The second solo album for former Powderfinger front-man Bernard Fanning becomes his second solo No.1 album, as “Departures” sails into the top spot on the ARIA Albums chart this week.
“Departures” is the 673rd No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2013) and the 532nd for ARIA (1983 to 2013), plus it becomes the third chart-topping album for the record label Dew Process, who first made it to the top with Bernard’s first solo album “Tea & Sympathy” (Nov 2005) and then with “Sigh No More” for Mumford & Sons (Feb 2010). It’s the first time that the word ‘Departures’ has appeared in a No.1 album, with the nearest wording coming from The Cranberries “To the Faithful Departed” (May 1996). The new No.1 album is also the 327th debut at No.1 and the twelfth consecutive pinnacle entry since February of this year.
The new album by Mr. Fanning becomes the 159th No.1 album by an Australian act, the last being “March Fires” for Birds of Tokyo (March 2013), and “Departures” is the 186th chart-topping album for a solo male artist, the last being Michael Buble from mid April with “To Be Loved”. Bernard Fanning now becomes one of nine Australian Solo Male acts to have landed two or more No.1 albums, he is now tied with Diesel, Guy Sebastian, Shannon Noll and Damien Leith, and as well all know, Bernard has had five previous chart topping albums with his former band Powderfinger.
“The Great Gatsby” soundtrack returns to its former No.2 peak this week, back up one place, swapping with Daft Punk and their “Random Access Memories” album. Debuting at No.4 though is the new entry “13” for Black Sabbath, the bands first new studio album in eighteen years, and their first studio album with their original singer Ozzy Osbourne since “Never Say Die” (HP-78, Dec 78). “13” is the bands nineteenth studio album overall, and by debuting in the Top 10 it becomes the bands sixth Top 10 overall, their last being 1974’s “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” (HP-5).
Bruno Mars is back up three places to No.5 with “Unorthodox Jukebox”, and after debuting at No.1 last week, Queens of the Stone Age drop five places to No.6 with “…Like Clockwork”. Passenger holds at No.7 with “All the Little Lights” and John Fogerty retains his Top 10 status by only slipping a couple of places to No.8 with “Wrote a Song for Everyone”. Disclosure fall down four places to No.4 with their debut album “Settle” and leaping up fifty places to No.10 is the “Fast & Furious 6” soundtrack, now the highest charting album in the series, meaning that this is the first Top 10 album for the fast-paced movies.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: With Pink in the country next month for a couple of months of touring, her “Greatest Hits… So Far” is back up twelve places to No.18, whilst Olly Murs reaches a new peak of No.20 as his “Right Place, Right Time” album is up nine places, and also up nine and to a new peak of No.22 are Imagine Dragons with “Night Visions”. Back in October 2011, the INXS collection “The Very Best” debuted and peaked at No.39, now this week the set jumps up fifteen places to a new peak of No.28, whilst the self-titled album for Paramore is back up thirteen places to No.36. “The Very Very Best of” (HP-11) for Crowded House re-enters at No.39, and back into the Top 50, ahead of their tour here later this year, Fleetwood Mac’s “Greatest Hits” is up twenty-five places to No.41, and back up thirty-six places to No.42 is “#1’s” for Michael Jackson (now 6x ▲).
DOWN DOWN: City and Colour spent only a week inside the Top 10 with “The Hurry and the Harm”, now down nine places to No.13, with the other top-ten-evacuees being “Home” for Rudimental (HP-2, five weeks inside Top 10) which falls to No.15, and down seven places to No.17 is Ricky Martin with his “Greatest Hits” (HP-2, 6 broken weeks). The National fall nine places to No.25 with “Trouble Will Find Me” (HP-2), Lee Kernaghan’s tour edition of “Beautiful Noise” is back down sixteen places to No.33, whilst “DNA” for Little Mix falls twenty-three places to No.44. “A” for Agnetha Faltzskog tumbles twenty-six places to No.48, “Super Collider” by Megadeth is down twenty-two places to No.50, “Golden” by Lady Antebellum is down twenty-seven places to No.51, but Sleeping with Sirens see their first chart entry “Feel” tumble thirty-eight places to No.52. Alice in Chains see their “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” album fall thirty-nine places to No.59, whilst Laura Marling plummets thirty-eight spots to No.78 with “Once I Was an Eagle”. Gabrielle Aplin’s debut set “English Rain” falls forty-three places to No.99, but the worst tumble of the week is the Baby Animals and “This is Not the End”, which debuted at No.19 last week and leaves the Top 100 this week.
The Scottish duo called Boards of Canada land their first ARIA Albums chart entry this week with their fourth album entitled “Tomorrow’s Harvest” at No.24, whilst a few places lower at No.26 is the eight studio album for Jimmy Eat World entitled “Damage”. Their previous album “Invented” (HP-21, Oct 2010) became their highest charting album to date, and this is their fourth Top 30 album after “Futures” (HP-27, Oct 2004) and “Chase This Light” (HP-30, Oct 2007). The final new entry for the Top 50 comes in at No.32 and is the debut solo album for Wolfmother lead singer Andrew Stockdale, entitled “Keep Moving”.
Lower 50: With Lana Del Rey recently landing her first Top 10 single, her album “Born to Die” is back up twelve places to No.61, with Pitbull’s “Global Warming” (TW-72) and “Experience Hendrix” (TW-75) both picking up a Gold (●) sales certifications. Returning albums this week include The Foo Fighters “Greatest Hits” (#71), Radiohead’s “The Best of” (#88), Blink 182’s “Greatest Hits” (#91),“Come Home to Mama” (HP-77) for Martha Wainwright (#94) helped by her recent visit here, “North” for Matchbox 20 (#95) and “Wolf” for Tyler, The Creator (#97).
New entries in the lower fifty include the tenth studio album for the Goo Goo Dolls entitled “Magnetic”, debuting at No.65 and becoming their third album to chart here after their sixth “Dizzy Up the Girl” (HP-17, 1998) and seventh “Gutterflower” (HP-23, May 2002). The debut album “Howlin’” for Jagwar Ma enters at No.74, and the second album for English rock band Beady Eye debuts at No.81 entitled “BE”. Their March 2011 debut album “Different Gear, Still Speeding” debuted and peaked at No.18.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
