The third album for Canadian RnB artist The Weeknd becomes his second consecutive No.1 album here, as “Starboy” lands first week on the ARIA Albums chart in the pole position.
“Starboy” becomes the 790th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2016) and the 641st for ARIA (1983 to 2016), the 41st No.1 Album of 2016 plus the 436th to debut at No.1 and the fourth for the Republic (through Universal) record label after two previous chart-toppers in 2016 for Drake (9-May) and Ariana Grande (30-May) and the first was The Weeknd’s first No.1 here “Beauty Behind the Madness” (7-Sept, 2015, TW-83).
As this is second No.1 for The Weeknd, he joins the list for ‘Most No.1 Albums: 2010’s’ alongside eleven other acts who have so far (this decade) logged two weeks at No.1 with two albums, such as Madonna, 5SOS, RuFuS, Sia, Flume, Jimmy Barnes and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. There has never been a “Starboy” title at the top before, but this new No.1 album does become the eleventh with the word ‘Star’ in it’s title to hit the top (“Blackstar” for Bowie in January was the last), and the second with a ‘Boy’ infused into its title, the other being the Elton John June 1975 No.1 “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy”.
Like the other Republic artist Drake, this becomes the second No.1 album for a Solo Canadian Artist this year, and overall this is the 28th chart-topping album for a Solo Canadian Male artist, plus the 220th by a Solo Male act (local or overseas), and of the eleven acts from Canada who have hit the top, nine have now had two or more No.1’s here, the single No.1’s achieved were by Drake and Nickelback.
Last weeks No.1 debut for Metallica in “Hardwired… to Self Destruct” is down one place to No.2 and newly certified Gold (●) in sales, whilst making a move back up two places to No.3 are the two current Top 10 festive season albums, with “Christmas” for Michael Buble and “Friends for Christmas” for John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John rising to No.3 and No.4 respectively.
Last week saw some one-day sales boosts from the ARIA Award winners which were held on the Wednesday night (so Thursday sales were only counted as that is the end of the chart week), and following on from their ARIA Hall of Fame induction, Crowded House played several shows in the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House, one of which was broadcast on the ABC this past week, so after its 154 weeks within the Top 100, the band compilation of hit “The Very Very Best of” lands its first week within the Top 10, by jumping up nine places to land at No.5 this week (it formerly peaked at No.11 upon debut (25-Oct, 2010) just over six years ago) and now becomes the bands eighth Top 10 Album in Australia, plus it is also only the 30th week within the Top 50 for the album too.
Rising back up two places to No.6 is Adele’s “25”, which was spending its second week at the top this time last year, and on hold at No.7 is the Jessica Mauboy TV Soundtrack to “The Secret Daughter”. Bruno Mars’ third album “24k Magic” drops from its No.3 debut last week to No.8 this week and also on hold at No.9 is Robbie Williams’ “The Heavy Entertainment Show”. The second album to debut in the Top 10 this week comes in at No.10 and is the debut set for the native hip-hop duo A.B. Original, made up of Briggs (Adam Briggs) and Trials (from Funkoars), whose first album “Reclaim Australia” lands its first chart week within the ten too.
UP:
* The wide-released film “Trolls” sees its soundtrack jump up fourteen places to a new peak of No.24 this week.
* The three re-packaged Butterfly Effect albums all return to the Top 100 this week, with “Begins Here” back in at No.47, followed by “Imago” at No.49 and then “Final Conversion of Kings” at No.56.
* “Purpose” for Justin Bieber is back up eight spots this week to No.48.
* Rising back nine spots to No.52 are “50 Best Songs” for Play School.
* There’s a twenty-eight place jump for the Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris set “My Dear Companion” to No.53.
* The INXS “Very Best of” is back up thirteen spots to No.63.
* Debuting in the UK Top 10 this week is a return here at No.73 for Andre Rieu and “Falling in Love”, whilst there are also returns for two Crowded House albums, “Woodface” at No.77 and their self-titled debut set at No.96.
* Further returns occur for Barbra Streisand (#78), Hilltop Hoods (#79), Slava Grigoryan (#90), John Farnham’s repacked “Whispering Jack” (#97) and Ariana Grande (#100)
DOWN:
* After debuting at No.2 last week, the fourth Little Mix album “Glory Days” (HP-2) tumbles ten places to No.12 this week, continuing their streak of one-week Top 10 albums, as all of their sets have spent a single week in the Top 10 upon debut, falling out of the ten in their second week, and never returning.
* “You Want it Darker” (HP-2, WI10-4) for Leonard Cohen is down three places this week to No.13.
* “Tradition” (HP-4) by Kerser joins the recent Illy album by spending a single week within the Top 10, but falls harder by falling down thirty-nine spots this week to No.43.
* Ripcord” for Keith Urban is down four this week to No.17 and newly certified ▲Platinum in sales, but it should rise next week as his concerts here start this week.
* Also touring this week will be Coldplay, who see their “Head Full of Dreams” album down four to No.22 and it is spending it’s one year anniversary on our charts too.
* After his visit here and rebound last week, the James Arthur second album “Back from the Edge” is back down again this week, falling twelve to No.28.
* After the rebound over tickets going on sale, the Adele “21” album is back down fifteen spots this week to No.42.
* “Brace” by Birds of Tokyo is down twelve spots to No.45.
* After two weeks within the Top 50, Sting drops out of the fifty, down twenty-four spots to No.54 with “57th & 9th”.
* With a new Prince compilation debuting this week, his older “Very Best of” is down twelve to No.60.
* Hillsong Worship tumble twenty-seven spots to No.66 with “Let There Be Light”.
* Four local acts who tumble this week are Rufus with “Bloom” (44 to 68), Tash Sultana and her EP “Notion” (36 to 69), “Wildflower” for The Avalanches (59 to 85) and “Utopia Defeated” by D.D. Dumbo (41 to 94).
* Also falling are Miranda Lambert with last week debut of “The Weight of These Wings” (26 to 86), A Tribe Called Quest and “We Got it From Here” (46 to 95) and falling out of the Top 100 from last weeks fifty are Sixx:A.M. (#23), DNCE (#32), and Disturbed’s Live album (#43).
CHRISTMAS TITLES:
* Below the two festive albums within the Top 10 there are also seasonal albums by…
* “A Pentatonix Christmas” by Pentatonix is back up ten places to No.24.
* The newly repackaged “Kylie Christmas” as the ‘Snow Queen Edition’ for Kylie Minogue helps it to bullet up fifty-six places to land at No.30.
* Staple seasonal-set of “Merry Christmas” by Mariah Carey flies back up the chart twenty places from last week return to No.31 this week.
* And also returning last week was the previous Pentatonix seasonal album “That’s Christmas to Me”, which is up back up fifteen places to No.37.
* Human Nature climb eleven spots to No.38 with their festive collection “The Christmas Album”.
* In the lower fifty there is a seasonal rise for The Ten Tenors and “Our Christmas Wish” (65 to51), and returns for Neil Diamond with “Acoustic Christmas” (#89) and Andre Rieu with “Best of Christmas” (#93).
NEW ENTRIES:
* #14 (LP#7) A Wonderful Life – Susan Boyle is the first new collection of covers from the singer in two years, and the ten tracks contains renditions of songs by Robbie Williams, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, ABBA, Willie Nelson, Paul McCartney and Madonna, and this becomes her third album to not debut within the Top 10 (her first four all did so).
* #16 (LP#10) Gunslinger – Garth Brooks returns for his tenth solo album, and also first new material in two years, plus by landing this high first week it becomes his seventh Top 20 album in Australia (five studios and two best of) and overall this becomes his twelfth chart entry (nine studios, 2 best of, 1 live album).
* #35 (Live#2) Before the Dawn – Kate Bush sees her second live recording debut within the Top 40 this week, recorded at her 2015 comeback series of shows, her first since her initial tour in 1979. Her first “Live at the Hammersmith Odeon” was released in 1994 but didn’t chart here, and overall this becomes her twelfth albums chart entry (10 albums, one best of, 1 live set).
* #36 (GH#7) 4Ever – Prince, who we lost back in April is the final new entry for this week, with a two disc set of songs and singles, including the previously unreleased song “Moonbeam Levels”, and this becomes his sixth best of set to chart here in Australia.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
