Angus & Julia Stone become the second Australian duo to land two No.1 albums (the other was Savage Garden), as their self-titled third album debuts at the top of the ARIA Albums chart this week.
“Angus & Julia Stone” is the 710th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2014) and the 561st for ARIA (1983 to 2014), plus the 359th Album to debut at No.1 and the 38th self-titled set to reach the top, with this year already seeing Beyonce, MKTO and 5 Seconds of Summer also achieving the same feat. Prior to this Angus & Julia Stone hit the top in March 2010 with their second set “Down the Way” (for two weeks), and at the time the album was under the Capitol label, now this new set is through EMI (via Universal), so it becomes the sixteenth EMI (direct) No.1 album, and the first since ‘Boned!’ for The Twelfth Man back in December 2006.
The new No.1 becomes the third album with the world ‘Stone’ in its title, the others being the self-titled Rolling Stones album from 1965 and “Heart of Stone” for Cher in late November 1989. And even though Ed Sheeran was at the top for the past two weeks (it wasn’t new to the top spot) this is the fourth consecutive Australian Artists album to debut at No.1, whilst this is the 175th chart-topping album for an Aussie act, plus the twelfth by a duo, the last being MKTO back in February.
One Day is a hip hop collective comprising local acts Horrorshow, Spit Syndicate, Jackie Onassis and Joyride, who see their first collaboration “Mainline” debut at No.2 this week, giving three of the four acts their first Top 10 placing, as Horrorshow debuted and peaked at No.2 with their August 2013 third album “King Amongst Many”.
It’s an all Aussie debut within the Top 3 this week, and the second album for local act Sticky Fingers debuts at No.3 entitled “Land of Pleasure”, becoming the bands first Top 10 album, as their previous entry “Caress Your Soul” debuted and peaked at No.39 in mid-March 2013. This album has also seen the single “Gold Snafu” reach No.90 back in March.
After a further two weeks at No.1, Ed Sheeran’s “x” is back down three places to No.4, having notched up three accumulated weeks at the top, plus the mass high entries also pushes back down the ‘Frozen’ Soundtrack to No.5 after 30 consecutive weeks within the Top 10, with the last recent album to spend this long within the ten being Bruno Mars’ “Unorthodox Jukebox” (38 weeks in total), and holding steady at No.6 is Sam Smith with “In the Lonely Hour”, the same position his current single “Stay with Me” is over on the singles chart.
The new MARVEL film “Guardians of the Galaxy” sees the soundtrack enter at No.7 this week, with the subtitle of the set being ‘Awesome Mix Volume 1’, as this collection features a ton of seventies tracks by such acts as David Bowie, The Raspberries, 10CC, Blue Swede, Jackson 5, Rupert Holmes and Marvin Gaye with Tammi Terrell. The self-titled debut album for 5 Seconds of Summer is down three to No.8 this week, whilst dropping harder are “A Perfect Contradiction” for Paloma Faith (4 to 9) and Sheppard with “Bombs Away” (3 to 10).
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: With George Ezra scoring a Top 5 single this week, his parent album “Wanted on Voyage” is up eleven to a new peak of No.20, whilst Dan Sultan leaps back up fifty-five places to No.31 with “Blackbird”, and Rudimental rise back up thirteen to No.33 with their “Home” set. Also back into the Top 50 are John Legend with “Love in the Future” (56 to 37) and Whitney Houston’s “The Ultimate Collection” (66 to 45).
DOWN DOWN: After eleven straight weeks within the Top 10, Coldplay’s “Ghost Stories” falls down four to No.12, whilst another former No.1 album drops out, although only having spent three weeks within the ten, “Burnt Letters” for Taylor Henderson is down nine to No.16. Prior to Taylor’s No.1 album was Sia’s “1000 Forms of Fear”, which is down eight to No.18 and the fourth and final Top 10 dropout is Lily Allen with “Sheezus”, which is down twelve to No.21. Last weeks highest new entry of “Honest People” by John Williamson is only down four places to No.15 this week, and will most likely be within the Top 20 for the next month, as Father’s Day (in Australia) is under a month away. Rise Against fall down nine to No.23 with “The Black Market”, Lana Del Rey’s “Ultraviolence” and the INXS collection “The Very Best” are both down eight to No.26 and No.27 respectively, whilst after holding at No.12 for the past two weeks, Hillsong this week fall seventeen places to No.29 with “No Other Name”. Iggy Azalea tumbles seven to No.30 with “The New Classic” and The McClymonts fall fifteen to No.41 with “Here’s to You & I”, plus London Grammar fall fourteen to No.42 with “If You Wait”. Jack White is down nine to No.44 with “Lazaretto”, but plummeting twenty-six spots to No.47 is Weird Al Yankovic with “Mandatory Fun”, and after their Splendour in the Grass shows, Violent Soho see their “Hungry Ghost” set fall fifteen to No.48. Dropping out from last weeks Top 50 are Queen (41 to 51), Allday (42 to 53), Asgeir (20 to 58), Lana Del Rey (Paradise Edition) (47 to 62), Pharrell (44 to 64), Rufus (49 to 69), Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (30 to 72), The 1975 (45 to 78), and leaving from last weeks Top 50, out of the hundred this week are Anberlin with “Lowborn” (#32) and Neon Jungle with “Welcome to the Jungle” (#48).
X-Factor 2014 winner Anja Nissen sees her self-titled debut collection of songs performed on the series debut at No.11 this week, with the shows previous winners Craig Harrison (1 July, 2013; 2 weeks) and Karise Eden (2 July, 2012; 6 weeks) both debuting at the top of the albums chart when their respective albums when released. With no single released from the winner as yet, this album makes a fairly good debut, with the previous worst singing-contest winners debut being 2005 Australian Idol winner Kate DeAraugo with “A Place I’ve Never Been” debuting and peaking at No.10 in mid-December 2005 (although it did debut in one of the busiest sales periods of the year).
Eric Clapton enters at No.17 with “The Breeze: An Appreciation of JJ Cale”, which is named after Cale’s song “Call Me the Breeze”, and Eric and JJ have previously charted with “The Road to Escondido” (HP-43, peaked Feb 2007), and the covers of his songs on this album feature guest artists such as Tom Petty, John Mayer, Mark Knopfler, Willie Nelson, Don White and Derek Trucks. This is Eric’s 22nd studio album, and first since “Old Socks” hit No.22 in April 2013, with his last Top 20 placing being the re-entered “Clapton Chronicles: The Best of” which finally peaked at No.16 in mid-February of 2007.
The final two new entries for the week are Spoon with their eighth studio album, and now highest charting set here “They Want My Soul”, coming in at No.43. The Texas band has now had three album chart in Australia, with the previous entries being “Transference” (HP-47, Jan 2010, LP#7) and “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” (HP-57, July 2007). And coming in at No.50 are The Choir of King’s College with “I Was Glad: The Immortal Sound”, the first entry for the collective.
Lower 50: There are NO new entries in the lower half of the albums chart this week, but moving up eight to No.52 is James Blunt with “Moon Landing”, and after returning last week at No.73, the 1978 Meat Loaf album “Bat Out of Hell” is back up seventeen places to No.56, and is newly certified (and the only LP cert this week too) 25x▲Platinum, which is still the highest album certification in Australian Albums chart history (John Farnham’s Whispering Jack is sitting on 24xPlaintum).
Kasbaian’s “48:13” is back up fourteen places to No.57 after their recent tour here, and Jason DeRulo’s new bounce on the singles chart with “Bubblegum” helps his current album “Tattoos” rise back up fourteen places to No.66. The returning albums this week include “18 Months” (HP-5) for Calvin Harris at No.59, “Rumours” (HP-1) for Fleetwood Mac at No.61, Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 classic album “Born in the USA” (HP-1) at No.68, Ellie Goulding with “Halcyon Days” (HP-4) at No.81, Jessica Mauboy with “Beautiful” (HP-3) at No.83 and back in at No.88 is Nirvana with “Nevermind” (HP-2). The final three returnees are Bliss N’ Eso with “Circus in the Sky” (HP-1) at No.90 after only one week outside of the Top 100, Foo Fighters return at No.92 with their “Greatest Hits” (HP-1) set and finally the self-titled Flume (HP-1) album returns at No.95.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
