Billie Eilish lands at the top of the ARIA Albums Chart this week with her second studio album “Happier Than Ever”, also becoming her second No.1 set in Australia.
“Happier Than Ever” (Darkroom/Interscope) becomes the 921st No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2021), the 771st for ARIA (1983 to 2021), the 21st No.1 for 2021, the 557th to debut at No.1 and now the 36th for the record label Interscope since their first in September of 1998 for Marilyn Manson, while their last was late July 2020 with Juice WRLD’s “Legends Never Die”. Overall this is Billie’s third Top 10 Albums Chart entry as her EP “Don’t Smile at Me” peaked at No.6 in February of 2019.
Billie’s first album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” (TW-16) has been charting for 91 weeks now, never dropping any lower than No.23, having first debuted at No.1 on April 8th, 2019 for two initial weeks, later returning to the top on six further occasions on April 29th, June 3rd and 17th, July 1st and 15th in 2019 and then after it won several Grammy Awards in early 2020 it logged an eighth and final week at No.1 on February 3rd, 2020. So with her new album entering at No.1 it increases her tally of weeks at the top of the Australian Albums Chart to nine, placing her at equal 82nd on the list for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1; Albums (1965-2021)’ alongside Lionel Richie (2 #1’s, 9 weeks at #1).
For the album’s title “Happier Than Ever”, this is the first time at No.1 for the words ‘Happier’ and ‘Ever’, with the closest previous ‘Happ…’ word being Jimmy Barnes’ “Double Happiness” (3 weeks from 25th of July, 2005), while ‘Ever’ has appeared within the words ‘Forever’, ‘Whatever’, ‘Never’, ‘Every’, ‘evermore’ ‘Everyday’, ‘Everything’ ‘Fever’ and ‘Whenever’ but never as just ‘Ever’. It’s the second time at No.1 for the word ‘Than’, as Craig Harrison took “More Than a Dream” to No.1 for two weeks from July 1st, 2013.
Billie’s new No.1 album becomes the 324th by an American Act (solo male or female, duo or group) to hit the top here, and the fifth American to hit the top this year after Foo Fighters (Feb), Kings of Leon (March), Taylor Swift (April) and Olivia Rodrigo (May), while for Solo Female Artists this is now the 145th No.1 Album by such an artist (local or overseas), and the eighth for 2021, while Billie Eilish also becomes the fourteenth Solo American Female Artist to land a second No.1 Album in Australia or the 38 overall U.S. Female Artists to have hit the top here since Janis Joplin was the first in 1971, as she joins Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Beyonce who’ve all had two No.1 Album in Australia. Billie’s new album has also landed at No.1 first week (so far) in New Zealand, England, Ireland, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Scotland, Norway and Sweden.
Four albums remain on hold within the Top 10 this week, with American Female artists Olivia Rodrigo with “SOUR” and Doja Cat with “Planet Her” remaining at No.2 and No.4 respectively, while local rapper The Kid Laroi holds at No.3 with his repackaged “F**k Lov3” set which again has the No.1 single this week with “Stay”, which also helped the album to finally claim the No.1 spot in both America and Canada for the first time in it’s one-year of charting this past week. It leapt from No.26 to No.1 in America and No.13 to No.1 in Canada.
The first official posthumous set for Prince debuts at No.5 (also #5 in the UK) this week called “Welcome 2 America”, officially it’s his 32nd Album, which by entering at No.5 becomes his first Top 10 album since his mass return of albums after his passing on the chart dated May 2nd, 2016 when he landed four albums within the Top 10, and overall this now becomes his thirteenth Top 10 album (10 studio, 3 GH’s) in Australia, while his last studio album to land a Top 10 berth was “Emancipation” (HP-6, Dec. 1996) almost 25 years ago.
The third and final Top 10 entry this week is by local Tasmanian act The Wolfe Brothers with their fifth album “Kids on Cassette”, which debuts at No.6 this week becoming their fifth albums chart entry, their third Top 10 placement and now their highest charted, as they previously landed within the ten with “This Crazy Life” (LP#3, HP-10, June 2016) and then “Country Heart” (LP#4, HP-9, April 2018).
The fourth and final stable album this week is at No.7, Dua Lipa with “Future Nostalgia”, logging a 42nd week within the Top 10, the current longest running Top 10 entry, after which is a two place rise to No.8 for Justin Bieber with “Justice”, while last weeks No.1 entry for local act the Jungle Giants and “Love Signs” drops this week eight places to land at No.9, followed by The Weeknd with his collection “The Highlights”, which is back up one spot to No.10 and spending it’s 21st week within the Top 10, plus it’s also now been charting for half-a-year (26 weeks).
UP:
TOP 20: Three albums rise in the Top 20 this week, a one place move to No.13 for Harry Styles’ second album “Fine Line”, a two place move to No.20 for Taylor Swift and “folklore”, while the new Billie Eilish No.1 album helps move her debut set “When We All Fall Asleep…” four places to land at No.15 this week.
TOP 30: There are two single place rises within the Top 30, the Maroon 5 “Singles Collection” to No.22 and Juice WRLD with “Legends Never Die” to No.28.
TOP 40: Again only two albums move back up the chart, Post Malone with “Hollywood’s Bleeding” up two spots to No.39 and thanks to a new Silk Sonic entry at No.32 called “Skate” the Bruno Mars album “Doo-Wops and Hooligans” is back up five places to No.40.
TOP 50: The self-titled Dua Lipa album is back up two spots to No.42, Pitbull’s “Greatest Hits” also rises two places to land at No.45, followed by a four place move back up to No.46 for “Astroworld” by Travis Scott, with Miley Cyrus and her “Plastic Hearts” set back up one spot to No.50.
DOWN:
TOP 20: All four of the albums leaving the Top 10 this week land within the Top 20, “Sob Rock” for John Mayer (HP-3, WI10-2) is down five to No.11, “Faith” for Pop Smoke (HP-4, WI10-2) is down three to No.12, last week’s new entry for DAVE and “We’re All Alone in This Together” (HP-6, WI10-1) falls nine places to No.14 and Tones and I sees her debut album “Welcome to the Madhouse” (HP-1×1, WI10-2) tumble eleven chart-rungs to No.19.
TOP 30: Pop Smoke has a second fall this week with “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon” dipping eight places to No.21, with collections for Elton John and Eminem down to No.22 and No.25 respectively, while Jimmy Barnes’ latest “Flesh and Blood” falls fourteen spots to No.26.
TOP 40: KSI sees his album “All Over the Place” descend fifteen places this week to No.31, with Queen down three to No.35 with their ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ soundtrack and XXXTentacion falls four spots to No.38 with “?”.
TOP 50: Taylor Swift’s “1989” set drops four to No.41, while last week’s rebound for Doja Cat’s “Hot Pink” set reverses this week to an eight place drop to No.47, and Polo G sees his “Hall of Fame” album drop nine spots to No.49.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #32 (LP#3) – The House is Burning by Isaiah Rashad (Top Dawg/Warner) is the third studio album and now first chart entry for the Tennessee rapper born Isaiah Rashad McClain, with this album featuring guest acts like 6lack, Jay Rock, SZA, Lil’ Uzi Vert and Smino.
*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 29th of July to the 5th of August, 2021.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
