Coldplay debut at No.1 with their sixth studio album “Ghost Stories” becoming the bands fifth chart-topping album on ARIA (their first album ‘Parachutes’ spent four weeks at No.2), achieving Gold (●) in sales in its first week of release.
“Ghost Stories” becomes the 703rd No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2014) and the 554th for ARIA (1983 to 2014), plus the 352nd album to debut at No.1. It’s the eighth No.1 album for the Parlophone label, and the second for this year after Kylie did so back in March. This new No.1 album for Coldplay also takes their tally of weeks at No.1 to eight in total, with their previous albums all staying atop for a single week (upon debut) except for “Viva la Vida” (June 2008) which spent four weeks at No.1.
Coldplay also equal the eight accumulated weeks that Kylie has amassed from her four No.1 albums, alongside One Direction (3), Janet Jackson and Offspring (both 2 No.1’s), and the band now sit alongside such acts as Neil Diamond, Celine Dion, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Silverchair, Metallica, Powderfinger, Foo Fighters, Crowded House and Michael Buble who also have notched up five No.1 albums in Australia. It’s the fourth time that the world ‘Ghost’ has appeared in a No.1 album title, with the previous acts being The Police with “Ghost in the Machine” (Dec 1981), Cut Copy with “In Ghost Colours” (March 2008) and the most recent being The Amity Affliction with “Chasing Ghosts” (Sept 2012), whilst it’s the first for the word ‘Stories”, although there have been a few ‘Story’ albums.
The new No.1 album also becomes the 136th album for an act from England to reach the top, and the first for 2014, as the last No.1 from that country was One Direction with “Midnight Memories” in early December of 2013, and “Ghost Stories” also becomes the 331st No.1 for a Group.
With a full week of sales, Michael Jackson’s latest album “Xscape” is up a place to a new peak of No.2, whilst the ‘Frozen’ Soundtrack is back up a place to No.3, with last weeks No.1 debut of “Turn Blue” for The Black Keys dropping down three spots to No.4 this week, whilst also down three is Michael Buble (who is now touring N.Z.) with “To Be Loved”, the album picking up a 2x▲Platinum certification this week also.
After a few weeks within the Top 20, ZHU sees his EP “The NightDay” jump up twelve places to land it’s first week within the Top 10 at No.6, with the track “Faded” Top 3 on the singles chart this week. Chet Faker is back up three places to No.7 with his former No.1 album “Built on Glass”, and leaping back up forty-two places to No.8 are RUFUS with their former No.1 album “Atlas”, with the band starting a national tour from May 30th and the album now notching up a fourth week within the Top 10 (it spent three weeks upon debut last August). INXS jumped four to No.5 last week with their “Very Best of” collection, which does the opposite this week, falling four to No.9 and after a week out of the Top 10, Lily Allen is back up two places to No.10 with “Sheezus”.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: Iggy Azalea sees her album “The New Classic” jumps back up nine places to No.12 and having started a national tour this week; Boy & Bear see their former No.1 album “Harlequin Dream” leaps back up fifty-one places to No.13. London Grammar are touring here again in September, and their album “If You Wait” is back up nine to No.19, whilst Illy’s current Top 30 singles success with “Tightrope” helps his “Cinematic” album to jump thirty-two places to No.21 this week. Rudimental are back up twenty-eight spots to No.23 with “Home” and Imagine Dragons are back up twenty-one places to No.25 with their “Night Visions” album. Violent Soho jump back up ten spots to No.30 with “Hungry Ghost”, OneRepublic are back up thirteen to No.35 with “Native”, mid-June tourists Bastille are back up thirty-three places to No.36 with “(All the) Bad Blood”, MJ’s current No.2 album helps his collection “The Essential” back up nineteen spots to No.37, Bliss N’ Eso climb back up seventeen to No.38 with “Circus in the Sky”, and “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” for Eminem is up fifteen to No.48, whilst the 60 Minutes interview and his re-appearance on The Voice as a judge helps the “Greatest Hits” (HP-2) for Ricky Martin to return at No.40.
DOWN DOWN: After a week back within the Top 10, “AM” for The Arctic Monkeys is back down three to No.11, whilst now that the Mothers Day sales have passed three mum-centric albums drop hard, with Cliff Richard’s “The Fabulous Rock ‘N; Roll Songbook” down fifteen to No.22, “Sol3 Mio” drops twenty-two to No.31 and “L.O.V.E.” for Harrison Craig tumbles twenty-six to No.32 after five weeks within the Top 10. After leaping back up to No.15 last week, Jessica Mauboy’s “Beautiful” album is back down twelve places to No.27 this week, her ‘Sea of Flags’ single dropping out of the Top 100 Singles from No.40 last week. “Abba Gold & More” for Abba falls eighteen to No.29 and the ‘Eurovision 2014’ compilation falls twenty-six to No.39. Mark Vincent and his “Best So Far” falls (19 to 42), as do albums for In Hearts Wake (29 to 43), The Angels (Vol.1, 34 to 44), Andre Rieu (23 to 47), Sarah McLachlan (26 to 49), Little Dragon (44 to 56), Bruno Mars (37 to 63), Engelbert Humperdinck (22 to 66), The Vamps (43 to 68), James Blunt (41 to 70), Killer be Killed (47 to 75), and falling out from last weeks Top 50 are The Beards (#30), Robbie Williams (#31, now ▲Platinum), Foxes (#36), Lykke Li (#38), Tina Arena (#45) and the ‘Love Child’ Soundtrack (#49).
The ninth studio album for US country act Rascal Flatts debuts at No.17 entitled “Rewind” becoming the bands second album to chart here in Australia, their eight album “Changed” made it to No.51 in April 2012, so this new entry instantly becomes their highest charting album here. The only other new entry to the Top 50 is the fourth album for Canadian duo Chromeo entitled “White Women”, which is new at No.50, and becomes the bands first ARIA Albums chart entry.
With Coldplay debuting at No.1 this week, some of their older albums return to the Top 100 this week, with “Mylo Xyloto” (HP-1×1, Oct 2011) back in at No.45, whilst lower down their first set “Parachutes” (HP-2×4, peaked Feb 2001) returns at No.89 and also back in at No.96 is “A Rush of Blood to the Head” (HP-1×1, Sept 2002).
Lower 50: With the Mother Day sales over for another year, a lot of albums rebound this week, Skrillex (67 to 51), Flume (76 to 53), The Eagles (92 to 54), Fleetwood Mac (78 to 55), John Butler Trio (68 to 57), The Wiggles’ Best of (91 to 64), and returning albums come via The Amity Affliction with “Chasing Ghosts” (#60), Russell Morris with “Sharkmouth” (#74), Northlane with “Singularity” (#76), Troy & Adam with their “Great Country Songbook” (#83), “Very Very Best of” for Crowded House (#87), “All for You-Best of” for Cold Chisel (#90), Chvrches (#91), Guns N’ Roses G.H. (#92), The 1975 (#95), Of Monsters and Men (#98), 1D’s “Midnight Memories” (#99) and the Australian Crawl “Greatest Hits” collection is back in at 100.
Two further returning albums are re-packaged editions of classic sets, with the recently reformed and touring Frente back in at No.59 with “Marvin! The Album” (HP-5, Dec 1992) and Roy Orbison with “Mystery Girl” (peaked early March 1989, #1 for four weeks) at No.86, which is a 25th Anniversary Edition of his last studio album.
The debut album for Melbourne based band Northeast Party House debuts at No.62 entitled “Any Given Weekend”, and another Melbourne band (who will be touring from the end of May) are Wagons, who score their first ARIA Albums chart entry with their second studio album “Acid Rain and Sugar Cane” at No.65, whilst an older Aussie band in the form of The Black Sorrows debut at No.73 with “Certified Blue”, the bands fourteenth studio album, and first to chart since 1994’s “Lucky Charm” (HP-20, November 1994). Lastly a final Melbourne act who enter at No.97 are Woodlock with their debut album “Labour of Love”, the band also starting a national tour in the first week of June.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
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