The sixth studio album and fifth in his mathematics series, this week Ed Sheeran lands at #1 with ” – (subtract)”.
” – (subtract)” (Asylum UK/Atlantic) becomes the 976th #1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2023), the 827th for ARIA (1983 to 2023), the 607th to debut at #1, the 14th chart-topping album of 2023 and now the seventh for the record label Asylum and the 28th for Atlantic (and their third for this year), while it’s also the #1 selling Vinyl this week and has debuted at the top in England, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Sweden (so far).
Ed Sheeran saw his first #1 Album in Australia with his debut set “+ (positive)” which climbed to the top for a single week on August 13th, 2012, after which his next five albums debuted at #1. “x (multiply)” entered at the top on June 30th, 2014 accumulating eight weeks at #1 until its last appearance on June 29th, 2015. His longest running #1 came with his third entry “÷ (divide)” which began an initial eight week reign from March 13th, 2017, eventually racking up 25 weeks at the top, finishing up its summit-run on April 9th, 2018, while this week in 2017 the album was also sitting at the top.
For Ed’s fourth release he went with a duets album of work he had done with people over the years, calling it “No.6 Collaborations Project”, which started it’s chart-life at the top on July 22nd 2019 for four weeks, with a further fifth and final stay on August 26th of that same year. His last released album was the single-week #1 ” = (equals)” which debuted at the top on Nov. 8th, 2021, and now his sixth #1 this week in ” – (subtract)” brings his tally of #1 debuts to now five in a row, tying with Silverchair for the most #1 debuts, but he does surpass them for having now landed his sixth #1 album, tying Ed in equal eighth place for ‘Most No.1 Albums’ alongside Michael Jackson, Hilltop Hoods, AC/DC and Midnight Oil.
Ed Sheeran’s overall tally of ‘Weeks at #1’ now increases to 43 weeks, which keeps him stable at No.7 on the listing for ‘Accumulated Weeks at #1 (1965 to 2023)’, now one-week shy of tying with Pink (44 weeks from 7 #1’s). Ed is also now only the second English Solo Artist to score two #1 Albums during this decade, the other being Harry Styles, while Ed is now also four weeks away from tying with Adele’s 47 overall weeks, as she is the lead Solo English act with the most weeks at the top, only outdone by another UK act in The Beatles (126 weeks).
This is the first time that the word ‘subtract’ or even just a dash ” – ” has been the #1 Album title, and Ed’s new chart-topping set becomes the 174th #1 Album by an English Act (solo male or female, duo or group) {and the third for 2023 after Harry Styles and Sam Smith}, while for Solo Male Artists this is now the 280th #1 set and the fourth for this year, with Morgan Wallen joining the two aforementioned acts also. Ed’s new ” – ” album has also landed three Top 50 entries this week in the lead single “Eyes Closed” (21 to #7), a debut at #24 for “Curtains” and the album’s second issued track “Boat” (362 to #48).
The only Album holding within the Top 10 this week is at #2 for Morgan Wallen with “One Thing at a Time”, which remains at No.1 in The U.S.A. (9th week) and Canada (8th week), plus he retains the No.1 Singles spot in Australia and The U.S.A. for a fifth week with “Last Night”. This is followed by the debut album for local act Pacific Avenue called “Flowers”, entering at #3 first week (#4 Vinyl) and becoming the Aussie alt-rock band’s first ever chart entry.
This week we see no acts with two or more albums within the Top 10, as Taylor Swift only has her “Midnights” set residing in the ten, down one spot to #4 (#8 Vinyl), while The Weeknd drops two spots to #6 with “The Highlights”, with three place slips for “SOS” by SZA, “Harry’s House” by Harry Styles (#18 Vinyl) and “Gettin’ Old” by Luke Combs to #8, #9 and #10 respectively.
Two further albums debut within the Top 10 this week, firstly at #5 is the twelfth studio album for The Smashing Pumpkins called “ATUM: A Rock Opera in Three Acts” (#3 Vinyl), which had the first two parts of the three-disc-set issued prior, with ‘Act One’ out November 2022 and ‘Act Two’ out January 2023. This new entry becomes their eighth Top 10 Albums in Australia, now having secured a Top 10 berth in the past four decades (90’s to 2020’s), with their last placement this high being “Oceania” (HP-8, July 2012).
The final Top 10 entry and second for a local act arrives at #7 this week, “Acres” for country singer Brad Cox, becoming his first Top 10 placement and second chart entry after his second album “My Mind’s Projection” debuted and peaked at No.12 in November 2020, while the new set also lands at #6 on the Vinyl Sales Chart this week.
TOP 20:
Two of the four Top 10 dropouts land within the Top 20, with “Starboy” (HP-1, WI10-15) for The Weeknd down four places to #12 and “1989” by Taylor Swift (HP-1×9, WI10-11) dipping one spot to #11, with Ms. Swift also seeing one-place rises for both “Lover” (#14 Vinyl) and “Reputation” (#17 Vinyl) to #13 and #14 respectively.
Thanks to a #2 placement on the Vinyl Chart this week, the most recent release for Joji called “Smithereens” blasts back into the chart #401 to #16, while the new Ed Sheeran #1 entry pulls back up his third and fifth releases ” ÷ (divide)” (23 to #17) and ” = (equals)” (39 to #19), which is also the #13 selling Vinyl this week too.
TOP 30:
The fifth and sixth Top 50 entries for Taylor Swift see her “folklore” set remain on hold at #21 this week, while her 2010 set “Speak Now” rebounds 78 to #30, with the album last sitting this high on the charts back in March of 2012, while the reason for the rise back up is that she just announced that her ‘Taylor’s Version’ of “Speak Now” will be issued on July 7th.
Pink’s “Trustfall” album rebounds fifteen places this week to land back up at #22, with drops occurring for “Curtain Call: The Hits” by Eminem (18 to #24), “Dangerous” by Morgan Wallen (19 to #25), “SOUR” by Olivia Rodrigo (22 to #26) and Maroon 5’s “Singles Collection (24 to #28).
TOP 40:
Lewis Capaldi will be issuing his second album next week (May 19th) called “Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent”, while this week his debut album “Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent” is down six places to #31, but more so it’s celebrating its fourth chart-year this week at 208 weeks, with the album never having left the Top 100 since it debuted May 27th, 2019.
The only rising album within the Top 40 this week is Taylor Swift and “Red (TsV)”, back up four places to #37, while dropping down are “72 Seasons” for Metallica (13 to #32), “What You See…” by Luke Combs (27 to #34), “The Essential” Foo Fighters (28 to #38) and “After Hours” by The Weeknd (31 to #40), while Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” falls six to #39, it’s lowest ever chart position.
TOP 50:
Falling into the Top 50 are Billie Eilish’s “Sleep…” set (32 to #41), “AM” by Arctic Monkeys (30 to #42), “Teenage Dream” for Katy Perry (34 to #43), which is racking up 364 weeks within the Top 100, equivalent to 7 years of charting. Last week’s #11 debut for Jack Harlow and his third set “Jackman” plummets thirty-five places to #46 this week, while Taylor’s eighth and final Top 50 entry is a small four-place dip to #47 for “evermore”, with the last big fall going to Tiësto and his “DRIVE” album, down twelve to #50. Last week’s #1 debut for Peach PRC and her EP “Manic Dream Pixie” along with The National and “First Two Pages of Frankenstein” both depart the Top 50 this week from last week’s #1 and #9 positions.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #23 (S/tk) – Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol.3 – Movie Soundtrack (Hollywood) is taken from the recently released third major Marvel film in the Guardians of the Galaxy series, with the vinyl edition of this new set landing at #9 on this week’s vinyl chart. Vol.1 began it’s chart life on August 11th, 2014, climbing to #2 in its third week (Aug 25th), with that first set this weeks #16 selling vinyl, while Vol.2 started May 1st, 2017, again hitting #2 in its third week of charting on May 15th, plus it too land a Top 20 Vinyl berth this week at #20. Keeping with the classic tunes that the two previous editions contained, this new set has tracks from Heart, Rainbow, Earth, Wind & Fire, Alice Cooper, Bruce Springsteen and Redbone, while more recent acts also on this new album are Radiohead, Spacehog, The Flaming Lips, Faith No More, X, The The, Beastie Boys and Florence + the Machine.
* #29 (Comp#10) – Just the Two of Us: The Duets Collection (Vol.1) – Olivia Newton-John (Primary Wave Music) is a seventeen track duets album of previously issued and new recorded tracks from the passed Australian singer. Her last recording for the duet “Jolene” alongside Dolly Parton makes the cut, as too does older issued duets with Cliff Richard, Delta Goodrem and Mariah Carey, while she also teams with her daughter Chloe, ex-Grease star John Travolta, Paul Anka, Barry Gibb, Vanessa Amorosi, Tina Arena, Richard Marx and Michael McDonald among them.
HP = Highest Position
LW = Last Week
WI10 – Weeks in Top 10
*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 5th to the 11th of May 2023
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
