A year ago we had four soundtracks within the Top 10, and this week there are three with ‘The Greatest Showman’ set for Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron and Zendaya holding for a seventh straight week at the summit of the ARIA Albums Chart, plus its sixth week in England and second in N.Z.
“The Greatest Showman” soundtrack is the longest running soundtrack at No.1 during this decade and now the second longest at the top for this century behind the eleven week running 2001 set “Moulin Rouge”, which starred Hugh’s former ‘Australia’ co-star Nicole Kidman. It is also the longest continual run at the top since the third Ed Sheeran album “÷ (Divide)” debuted at the top on the 13th of March, 2017 and stayed at No.1 initially for eight weeks, that album is on hold at No.3 again this week too.
In the second week of February 2017 there were four soundtracks within the Top 10 in “Trolls” (#1, TW-46), “Moana” (#3, TW-18), “Sing” (#4) and “La La Land” (#9) and now this week there are three within the Top 5, as the Kendrick Lamar sung and produced set for the Marvel film ‘Black Panther’ debuts at No.2 becoming his fourth Top 3 album in Australia, with tracks from the album sitting at No.5, No.12 and No.66 this week, plus guest artists on the album include Khalid, 2 Chainz, The Weeknd, SZA, Anderson.Paak and Travis Scott amongst the 14 tracks. The third soundtrack within the Top 5 is the third from the ’50 Shades’ franchise in ‘Fifty Shades Freed’, which is new at No.4, with this week in 2015 and 2017 seeing the previous editions at No.1 (where they debuted) for “Fifty Shades of Grey” (HP-1×4, Feb 2015) and “Fifty Shades Darker” (HP-1×1, Feb 2017, returns at No.84 this week too), with lead single from the album in “For You” by Liam Payne and Rita Ora leaping to No.18 (from No.45) and other singers on the album being Julia Michaels, Sia, Jessie J., Ellie Goulding, Hailee Steinfeld, Dua Lipa and Miike Snow.
Two further albums debut within the Top 10 this week with the new UK No.3 album and No.5 here “Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life” by The Wombats, the bands fourth studio album and now third Top 10 in Australia, as they previously hit No.2 with their second and third albums “This Modern Glitch” (May 2011) and “Glitterbug” (April 2015) respectively. Coming in at No.6 is the second album for Australian duo Hockey Dad with “Blended Inn” which becomes their first Top 10 album and far surpasses the No.55 peak that their debut set “Boronia” achieved back in August of 2016.
Last weeks No.2 debut for Justin Timberlake and fifth studio album “Man of the Woods” drops down five places to No.7 while the Post Malone set “Stoney” which peaked at No.5 last week slides down three spots to No.8, followed by Pink and her “Beautiful Trauma” set also down three to No.9 and the Eminem album “Revival” is down two to No.10 for his ninth week within the Top 10.
UP:
* With Ed Sheeran celebrating his 28th birthday this weekend, and with him about to tour here from March 7th his first two albums are back up this week with “x (Multiply)” rising three spots to No.11 and his first album “+ (Positive)” rises two places to No.22.
* The Eminem collection “Curtain Call: The Hits” is back up four to No.30 and his “Eminem Show” zooms up twenty-six to No.60, with other rising best of’s being for Queen (GH, 58 to 54 and Platinum Collection 95 to 88), The Killers (81 to 75), Daryl Braithwaite (93 to 65) and Cat Stevens (Remember from 89 to 80).
* The new Top 10 single for Dua Lipa helps her self-titled set to rise up six to No.33.
* Celtic Woman toured here recently, which helps their set “Voices of an Angel” to fly up twenty-three spots to a new peak of No.34.
* The highest re-entry this week is for the Paramore album “After Laughter” at No.52, with further returns being “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” for Kendrick Lamar at No.86, The Weeknd with “Beauty Behind the Mask” (#89), recent tourist here Roger Waters sees his band Pink Floyd and their 1973 album “Dark Side of the Moon” return at No.90, followed by “Dangerous Woman” for Ariana Grande (#97).
* The Hilltop Hoods rise seven spots to No.65 with their “Walking…Drinking…Restrung” album.
* After tumbling from No.40 to No.90 last week the “Molly” TV Soundtrack is back up twenty-three places to No.67 on it’s three year anniversary of it’s claim on the No.1 spot in Australia.
* Last weeks re-entry for the Zara Larsson set “So Good” is up one spot to No.98 and newly certified Gold (●) in sales.
DOWN:
* With four albums debuting within the Top 10, those dropping out are “Reputation” (HP-1×1, WI10-13) for Taylor Swift down three to No.12 for its first week outside of the ten, followed by Gang of Youths with “Go Farther in Lightness” (HP-1×1, WI10-8a, newly Gold (●)) at its halfway-to-a-year mark (26 weeks) down five to No.15, while two of last weeks Top 10 debuts plummet in the new Shannon Noll set “Unbroken” (HP-7, WI10-1) down forty places to No.47 followed closely by the DZ Deathrays album “Bloody Lovely” (HP-4, WI10-1) down a massive forty-six spots to No.50.
* The “Camila” album for Camila Cabello is down five to No.17 and she just announced a world tour this past week (Australia not included at the moment).
* The Migos album “Culutre II” peaked at No.13 last week and is down seven this week to No.20, with the album scoring a No.40 debut this week too.
* Now that his tour here is over the Macklemore set “Gemini” is back down seven spots to No.23.
* The third and final Gold (●) certified album is the debut set for Khalid and “American Teen”, which is down two spots to No.24.
* Dropping GH sets are for The Foo Fighters (20 to 26) while their album “Concrete and Gold” is down twelve spots to No.41, with further collections falling for Cold Chisel (40 to 45), Shania Twain (38 to 49), Fleetwood Mac (Very Best of 42 to 56 and GH 73 to 83), Elton John (Diamonds 48 to 68), The Cranberries (66 to 74), Maroon 5 (71 to 77), The Eagle s(44 to 81), Guns N’ Roses (70 to 91), Green Day (76 to 93) and Michael Jackson (88 to 94).
* The ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2’ soundtrack is down eight to No.29, while other soundtracks falling are for “Pitch Perfect 3″ (30 to 40) and The Secret Daughter Season 2” (68 to 82),
* Lorde drops eleven spots to No.37 with her “Melodrama” album.
* The new Fall Out Boy set “M A N I A” is down ten places to No.38.
* The 1971 set for Carole King and “Tapestry” is down fourteen spots to No.63, with her musical opening in Melbourne on Friday just gone, so it could rise next week.
* Machine Head and their debut from three weeks ago with “Catharsis” drops thirty-six spots to No.71.
* Shawn Mendes drops eleven places to No.72 with his “Illuminate” set.
* Pnau slide down fourteen spots to No.73 with “Changa”.
* The First Aid Kid set “Ruins” plummets thirty-four places this week to No.87.
* After returning thanks to Triple J’s Hottest 100 The Jungle Giants album “Quiet Ferocity” drops back down twenty-five spots to No.92.
* Niall Horan tumbles down thirty-five places to No.95 with his debut album “Flicker”.
* Fleetwood Mac have a third album dropping this week in “Rumours” which is down nineteen places to No.99.
* The only album leaving the Top 100 from last weeks fifty is “Amen” for Rich Brian from No.27.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #16 (Colab#1) – Adam & Brooke by Adam Eckersley and Brooke McClymont is the first collaboration between the husband and wife team who married back in 2012, with Adam having first charted with “The First Album” (HP-52) under his Adam Eckersley Band back in March of 2014, while Brooke has only ever charted with her sisters and their band The McClymonts.
* #28 (LP#5) – Always Ascending by Franz Ferdinand is the first non-Top 20 entry for the band and fifth Top 30 in Australia for the Scottish band who first charted with their self-titled set back in late April of 2004 (HP-12) and were last on the charts as “FFS” (Franz Ferdinand and Sparks) (HP-85) back in June of 205.
* #31 (LP#4) – Little Dark Age by MGMT is the US duos fourth Top 40 entry in Australia, matching the entry and peak position of their September 2013 self-titled album, while their first two albums both made it into the Top 10 in “Oracular Spectacular” (HP-6, May 2008) and “Congratulations” (HP-9, April 2010).
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
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