at No.25 and is a compilation album entitled “Sounds of the 80s”, featuring current singers and groups covering classic 1980’s songs like Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Olly Murs, James Blunt and Kylie Minogue among its 37 songs.
The last Top 50 entry comes in at No.49, the sixth studio album for the Wu-Tang Clan entitled “A Better Tomorrow”, which is their first new material in six years and it becomes the clans fifth Top 100 and third Top 50 ARIA Albums chart entry. Their January 2008 fifth studio album “8 Diagrams” only made it to No.74, whilst six years prior to that their fourth album ”Iron Flag” debuted and peaked at No.46, but their best chart effort was their first entry here with their second album “Wu-Tang Forever” which debuted and peaked at No.8 in June 1997.
Lower 50: Ed Sheeran climbs back up eleven places to No.53 with his “+” album, whilst Kingswood jump back up fifteen spots to No.54 with their “Microscopic Wars” set. The Preatures are back up twelve to No.58 with their debut album “Blue Planet Eyes”, the new Platinum edition of the self-titled album for Beyonce leaps back up thirty-seven spots to No.62 and three weeks ago the compilation “We Love Disney” debuted at No.69, whilst this week it rebounds twenty-seven places to a new peak of No.66. “18 Hits” for Abba is back up sixteen places to No.73 and the “Jersey Boys” Soundtrack is at No.74 and picks up its first certification for ▲Platinum in sales. Returning albums this week include the first No.1 album for AC/DC “Back in Black” returning at No.79, the newly re-packaged ‘Xmas Edition’ of The Vamps debut album “Meet the Vamps” back in at No.80, Lorde returns at No.90 with her debut set “Pure Heroine”, Taylor Henderson returns yet again with “Burnt Letters” at No.96 and the self-titled album for Royal Blood is back in at No.100.
Other than the aforementioned Idina Menzel album debuting at No.97, the only other new entry in the lower fifty is the eighth studio album for Pitbull entitled “Globalization” which is new at No.60 this week. This becomes his fourth album to chart in Australia, as his fourth set “Rebelultion” made it to No.54 in January 2010 (it debuted in September 2009), whilst his sixth album “Planet Pit” debuted and peaked at No.5, his last entry was his seventh set “Global Warming” which made it to No.14 in November 2012.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
