Lee Kernaghan is spending his fourth straight week at the top of the ARIA Albums chart this week with “Spirit of the ANZACS”, becoming the equal second longest running album for 2015 alongside the ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ soundtrack and just behind “1989” for Taylor Swift which has so far notched up five weeks at the top for this year.
Debuting at No.2 is the third album for Liverpool, England act The Wombats entitled “Glitterbug”, which matches the entry and peak position of their last album “This Modern Glitch” (2-May-2011), whilst their first album “A Guide to Loss, Love and Desperation” (entry Jan 2008) peaked at No.35 in early April of 2008. This new album has so far seen two tracks chart, with the stand-alone entry “Your Body is a Weapon” (HP-86, late Nov 2013) included on this album along with the recent track “Greek Tragedy” (HP-61, March 2015).
The soundtrack for ‘Furious 7’ holds at its No.3 peak again this week, whilst down two places to No.4 is Ed Sheeran with his “x” album. Three older albums climb back up within the Top 10, firstly “In the Lonely Hour” by Sam Smith (8 to 5), “1989” for Taylor Swift (7 to 6) and Meghan Trainor with “Title” (9 to 7). Down three places to No.8 is the self-titled album for Hozier with former No.1 for Kendrick Lamar “To Pimp a Butterfly” back up a spot to No.9 and returning to the ten at No.10 is James Bay with “Chaos and The Calm”, up two places this week.
UP: After falling out of the Top 10 last week, Van Morrison is back up to No.15 with “Duets: Re-Working the Catalogue”, and with AC/DC announced their November tour of Australia this week, which helps their former No.1 album “Rock or Bust” (one week on 8-Dec-2014) blasts back into the Top 100 at No.17 this week (it fell out two weeks ago). “The Essential” for Michael Jackson is back up six places to No.30 and climbing to a new peak of No.31 is Neil Diamond with “The Best of”.
DOWN: The albums to dropout from last weeks Top 10 include the highest new entry of last week, All Time High with “Future Hearts” (HP-4) which is down seven places to No.11, and after one week back within the Top 10, Ed Sheeran’s first album “+” is drops down fourteen places to No.20. Sufjan Stevens sees his No.11 debut from last week “Carrie & Lowell” drop down fourteen places this week to No.25 and after three weeks on the charts, The Prodigy drop down sixteen places to No.37 with “The Day is My Enemy”. “AM” for The Arctic Monkeys blasted back into the Top 20 last week and this week if falls back down twenty-four spots to No.39. The biggest drop from last weeks Top 50 is Kelly Clarkson with “Piece by Piece” (46 to 87) and leaving the Top 100 from last weeks fifty are Architects (#23), Violent Soho (#30), Sheppard (#34), Kendrick Lamar (#44) and Paolo Nutini (#45).
Bette Midler lands at No.12 with her fourteenth studio album and her first entry here in exactly ten years with her covers album of 1960’s girl band songs entitled “It’s the Girls” which becomes her 21st albums chart entry here (eleven studio, four best of, three live and three soundtracks). “It’s the Girls” was originally released in early November overseas reaching No.3 in the USA and No.6 in the UK, and her last entry here was “Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook” (HP-28, entered 18-April and peaked in early May of 2005).
The fourth studio album from US rapper and producer Tyler, The Creator comes in at No.13 entitled “Cherry Bomb”, and it becomes his highest charting album here, as his two previous entries were “Goblin” (HP-66, May 2011) and “Wolf” (HP-19, April 2013). Further Top 20 debuts come via Shawn Mendes with his debut album “Handwritten” at No.18 and one place lower at No.19 is Beccy Cole with “Sweet Rebecca”, which is her eight chart entry (six studio, one live and one collaboration album) and also her highest placed solo chart effort, as she reached No.9 with Melinda Schneider on the set “Great Women of Country” (Nov 2014).
1970’s UK band Smokie debut at No.38 with their seventh best of collection here, this new one entitled “Gold: Smokie Greatest Hits (40th Anniversary Edition)”, and the act has so far placed two of the compilations in the Top 10, “All the Best” (HP-2, Aug 1981) and “Greatest Hits” (HP-9, late May 1992), with these two best of sets being the bands only Top 10 albums here in Australia and they last charted in Nov 2010 with another collection “Living Next Door to Alice: The Best of” (HP-36).
Former Seekers lead singer Judith Durham sees her eighteenth solo album come in at No.44 this week entitled “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”, and this becomes her fifth album to chart in Australia, with her last entry being “The Platinum Album” (HP-36, July 2013), and the final entry to the fifty is new at No.46, Dwight Yoakam with his fifteenth studio album entitled “Second Hand Heart”. This is the same peak and position that his 14th set “3 Pears” achieved back in October 2013 and this new entry becomes his seventh Top 100 albums chart entry, fourth for ARIA and third album to make it into the Top 50.
Lower 50: Back up twelve to No.53 is Fleetwood Mac’s “Greatest Hits” and also up twelve is “Like a Version Vol.10” to No.54. Tame Impala jumps twelve places to No.66 with “Lonerism” and the album is now certified ▲Platinum in sales. Alt-J announced this week a May tour here, and this helps their recent album “This is All Yours” back up seventeen places to No.71 and jumping up sixteen to No.76 and newly crowned ▲Platinum in sales are Nickelback with “No Fixed Address”, whilst back up seventeen to No.77 is Nirvana and “Nevermind”. The Script are back in at No.67 with “No Sound without Silence”, the “Home” soundtrack returns at No.91, whilst best of sets for Tracy Chapman (#93), Billy Joel (#97) and Bob Marley & the Wailers (#98) also return this week.
US rock band Halestorm see their third studio album “Into the Wild Life” become their first chart entry here this week, and further new entries in the lower fifty come from Andre Rieu with “Magic of the Violin” at No.74 (getting close to Mothers Day, so this will fly over the next few weeks), and the final new entry at #100 is from local duo Winterbourne with their first albums chart entry “All But the Sun”, the guys are currently touring the country.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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