After debuting at No.2 last week Lee Kernaghan sees his new album “Spirit of the Anzacs” climbs up a place to land at No.1 this week, becoming not only the first chart topping album for Lee, but also his first ever album to climb in the second week on the charts.
“Spirit of the Anzacs” becomes the 727th No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2015) and the 578th for ARIA (1983 to 2015), plus the third for the ABC Record label, their first for an artist though, as their two previous chart topping albums were for Triple J compilations ‘Like a Version’ Vol. 9 (Oct 2013) and Vol. 10 (Oct 2014). It’s the third album with ‘Spirit’ in its title after the last one being from Leona Lewis with “Spirit” (Feb 2008) and the first was for The Bee Gees and “Spirits Having Flown” which was at the top at this time in March 1979, whilst it’s the first ever chart appearance for the word ‘Anzac(s)’.
Lee’s album becomes the 180th by an Australian act to hit the top spot, and the first for 2015, as AC/DC with “Rock or Bust” (8-Dec-2014) were the last, and he becomes the 94th Australian act to land an album at No.1, plus the 24th Australian Male artist, whilst it’s the 202nd by a Male Solo artist to reach the top albums spot. Furthermore Lee is the first local country artist to top our charts since Keith Urban with “Fuse” (Sept 2013), and as I mentioned in the first paragraph, Lee’s previous Top 10 albums have all fallen in their second week on the charts, but this new set benefits from a ‘Sunday’ night (Ch. 7) story last weekend and the fact that Australia is currently within the centennial of World War 1 for Gallipoli, although the album does not exclusively focus on that era of the Anzacs.
L.K. swap with K.L. this week, as Kendrick Lamar debuted at the top with “To Pimp a Butterfly” last week on downloads alone he is down a place to No.2 this week, and right behind him are the some of the three Top 10 entries this week. The highest new entry is the debut set for James Bay entitled “Chaos & the Calm”, featuring his former No.4 single “Hold Back the River” (TW-17) and his new track “Let it Go” (TW-30). Also landing high entries with their debut albums are Melbourne singer/songwriter Courtney Barnett at No.4 with “Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit” and Sydney DJ and singer Alison Wonderland with her first set “Run” coming in at No.6.
Ed Sheeran started his national tour in Brisbane on the 21st of March, and that helps his current album “x” to climb back up two places to No.5, while his first album “+” leaps back up thirty places to No.14 this week. After spending the past twenty-one weeks within the top three Taylor Swift drops to her lowest position ever of No.7 with her “1989” album (the set has no Top 20 entries as of this week). Meghan Trainor is back up two places to No.8 with “Title”, Sam Smith is down three spots to No.9 with “In the Lonely Hour” and down one spot to No.10 is the Soundtrack for “Fifty Shades of Grey”, which picks up a Gold (●) sales certification this week.
UP: Hozier jumps back up six places to No.11 with his self-titled album as he starts his national tour here this weekend (28th March in Melbourne), and also touring are local act Vance Joy who see their debut album “Dream Your Life Away” back up eight to No.20. Maroon 5 are up four places to No.21 with “V”, Chet Faker is back up to No.27 with “Built on Glass”, and as their tour for later in the year was announced in the past week, Fleetwood Mac blast back up fifty-four places to land at No.40 with their “Greatest Hits” set, after which we see a Top 100 return at No.41 with the Melinda Schneider and Beccy Cole album “Great Women of Country”.
DOWN: The three albums to drop out from last weeks Top 10 all debuted in their last week, firstly is Troy Cassar-Daley with “Freedom Ride” (4 to 13), followed by Xavier Rudd with “Nanna” (8 to 18) and British India with “Nothing Touches Me” (5 to 23). Damien Leith is down five to No.16 with “Songs from Ireland” and only down six this week to No.24 is Madonna with “Rebel Heart”. Luke Bryan drops eighteen spots to No.34 with “Spring Break… Checkin’ Out”, Kelly Clarkson is down nine to No.39 with “Piece by Piece” and two more of last weeks Top 20 entries drop too, “Madness” for Sleeping with Sirens (13 to 42) and “Strangers to Ourselves” by Modest Mouse (15 to 43), and now that their tour is over Roxette fall fourteen places to No.48 with “The Roxbox”. Falling out from last weeks fifty are Marina & the Diamonds (12 to 51), Bjork (32 to 60), Celtic Thunder (39 to 61), Purity Ring (37 to 69), Lady Antebellum (20 to 76), London Grammar (45 to 84), and exiting the Top 100 from last weeks fifty are Kristian Bush (#31) and Brooke Fraser (#48).
The ninth studio album for former Dire Straits lead singer/guitarist Mark Knopfler enters at No.12 this week to becomes his equal highest charting album here and his thirteenth solo entry overall (9 studio, 1 best of, 3 soundtracks). His new set “Tracker” came in within the top three in the UK this past week and the debut equals his first entry here, the soundtrack to the film “Local Hero” which peaked at No.12 early July, 1983.
New York rapper Arian Arslani goes by the stage name Action Bronson and his third studio album “Mr. Wonderful” debuts at No.26 this week to becomes his first chart entry here. A few places lower at No.30 is the fifth entry and album for English singer/songwriter Laura Marling entitled “Short Move”, plus this becomes her fourth Top 50 album, whilst one spot lower at No.31 is the best of set for the Little River Band entitled “The Definitive Collection” (and also Gold (●) in sales), which is their first entry since July 1995 No.8 album and greatest hits set “The Classic Collection”, and is helped by their recent segments on ‘Sunday’ night program.
US hip-hop artist Earl Sweatshirt sees his second album come in at No.33 entitled “I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside”, which lands ten places lower than his first album “Doris” did back in late August of 2013. The final entry to the Top 50 comes in at No.36 and is the soundtrack for “Furious 7”, with all previous six films’ soundtracks having reached the Top 40 (albeit number 3 ‘Tokyo Drift’ peaked at #77) and the last album from the series ‘Fast & Furious 6’ made it all the way to No.10 in June 2013.
Lower 50: “Rose Ave.” for You+Me returns to the charts at No.56 this week and also back in at No.67 due to their tour announcement is the 1978 classic for Fleetwood Mac “Rumours”, with the longest running album in ARIA Albums chart history, “The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac” at 367th week within the Top 100 is back up to No.70. Ellie Goulding is back up nine to No.74 with “Halcyon Days” and further returning albums come from collections for Paul Kelly (#77) and The Angels (#98) with albums by Adele “21” (#87), Flume (#79), Kendrick Lamar with “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” (#89), Alanis Morissette with “Jagged Little Pill” (#93), Flight Facilities (#96) and “Red” for Taylor Swift (#100) also back in.
The seventh studio album for bluesman Seasick Steve becomes his fourth chart entry in Australia (3 studios and one collection), his new set “Sonic Soul Surfer” comes in at No.64 and instantly becomes his second highest charting album here. The soundtrack for the new animated film “Home” comes in at No.72 containing songs by Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, Kiesza and Charli XCX.
Finally debuting at No.97 is another local artist who is touring the country at the moment, Kylie Minogue with the live album “Kiss Me Once: Live at the SSE Hydro”, which becomes her third live album to chart after “Intimate & Live” (HP-28, Dec 1998) and her last such entry “Showgirl: Homecoming Live” (HP-28, Feb 2007), with her last studio album “Kiss Me Once” sitting at the top our charts 53 weeks ago (24-March-2014).
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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