The tenth studio album for Pearl Jam entitled “Lightning Bolt” debuts at the top of the ARIA Albums Chart and becomes the groups eighth No.1 album in Australia.
And by scoring their eighth chart-topping album, they become the equal fifth act on the list of ‘Most #1 Albums 1965-2013’ alongside John Farnham who has also scored eight number ones. But all but one of Pearl Jam’s albums has stayed at the top for a single week (their third set “No Code” in 1996) so their tally at the top of the ARIA Albums chart is now up to nine weeks, placing them around #63 on the list of ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1 1965-2013’.
“Lightning Bolt” becomes the 686th No.1 album in Australia (1965-2013), 340th to debut at No.1, and the 545th for ARIA (1983 to 2013), plus it’s the seventeenth No.1 for the Mercury label, with Harrison Craig being their last back in early July. It’s also becomes the 249th No.1 for an American act and the 327th by a Group, and its the first time that both the words ‘Lightning’ and ‘Bolt’ have appeared in a No.1 album, and the album. The only previous albums with ‘Lightning’ in their titles to chart were “Chain Lightning” for Don McLean (HP-41, peaked June 1980), the second album for Metallica, “Ride the Lightning” (HP-38, peaked during their September 2008 tour) and “I’ll Be Lightning” for Liam Finn (HP-57, Aug 2007).
Lorde holds at No.2 with “Pure Heroine” and last weeks No.1 debut for Miley Cyrus, “Bangerz” is down a couple of places to No.3, equaling the one week her first No.1 album “Breakout” achieved in September 2008. Jessica Mauboy is down one place to No.4 with last weeks debut of “Beautiful” and now that his new single has charged up to No.2, Avicii and “True” (HP-2) jumps back up fourteen places to No.5.
Local DJ Havana Brown debuts at No.6 with her first album entitled “Flashing Lights”, with the debut set for UK artist John Newman “Tribute” debuting one place lower at No.7. Coming in at No.8 is “Vengeance Falls” by Trivium, their sixth studio album and fourth to chart, plus their third consecutive Top 10 debut, as the previously charted with “In Waves” (HP-9, Aug 2011) and “Shogun” (HP-4, Oct 2008). Their first entry here was with their third album “The Crusade”, which debuted and peaked at No.14 in October 2006.
Down five places to No.9 is the album by HAIM entitled “Days Are Gone”, and dropping four places to No.10 is the new album for Jason DeRulo “Tattoos”, which just gained a third successive Top 10 single as “Marry Me” climbs to No.9 this week.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: “AM” for Arctic Monkeys is back up five places to No.11, and also scores a certification by claiming Gold (●), and although her tour is over, the new track from Pink’s “The Truth About Love” entitled “Walk of Shame” (TW-60) helps her album move back up five places to No.15. London Grammar are back up six places to No.18 with “If You Wait” and OneRepublic climb back up eleven spots to No.20 with “Native”. Cher rebounds ten places to No.24 with “Closer to the Truth” and Bruno Mars’ “Unorthodox Jukebox” is back up eleven spots to No.25. One Direction’s “Take Me Home” is now 3x▲ Platinum and back up to No.26 whilst Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die” is back up ten spots to No.29, with Michael Buble right behind her at No.30, up fifteen places with “To Be Loved”. Tourist Ricky Martin jumps nineteen places to No.40 with his “Greatest Hits”, and the John Mayer announced tour helps his “Paradise Valley” to rebound thirty-one spots to No.42. Scoring the only new peak of the week is “Dora’s Christmas” for Dora the Explorer, up fifteen places to No.45, whilst the just announced ARIA Nominations see album jumps for Boy & Bear with “Harlequin Dream”, up ten to No.34 and “Flume” by Flume, which is up thirty-eight spots to No.57.
DOWN DOWN: Keith Urban and “Fuse” (HP-1×1) drops down four places to No.12 after four weeks within the Top 10, plus it also gains a Gold (●) sales certification, whilst after two weeks inside the ten, Birdy and “Fire Within” drops down three spots to No.13. Two of last weeks Top 10 debuts Busby Marou and “Farewell Fitzroy” (5 to 27) and “The Paradigm Shift” for Korn (7 to 28) both fall hard this week. Also down from last week is Paul Dempsey with “Shotgun Karaoke” (17 to 41) and Panic at the Disco with “Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!” (26 to 48), whilst the Justin Timberlake “The 20/20 Experience 2 of 2” continues to fall, down twenty-eight in its third week to No.49. After last weeks best of/greatest hits explosion, all of those albums tumble this week, with “The Essential Michael Jackson” (14 to 55), “Greatest Hits” for Guns N’ Roses (25 to 59), “Bon Jovi Greatest Hits” (27 to 71), “Greatest Hits” by Fleetwood Mac (9 to 74), “Greatest Hits” for Red Hot Chili Peppers (29 to 95). Dropping out from last weeks Top 50 are “Abba Gold” for Abba from No.11 (the highest ARIA album chart dropout ever), whilst not to be outdone is the “Greatest Hits” for Bruce Springsteen from No.23, alongside “First Light to My Death Bed” for Saviour (#38) and “Forever the Tourist” for Daryl Braithwaite (#47) and “Glee Sings the Beatles” from No.48.
Triple J’s 2010 Unearthed competition winners Stonefield see their debut album enter at No.21 this week, whilst the twenty-fourth studio album for Paul McCartney (16th solo) entitled “New” enters one place lower at No.22. This becomes Paul’s fourth Top 40 studio album for this century (fifth if you include the collection ‘Wingspan’ HP-14, peaked early June 2001), after “Chaos & Creation in the Backyard” (HP-34, Sept 2005), “Memory Almost Full” (his last new material until now, HP-33, June 2007), and his last entry was the covers album “Kisses on the Bottom” (HP-15, Feb 2012).
The third album for UK electronic duo Chase & Status entitled “Brand New Machine” debuts at No.38, far surpassing their previous chart entry for their second album “No More Idols” (HP-93, Feb 2011). And the final Top 50 entry comes in at No.50, the new album for current tourist Andre Rieu entitled “Magic of the Movies”.
Lower 50: Kanye West re-enters the lower fifty at No.51 with “Yeezus”, whilst moving back up the chart is Troy Cassar-Daly & Adam Harvey with “The Great Country Songbook” (63 to 53), “Sempiternal” by Bring Me the Horizon (72 to 56), “…Like Clockwork” for Queens of the Stone Age (86 to 63), Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” (80 to 66), Robin Thicke’s album “Blurred Lines” (96 to 70) and Adele’s “21” (94 to 81). Also returning to the Top 100 this week are “The 20/20 Experience” by Justin Timberlake at No.62, Busby Marou’s self-titled first album at No.77, “Cold Fact” for Rodriguez at No.85, “All Day Venus” by Adalita at No.86 and Nine Inch Nails return at No.91 with “Hesitation Marks”.
The fourth album for Mayday Parade enters at No.52 entitled “Monsters in the Closet”, becoming their second album to chart here after their self-titled third album charted in October 2011, reaching No.84. The debut album for Melbourne band Loon Lake entitled “Gloamer” comes in at No.76 and the final new entry of the week is new at No.80, “Haywire” for Pludo, a local electro male duo, one from Melbourne, the other from Sydney.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
