The seventh studio album for English rock act Muse becomes their third chart-topping album here in Australia, as “Drones” debuts at the top of the ARIA Albums chart this week.
“Drones” becomes the 733rd No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2015) and the 584th for ARIA (1983 to 2015) plus the 380th album to debut at No.1 and the eighteenth chart topping album for the Warner Brothers (direct) label, their last being “Holy Fire” by Foals (Feb 2013). Muse previously spent a single week at the top with their fourth album “Black Holes & Revelations” (17-July-2006) and their fifth set “The Resistance” (21-Sept-2009), whilst overall this becomes the bands fourth Top 10 album in Australia, as their last entry “The 2nd Law” debuted and peaked at No.2 in early October of 2013.
It is the first time that the word “Drones” has been seen in a No.1 album (and also ever on the albums chart), and the new Muse album becomes the 142nd by an English Act to land at No.1 here, plus the fourth this year after Sam Smith, Mumford & Sons and last weeks chart-topper Florence + the Machine. “Drones” is also the 342nd No.1 album by a group, and the third successive week that a group has knocked another group off the top spot, as before Flo, Hillsong United were at the top (1-June).
The second album for local rap artist Seth Sentry debuts at No.2 this week entitled “Strange New Past”, which also gives him his highest charting album, as his debut set “This Was Tomorrow” debuted and peaked at No.6 in late September 2012. The albums first entry was the track “Hell Boy” which hit No.88 in mid-May. After a single week at the top of the albums’ chart (like their previous album), Florence + the Machine drops down two places to No.3 with “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” this week.
The third and final Top 10 entry this week occurs at No.4, “Beneath the Skin”, the second album for Of Monsters and Men, following on from their No.1 debut set “My Head is an Animal”, which eventually climbed to No.1 in its 25th week on the charts (peaked mid-Feb 2013). Ed Sheeran is down a place to No.5 with his “x” album whilst after four weeks at No.3, the ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ soundtrack drops three spots to No.6. “In the Lonely Hour” for Sam Smith is back up two places to No.7, Taylor Swift holds at No.8 with her “1989” set, Major Lazer is down four to No.9 with their third album “Peace is the Mission” and returning to the ten and up one spot to No.10 are Hermitude with “Dark Night, Sweet Light”.
UP: The ‘Furious 7’ soundtrack jumps back up thirteen spots to No.13 this week and the TV soundtrack for “Love Child: Season 2” holds at its No.15 peak. Sia returns to the Top 20, up four to No.20 with “1000 Forms of Fear” and after her recent national tour Alison Wonderland sees her “Run” album jump back up twelve spots to No.33. Re-entries to the chart within the Top 50 include the re-packaged and extended edition of The Rolling Stones No.1 album (late July 1972, 2 weeks) “Sticky Fingers” coming in at No.24 and back in at No.45 is The Notorious B.I.G. and his “Greatest Hits” collection which is returning at a new peak, having previously made it to No.84 in late June 2009 (this could possibly be due to the new Flume remix of one his old songs).
DOWN: The four albums leaving the Top 10 this week include “Empires” for Hillsong United (HP-1×1, WI10-2, 6 to 14), “In Colour” for Jamie xx (HP-2, WI10-1, 2 to 16), “A.L.L.A. (At Long Last A$AP)” for A$AP Rocky (HP-5, WI10-2, 7 to 17) and “Talk” for Daniel Johns (HP-2, WI10-2, 10 to 22). Faith No More drop five to No.21 with “Sol Invictus”, Jason DeRulo descends thirteen places to No.25 with “Everything is 4”, “Stages” by Josh Groban drops seven to No.26, Hillsong Hoods drop eight to No.35 with “Walking Under Stars”, falling fifteen to No.36 is the 2015 “Eurovision: Vienna” album, which if it stays in for another week will become the longest charting of these compilations (2014: Copenhagen edition spent four weeks within the Top 100). “+” for Ed Sheeran falls ten places to No.38, The Darkness drop sixteen to No.39 with “Last of Our Kind”, Lee Kernaghan falls ten to No.44 with “Spirit of the ANZACS”, The Wombats are down nine to No.48 with “Glitterbug” and down seventeen to No.49 is last weeks entry for Jebediah entitled “Twenty”. Leaving from last weeks fifty includes In Hearts Wake (41 to 52); Mariah Carey (44 to 77) and Make Them Suffer (30 to 95), whilst dropping out of the hundred from last weeks fifty were Paulini (#25), Jetty Road (#38), Mark Seymour & the Undertow (#43), Ben Howard (#47) and Tracy Chapman (#50).
Coming in at No.31 is the sixth collaboration album for Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard entitled “Django & Jimmie”, and is a tribute to 1950’s musicians Django Reinhardt and Jimmie Rodgers. This is the first collaborative album of the pair to chart here in Australia, whilst it’s the 26th overall for Willie Nelson and only the second for Merle Haggard (the other was in 1975, pre-ARIA).
Former Creed and Alter Bridge lead guitarist Mark Tremonti sees the second album for his band Tremonti entitled “Cauterize” become the bands first entry in Australia, landing at No.37 this week. English producers and remixers Leftfield enter at No.42 with their first new material in sixteen years and only their third album entitled “Alternative Light Source”, which becomes their second entry here as the bands second album “Rhythm & Stealth” debuted and peaked at No.4 in late September 1999.
Lower 50: Leaping back up forty-nine places to No.51 is Nirvana with “Nevermind” and back up thirty-six to No.57 are The Foo Fighters with their “Greatest Hits” collection. “The Sapphires” soundtrack re-enters at No.56 this week and the Queen “G.H.” set is back up twenty-two to No.64, with “The Pinkprint” for Nicki Minaj up fourteen to No.65. Stan Walker is back up thirteen to No.70 with his covers album “Truth & Soul” and with a new entry for The Wiggles, their “Hot Potatoes: The Best of” is back up twelve to No.78. Further returning albums come from Fall Out Boy with “American Beauty / American Psycho” (#80), “Things I’ve Done” for Karise Eden (#89), “Fan of a Fan” for Chris Brown & Tyga (#96) and “Emma!” for Emma! (#99).
In 1965, local artist Normie Rowe saw his first three singles all go into the Top 10, and to celebrate his fifty years of recording and performing the new compilation “Frenzy! The 50th Anniversary Collection” comes in at No.58. Another long-charting local act, who enter with a new album at No.62 this week are The Wiggles with their 43rd album “The Wiggles Meet the Orchestra”.
Swedish EDM duo Galantis debut at No.66 with their first album “Pharmacy” featuring the recent No.4 single “Runaway (U & I)” (TW-26), with the next new entry coming in at No.73, the soundtrack for the feature film “Entourage”. Daniel O’Donnell debuts at No.82 with his new album “Hope & Praise”, followed at No.85 by the self-titled album by F.F.S., which is a collaboration album between Franz Ferdinand and classic group Sparks. This is the fifth overall entry for both Franz and also Sparks, with it being their first since the 1980 album “Terminal Jive”. The final entry at #100 is the self-titled sixth album for Four Year Strong, which is the first entry here for the four piece US rock band.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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