Ed Sheeran ‘x’ sold more than any other album in Australia across Christmas.
Jumping back to claim the No.1 spot on the ARIA Albums chart this week is Ed Sheeran with his second album “x”, which also notches up 4x▲Platinum in sales and this week celebrates its 27th week within the Top 10 as well.
“x” first debuted at the top on the week of 30-June-2014, and returned to No.1 five weeks later for two weeks (from 28-July), then another nine weeks later it racked up two more weeks at the top (from 6-October) around the time he visited our shores and played on the X-Factor finales. So this week it notches up its sixth non-consecutive week at No.1 on the ARIA Albums chart, plus this also becomes the first album for the Atlantic label to go back to the top on four separate occasions, previously three returns was the labels record for “Forgiven, Not Forgotten” by The Corrs (1996), Matchbox 20 with their first set “Yourself or Someone Like You” (1998) and then James Blunt with “Back to Bedlam” (2005/2006).
After a single week back at the top, “1989” for Taylor Swift drops down to No.2 and Ed’s ascent to No.1 also pushes down “Christmas” for Michael Buble to No.3, the album racking up 11x▲Platinum in sales, whilst the rest of the top five albums remain stable, as AC/DC are at No.4 with “Rock or Bust” and Human Nature’s “Jukebox” at No.5, being the top two Australian performed albums of the three within the Top 10 this week.
Sam Smith climbs three places to No.6 with “In the Lonely Hour” and notching up its one year anniversary on the charts, 42 weeks of which have been spent within the Top 10, the “Frozen” Soundtrack is down a spot to No.7, whilst holding at No.8 is “FOUR” by One Direction. Back up a spot to No.9 are The Foo Fighters with “Sonic Highways” and jumping back up eight places to No.10 are the final Aussie act within the ten, The Hilltop Hoods with “Walking Under Stars”, the eleventh accumulated week in the Top 10 for the album.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: Barbra Streisand is back up to No.11 with her physical only selling former No.1 album “Partners”, whilst the heavily advertised collection for The Eagles “Selected Works 1972-1999” (HP-11) is back up nine spots to No.14. Jimmy Barnes’ recent tour and current advertising helps his set “30:30 Hindsight” back up seven to No.18, whilst ARIA Awards winner Chet Faker and “Built on Glass” jumps up nine spots to No.21 this week. George Ezra is back up to No.28 with “Wanted on Voyage” and the covers collection “Sounds of the 80’s” is back up five to No.30. Tony & Gaga jump up seven to No.33 with “Cheek to Cheek” and the current top three singles chart placing for Hozier sees his self-titled set back up eight to No.34, whilst “Dream Your Life Away” for Vance Joy is up six to No.39 and the self-titled set for Angus & Julia Stone jumps up nine to No.43, with the re-packaged (with live DVD) Coldplay album “Ghost Stories” bullets up twenty-three places to No.47.
DOWN DOWN: The only Top 10 dropout this week is last weeks only new entry to the ten, 5 Seconds of Summer with their “LiveSOS” set, which drops twelve to No.19 this week, whilst also down are Pink Floyd with “The Endless River” (11 to 16) and Katy Perry with “Prism” (12 to 17). The other two of last weeks Top 20 debuts dropping are Nicki Minaj with “The Pinkprint” (19 to 29) and Paul Kelly with “The Merri Soul Singers” (17 to 41), whilst Justice Crew drop nine to 42 with “Live by the Words” and dropping from last weeks fifty are Melinda & Beccy (43 to 53), Carrie Underwood (49 to 91) and J. Cole (46 to 100), whilst last weeks No.50 entry for D’Angelo leaves the Top 100.
XMAS ALBUMS: In the next two chart weeks, most of the festive season albums will drop or leave the charts, so this could be the last seasonal section, and as I already stated, Michael Buble picks up a new certification and is at No.3, whilst the next seasonal-set is Human Nature with “The Christmas Album” down three to No.23, Mariah Carey is back up four to No.24 with “Merry Christmas”, and currently at No.2 in the USA Albums charts are Pentatonix with “That’s Christmas to Me”, here it is down a spot to No.27, whilst returning to the Top 50, up five places to No.48 is Lee Kernaghan with “Driving Home for Christmas”, close to its former peak of No.46. Idina Menzel is back up one place to her former peak of No.55 with “Holiday Wishes” and the last festive season set within the Top 100 is the 2012 Pentatonix set “PTXmas” down eighteen spots to No.78, whilst leaving this week are Andre Rieu with “Best of Christmas” (#79) and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra with “A Celtic Christmas” (#81).
Lower 50: The Script are back up thirteen places to No.51 with “No Sound without Silence”, and Alt-J are back up to No.58 with “This is All Yours”. “AM” by Arctic Monkeys is up seventeen to No.63, whilst leaping back up twenty-eight to No.65 is Pink with her “Greatest Hits… So Far”, this album was at No.1 this time back in 2010. The Madden Brothers are back up twenty-two places to No.66 with “Greetings from California” and Eminem’s “Curtain Call: The Hits” is back up eleven to No.71, whilst Dami Im is up twenty spots to No.72 with “Heart Beats”. Returning albums this week come from Rodriguez with “Cold Fact” (#94) and The Rolling Stones collection album “GRRR!” at No.98.
The third studio album for English singer/rapper Charli XCX becomes her first to chart in Australia, as “Sucker” debuts at No.56, featuring the current No.13 single “Break the Rules” and the former No.9 single “Boom Clap” (TW-77).
Joe Cocker’s passing at the start of the week has given four of his compilation albums their first week on the ARIA Albums chart, with the first coming in at No.75, “The Platinum Collection”, followed at No.82 by “The Anthology” and a little lower at No.88 “The Best of Joe Cocker”, whilst finally at No.95 is the set “Greatest Hits Live”. These become his ninth to twelfth greatest hits/best of sets to chart in Australia, his best being the No.1 sets from early October 1983, “The Best of” which spent three weeks at top and the Australian only compilation from his early years “Cocker Happy” (peaked early July 1971), which spent eight weeks at No.1.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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