The last No.1 Album for 2022 is the Taylor Swift set “Midnights”, logging a seventh overall week in Australia.
“Midnights” retook the top spot last week, and retains it again for this week (as well at the No.1 vinyl sales spot), while the set has also reclaimed the No.1 slot in England this week (third overall week), plus it sits at No.2 in New Zealand, The U.S.A. and Canada and is at No.3 in Ireland. The album’s seventh week at No.1 during 2022 makes it now the second longest run for this calendar year after the eight weeks racked up by “Harry’s House” for Harry Styles in May-June (3 weeks), July-Aug (4 weeks) and a further week at the end of August (22nd, 1 week).
Taylor Swift has now amassed 33 overall weeks at No.1 in Australia with her ten chart-topping albums, moving her up the listing for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums (1965 to 2022)’ from 13th to now outright 11th, just ahead of a tie at No.12 for Michael Bublé and Delta Goodrem (both 33 weeks from 5 #1’s), while her next mark is Jimmy Barnes (37 weeks from 15 #1’s). For this decade Taylor is now up to 17 weeks at No.1 (from 5 LP’s) and with “Midnights” logging a 7th stay at No.1 it’s now one of 20 albums to have logged seven weeks at the top in Australia, the last by a female artist being Adele with “30” from this time last year.
After debuting at No.2 last week the second album for U.S. female rapper SZA called “SOS” is on hold this week, while it also matches the new No.2 peak over on the singles chart for the album’s second single “Kill Bill”, with the “SOS” album debuting at No.1 in both The U.S.A. and Canada this past week, while it holds the top spot in New Zealand for a second week. The highest of three Top 10 seasonal albums is the Michael Bublé perennial “Christmas”, which rises three to land at No.3, while also up three spots is the Andrea, Matteo and Virginia Bocelli album “A Family Christmas” to berth at No.6, while returning to the Top 10 and up four spots to No.8 is the recent No.1 set “Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train” (No.10 vinyl), which this past week saw the December 21st mention in it’s song “How to Make Gravy”, plus Paul’s been playing shows recently including appearing at the Archie Roach memorial last weekend, with the album now logging an eighth overall week within the Top 10.
Harry Styles’ “Harry’s House” continues for a 31st week within the Top 10 by rising back up one spot to No.4 (No.3 vinyl), while there are also three best of collections within the Top 10 this week, all rising; “The Highlights” for The Weeknd (7 to No.5), “The Essential” for Foo Fighters (10 to No.7; No.14 vinyl) and regaining a Top 10 spot is Elton John’s “Diamonds” (11 to No.9), with his tour here starting in just over two weeks time. “AM” for The Arctic Monkeys rises eight place to land at No.10, seeing it’s first Top 10 entry this decade, as it was last within the Top 10 on June 16th, 2014, while it almost came close at the start of 2022 when it was at No.12 (Jan. 3rd), now scoring an eighth week within the Top 10 thanks to its position at No.2 on this week’s vinyl sales chart.
XMAS LPs:
Like the Top 10 there are also three further seasonal-sets within the rest of the Top 50, with the Jimmy Barnes “Blue Christmas” (HP-1, WI10-3) album dropping seven places to No.11, while rising back up is Mariah Carey’s “Merry Christmas”, thanks to the albums single “All I Want for Christmas is You” holding the No.1 single spot for a second week, pulling the album up eight spots to No.17. Making a return to the Top 100 at a new peak of No.42 (LW-172) is the Vika & Linda album “Gee Whiz, it’s Christmas”, which previously debuted and peaked at No.46 on November 14th, but since the girls have been making lots of appearances and performances from the album, plus it being Christmas week, the set has flown back up the chart.
UP:
“Rumours” for Fleetwood Mac continues to reign within the Top 20, back up one place this week to No.13 (No.6 vinyl), while both Eminem collections rise back up; his “Curtain Call: The Hits” is up one to No.14 while his “Curtain Call 2” jumps six spots to No.27.
All three of Harry Styles’ albums are back up this week, with his recent three-year-running “Fine Line” album jumping seven spots to No.15 (No.12 vinyl), while his self-titled debut set jumps thirteen places to land at No.35 (No.8 vinyl), ,which has racked up now 208 weeks within the Top 100 (equivalent to four years on the chart). Another such feat occurs for the Nirvana album “Nevermind”, which also rises thirteen places landing at No.21 (No.5 vinyl), which has accrued 364 weeks within the Top 100 (equal to seven years of charting). Luke Combs logs half-a-year (26 weeks) with his latest set “Growin’ Up”, which along with his second set “What You See…” are both up three spots to No.18 and No.24 respectively.
Three classic acts who rebound this week are Bruce Springsteen with his covers album “Only the Strong Survive”, up ten places to No.19, followed by a twenty-five spot jump to No.20 for The Seeker’s latest collection “Carry Me (60th Anniversary Celebration)”, while the Queen doco’s screened the past week have helped their “Greatest Hits” set to fly back up thirty-nine spots this week to land at No.25 (No.4 vinyl).
Taylor Swift has four albums back-to-back this week between No.30 and No.33, two of which drop, and the two that rise are “folklore” (36 to No.31) and “Red (TsV)” (37 to No.33), followed by a six place rebound to No.36 for the Guns N’ Roses set “Appetite for Destruction”. Arctic Monkeys also see their latest studio album “The Car” drive back up the chart twenty-five places to park at No.43 (No.16 vinyl), with “Damn.” for Kendrick Lamar back up four to No.45 (No.19 vinyl). Also returning to the Top 50 are “Stranger Things Season 4” (last week Top 100 returned at No.51 to this week No.44), “Born to Die” for Lana Del Rey (61 to No.46; No.7 vinyl), “Surrender” by Rufus du Sol (58 to No.47), the No.1 Album from this week last year for Adele and “30” (75 to No.48), “All for You-The Best of” for Cold Chisel (56 to No.49) and one more Taylor rise for her “evermore” album (57 to No.50).
DOWN:
After two weeks of perching at No.3 the Australian Frog Calls album Songs of Disappearance leaves the Top 50 this week, with the two other Top 10 dropouts being the aforementioned Jimmy Barnes set (4 to No.11) and the third is “Heroes & Villains” for Metro Boomin’ (HP-5, WI10-2).
Luke Combs’ debut set “This One’s for You” is back down three places to No.23, while the Drake and 21 Savage collaboration “Her Loss” drops eleven spots to No.28. The two dipping Taylor Albums in her four-spot residency between No.30 and No.33 are “Lover” (26 to No.30) and “1989” (30 to No.32), followed by a fifteen place slide to No.34 for Kendrick Lamar’s latest set “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers”.
Billie Eilish falls ten places to No.38 with her first set “When We All Fall Asleep…”, while her second “Happier Than Ever” leaves the Top 50 for the first time in its 73 week chart run. Morgan Wallen and his “Dangerous: The Double Album” falls back down eight places to No.40, while down one spot to No.41 is the Spacey Jane set “Here Comes Everybody”, which is also racking up its half-a-year on the chart (26 weeks). Another album which leaves the Top 50 for the first time in it’s chart-career is the Ed Sheeran set “÷ (divide)”, which was at No.43 for the past two weeks, while this week it slips into the lower fifty after 302 weeks within the Top 50 (debuted March 20th, 2017).
NO NEW ENTRIES.
HP = Highest Position
LW = Last Week
WI10 – Weeks in Top 10
*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 16th to the 22nd of December 2022.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
Stay updated with your free Noise11.com daily music news email alert. Subscribe to Noise11 Music News here
Be the first to see NOISE.com’s newest interviews and special features on YOUTUBE and updated regularly. See things first SUBSCRIBE here: Noise11 on YouTube SUBSCRIBE
Follow Noise11 on Social Media
You’ll discover music news first following Noise11 on Twitter
Comment on the news of the day, join Noise11 on Facebook
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
