With the Christmas season over, it allows regular albums to reclaim the charts, and this week the self-titled fifth album for Beyonce climbs back up two places to give her the first ARIA No.1 album of her career.
“Beyonce” becomes the 693rd No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2014) and the 552nd for ARIA (1983 to 2014), whilst it also becomes the 35th self-titled set to reach the top, the last two being X-Factor winner Dami Im (25-Nov-13) and then two weeks later runner-up Taylor Henderson (9-Dec-13). The album also becomes the 34th chart-topping album for the Columbia label in Australia and the first since John Mayer and “Paradise Valley” last September.
As I mentioned, this is the first No.1 album for Beyonce (solo or with Destiny’s Child), and her set becomes the 252nd No.1 album performed by American Artist, and she is the 138th American Act to reach the top in Australia. The album is also the 101st by a Female performer (Dami Im was the 100th) and Beyonce is also the 33rd Female American singer to reach the top.
It’s also only the second time this century that a brand new No.1 album has occurred in the first chart of the year. The very first chart of the century, dated 3-Jan-2000 saw Macy Gray take her debut album “On How Life is” to the top for seven broken weeks. Also Beyonce did achieve this feat once before, over on the singles chart, when on the 1-Jan-2007 she went to No.1 with “Irreplaceable” for three weeks.
Katy Perry holds at No.2 with her “Prism” album, whilst completing a female Top 3 this week is Lorde, who jumps back up six places to No.3 with “Pure Heroine”. The Top 6 are also made up of current or former No.1 albums, so at No.4 are One Direction with “Midnight Memories”, Eminem at No.5 with “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” and at No.6 is the self-titled set for Taylor Henderson.
Imagine Dragons leap back up thirteen places to No.7 with “Night Visions” (HP-4) and “True” by Avicii is back up eight places to No.8, both albums clocking up their seventh week within the Top 10. The Twelfth Man drops five places to No.9 with his collection “Willy Nilly – The 12th Man’s Biggest Hits” and also returning to the Top 10, up two places to No.10 is James Blunt with “Moon Landing”.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: Robbie Williams’ “Swings Both Ways” album is back up to No.11, helped possibly by the New Years Eve screening of his London Paladium special (which also featured The Muppets), and The Arctic Monkeys zoom back up twelve places to No.12 with “AM”. Also jumping back up the albums charts are Flume (26 to 14), OneRepublic (30 to 16), INXS (33 to 18), Lana Del Rey (32 to 21), Daft Punk (40 to 28), Bastille (45 to 29), Jason DeRulo (42 to 31), Pink’s Greatest Hits (41 to 32), London Grammar (48 to 34), Miley Cyrus (47 to 35), Passenger (58 to 40), Rudimental (64 to 44) and bouncing back for the first time are A Day to Remember with their set “Common Courtesy” (62 to 49). Of course with the exit and large drop of the Christmas albums, there was bound to be a lot of album jumping back up this week.
DOWN DOWN: The three albums to dropout of the Top 10 this week include two massive seasonal slumps, as last weeks “Christmas” by Michael Buble is down to No.36, the biggest drop from No.1 since Kiss went from the top to No.33 with “Psycho Circus” (11-Oct-98). Back in 2011 Michael’s “Christmas” fell to No.29 and then last year it dropped to No.28 the week after the silly-season was over. Also tumbling are Human Nature with “The Christmas Album”, which drops thirty-three places to No.38, whilst the other Top 10 evacuee are Fleetwood Mac with “25 Years – The Chain” which is down three places to No.13 this week. Also down is Michael’s latest studio album “To Be Loved” (15 to 25), and Keith Urban is down twelve to No.48 with “Fuse”. After being the only debut last week, Justin Bieber with “The Journals” is down fifteen places to No.50, whilst down thirty-two places to No.63 is Andre Rieu with his “Celebrates Abba” album. The self-titled EP for Jai Waetford drops sixteen places to No.66 and Pearl Jam with “Lightning Bolt” falls back eighteen to No.72. Susan Boyle hangs on for one more week with her “Home for Christmas” album, which is down seventy-five places to No.100, whilst all of the other festive-season themed albums tumble out of the chart. Mariah’s “Merry Christmas” (from #28), “Wrapped in Red” for Kelly Clarkson (#29), Rod Stewart’s “Merry Christmas, Baby” (#39), “This is Christmas” by Anthony Callea (#51), “Candlelight Christmas” by Marina Prior (#53) and “O Holy Night” for Michael Crawford (#55).
Two Soundtracks are the only new entries to the albums chart this week, the first of which is “Frozen”, the new Disney soundtrack, which features the only new entry to the singles chart this week, “Let it Go” by Demi Lovato (#55) and Idina Menzel (#60). Then at No.47 is the soundtrack to the latest Ben Stiller film “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, which features music by Jose Gonzalez, Of Monsters and Men, Junip, Jack Johnson and David Bowie.
Lower 50: Like the top fifty, the lower section also sees a resurgence of album sales, due in part to the Xmas evacuation, plus a lot of people get vouchers for retailers (physical and online) for Christmas, so they go out spending. QOTSA are back up (68 to 53), as too are Cold Chisel (GH 79 to 55), Havana Brown (80 to 56), Abba (Gold 78 to 57), Ed Sheeran (76 to 59), Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (92 to 60), Bliss N’ Eso (81 to 61), Michael Jackson (GH-93 to 62), Rufus (88 to 65), Olly Murs (90 to 70), Illy (86 to 73) and Bruce Springsteen (GH 98 to 84).
There are sixteen albums returning to the albums chart, with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Greatest Hits” the highest returnee at No.67, whilst “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” soundtrack returns at a new peak of No.69. Also back in are albums by Alt-J, Ellie Goulding, Disclosure, Of Monsters and Men, Phil Collins (GH), Foo Fighters (GH), “Pitch Perfect” Soundtrack, Katy Perry, The Lumineers, Kanye West, Britney Spears, Bee Gees and Drake.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
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