Queens of the Stone Age take their sixth set and first album in six years straight to the top of the ARIA Albums chart this week, as “…Like Clockwork” debuts at No.1, becoming their first chart topping album here, and their fourth Top 10 entry overall.
Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age photo by Ros O'Gorman
“…Like Clockwork” becomes the 672nd No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2013) and the 531st for ARIA (1983 to 2013), whilst it also becomes the 326th album to debut at No.1 and the eleventh consecutive top-spot entrant since The Foals did it back in February. It’s also the first No.1 in Australia for Matador Records, which had previously only been as high as No.21 in October 2004 with the Interpol album “Antics”. It’s also the first time that the word ‘Clockwork’ has appeared in a No.1 album, but the third ‘Like’ after INXS’ “Listen Like Thieves” (Oct 85) and the Matchbox 20 album “Yourself or Someone Like You” (May 98).
Queens of the Stone Age become the 136th American act to top the Australian Album charts, with the 244th American performed album, plus they’re also the 62nd American Group to reach the chart summit here, with the last new American Group to reach the top being Foster the People back in February 2012, Paramore being the last USA group in April of this year.
Daft Punk drop back to No.2 with “Random Access Memories” after two weeks at No.1, and although it picked up a large amount of sales this past week, “The Great Gatsby” soundtrack is back down one spot to No.3. Passenger is down a place to No.7 with “All the Lights”, whilst Bruno Mars falls five places to No.8 with his “Unorthodox Jukebox”. Rudimental drop back four places to No.9 with “Home” and returning to the Top 10 at No.10 is the “Greatest Hits” album for Ricky Martin.
There are three more Top 10 debuts this week, with Canada’s City & Colour entering at No.4 with their fourth album “The Hurry and the Harm”, becoming their third album to chart here and second Top 10, as their June 2011 third album “Little Hell” debuted and peaked at No.2, whilst previously they had charted in February of 2008 with their second set “Bring Me Your Love” (HP-31).
The British duo of Guy and Howard Lawrence are better known as Disclosure, and their debut album enters at No.5 this week, having landed two chart entries so far from the album with “Latch: (HP-49) and “White Noise” (HP-68). And right behind at No.6 is John Fogerty with “Wrote a Song for Everyone”, a collection of his songs co-performed by John alongside The Foo Fighters, Keith Urban, Zac Brown Band, Kid Rock, Bob Seger, Brad Paisley, Alan Jackson and Jennifer Hudson, plus a couple of new songs by John too. This becomes his third solo Top 10 album in Australia, as he climbed to No.8 in August 1997 with “Blue Moon Swamp”, and prior hit No.4 in March 1985 with “Centerfield”.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: “DNA” (HP-10) for Little Mix blasts back up thirty four places to No.21, and thanks to tickets going on sale for their upcoming tour, “The Very Best of The Eagles” (HP-2) jumps up thirty-six places to No.25. Olly Murs landed his third Top 20 hit here this week, and his album “Right Place Right Time” (HP-25) is back up eleven spots to No.29, whilst Pink is up twelve places to No.30 with her “Greatest Hits…So Far”. The Black Keys’ “El Camino” is back up twenty-two places to No.37 and the soundtrack to the documentary “Searching for Sugar Man” by Rodriguez springs back up thirty-four places to No.38. “The Very Best” for INXS is back up forty-six places to No.43 and also returning to the Top 50 is Frank Ocean with “Channel Orange” (79 to 46) and “Rumours” by Fleetwood Mac (84 to 48).
DOWN DOWN: After seven weeks inside the Top 10 (five at No.1) Michael Buble is down four places to No.11 with “To Be Loved”, whilst another former chart topping album in the form of “The Truth About Love” by Pink leaves the Top 10 for the first time in its thirty-eight weeks within the Top 100, down four places to No.12. The National fall twelve places to No.16 with “Trouble Will Find Me” and The Cat Empire are down nine places to No.18 with “Steal the Light” both after two weeks inside the Top 10, whilst Alice in Chains drop ten places to No.20 after scoring the highest new entry last week with “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” (HP-10).
“A” for Agnetha and “Golden” for Lady Antebellum are both down nine places to No.22 and No.24 respectively, but Rod Stewart’s “Time” tumbles twenty-two places to No.36. Laura Marling’s No.12 debut for “Once I Was an Eagle” is down twenty-eight places to No.40 this week, and Vampire Weekend tumble nineteen places to No.42 with “Modern Vampires of the City”. The self-titled album for Paramore plummets twenty-two places to No.49 whilst 30 Seconds to Mars see their “Love Lust Faith + Dreams” down thirty places to No.50. Airbourne tumble sixty places to No.97 with “Black Dog Barking” and leaving from last weeks Top 50 are Jamie Cullum with “Momentum” (#34) and falling out from No.41 is the “Eurovision Song Contest – Malmo 2013” compilation.
US post-hardcore band Sleeping with Sirens debut at No.14 with their third album “Feel”, becoming their first to chart here in Australia, whilst coming in at No.19 are the Baby Animals and “This is Not the End”. This is their fourth album to chart, as they first charted in September 1991 with their self-titled album, which made it to No.1 from February 1992 for six weeks, whilst their follow-up “Shaved & Dangerous” debuted and peaked at No.2 in September 1993. They have charted once more in-between then and now, as in January 2008 they reached No.78 with “il Grande Silenzio”.
Megadeth see their fourteenth album “Super Collider” enter at No.28 this week, becoming their eleventh album to chart here (10 studio and 1 live) and eighth Top 50 peak. They first charted here with their fourth album “Rust in Peace” (HP-47) in 1990 and were last on the charts in November 2011 with “Th1rt3een” which debuted and peaked at No.13. And the final Top 50 entry of the week is the debut album for Perth artist Jonny Taylor, who enters at No.45 with “Something to Say”.
Lower 50: Guy Sebastian’s “Armageddon” jumps back up seventeen places to No.51, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Greatest Hits” is back up twenty-nine places to No.59, whilst the soundtrack for “Sound City – Real to Reel” jumps up thirty-five spots to No.64. There are a bunch of collections returning to the Top 100 too for Neil Young (#65), Fleetwood Mac (#66), Bruce Springsteen (#75), Michael Jackson’s “#1’s” (#78), Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Essential” (#79) and then there are re-entries from San Cisco (#81) David Bowie with “The Next Day” (#90), “Temper Temper” for Bullet for My Valentine (#96) and Delta Goodrem’s “Child of the Universe” (#100).
New Zealand drum and bass band Shapeshifter see their fifth album “Delta” debut at No.58 this week becoming their first chart entry in Australia, whilst another Divinyls “Greatest Hits” set debuts at No.62. Dutch jazz/pop artist Caro Emerald takes her second album “The Shocking Miss Emerald” into out charts at No.69 becoming her first chart entry here, and “Experience Hendrix: The Best of” for Jimi Hendrix enters at No.70.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
