For the first time this century, an artist has replaced themselves at #1, as Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” debuts at the top in Australia this week.
“Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” (Republic) becomes the 982nd #1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2023), the 833rd for ARIA (1983 to 2023), the 20th #1 Album for this year, the 613th to debut at #1, the 24th for the record label Republic, and the first time since January 1974 (pre-ARIA era) that an artist has replaced themselves at the top of the chart, as no one since then has lost the top spot to themselves, as Taylor’s redone set replaces “Midnights”, which drops down to #3 (No.6 Vinyl) this week.
The new version of her third album comes twenty albums after her previous #1 “Midnights” (#962), and the original edition spent a single week at the top on November 8th, 2010, while this new edition has 22 tracks (five previously unreleased) as well as collaborations with Hayley Williams and Fall Out Boy on two tracks, plus 21 of those tracks have landed within the Top 100 Singles Chart this week, the highest of which is “I Can See You” at #5. “Speak Now (TsV)” also scores the No.1 spot on both the Vinyl Sales Chart and Country Albums Chart, plus overseas it enters at the top in England, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, Belgium and The Netherlands (so far).
Taylor Swift increases her tally of weeks at #1 to now 41 in total from 11 #1 Albums, moving her ahead of the tie she created last week of 40 weeks alongside ABBA, plus she also increases her overall weeks for this decade to now 25 weeks from six #1 albums, while her previous two ‘Taylor’s Version’ sets only logged a single week at the top for “Fearless” (April 19th, 2021) and “Red” (Nov. 22nd, 2021). “Speak Now” increases the total of those two words appearing in a #1 title to two ‘speak’ and eight for ‘now’. Plus the redo also becomes the 346th by an American Act (solo male or female, duo or group) and the 161st by a Solo Female Artist to reach #1 locally.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s there was less turnaround at the top of the album charts, and several acts achieved swap-overs in the past, something which has happened again until this week. The first was “Help!” by The Beatles which logged it’s eleventh and final week in February 1966, followed by “Rubber Soul” at the end of that month, while the group did it again in mid-1970 as a local compilation called “Hey Jude” (May 1970) was overtaken by their last studio album “Let it Be” (June 1970). There are also two more instances of this rare-chart feat occuring, as Slade saw “Slave Alive!” be taken over by “Slayed?” in late Jan/early Feb 1973, while the last instance saw Neil Diamond take his long-running live set “Hot August Night” score a 26th week at #1 (of 29 in total) on January 21st, 1974, while the following week the soundtrack by Neil for the film “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” began a four week run from January 28th, 1974, and to add further chart-rareness to this one, Neil again regained the top spot with “Hot August Night” after the ‘seagull’ had its four week run on February 25th, 1974, for a final three weeks at the top. {I know those last two references were with live albums replacing studio/soundtrack albums, but this kinda thing doesn’t happen very much}.
With 27k in sales for Taylor’s new album this week, it’s gonna be a struggle for anybody to beat that tally, but coming in at #2 with their 24th studio album are local act King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard with “PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth” which was issued in mid-June and makes it’s entry this week thanks in part to a No.2 entry on the vinyl sales chart, and by entering so high up the chart this album becomes the bands fifth #2 Album and thirteenth Top 10 placement since their first in March 2017.
Last week we saw six Taylor Swift albums within the Top 10, and that record continues this week, albeit with one coming in and one dropping out. “Midnights” drops down two places after it’s 14th week at #1 last week, to #3 this week (No.6 Vinyl), followed by “Lover” (2 to #4; No.8 Vinyl), “Reputation” (4 to #5; No.12 Vinyl), “1989” (3 to #6) and “folklore” (6 to #7).
Morgan Wallen dips one spot to #7 this week with “One Thing at a Time”, which finally lost it’s top spot in The U.S.A. this week, while it remains the top seller in Canada (17th week), followed by The Weeknd with “The Highlights” which is on hold at #8 and logging it’s 100th week within the Top 10, while the SZA album “SOS” is back up one spot to land at #10.
TOP 20:
The two Top 20 entries for Taylor Swift both drop two places this week, with “Red (TsV)” (HP-1×1, WI10-11) down to #11 (No.13 Vinyl) and “Fearless (TsV)” dips to #18 (No.14 Vinyl), while Luke Combs also scores two Top 20 berths this week with his first set “This One’s for You” (22 to #19) followed by his fourth and latest album “Gettin’ Old” (21 to #20).
Swapping places are “Harry’s House” for Harry Styles, up one to #12, and down a place to #13 is Metro Boomin’s soundtrack to ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse’. On hold are “SOUR” for Olivia Rodrigo and “Starboy” by The Weeknd at #15 and #17 respectively, while Post Malone sees another rise, this time three places, for his “Diamond Collection” to its original entry position and peak of #16 (May 1st).
TOP 30:
There are five best of sets within this chart region, one new entry and the four others are by Elton John (23 to #21), Eminem (Vol.1; 25 to #22), Maroon 5 (28 to #27) and Foo Fighters (30 to #29). Metro Boomin’ climbs with his “Heroes & Villains” set (27 to #23) as does Ed Sheeran’s ” ÷ (divide)” set (29 to #28), while Taylor Swift drops down ten places to #24 with “evermore” (No.16 Vinyl) and Lewis Capaldi sees his debut set drop back six spots to land at #30.
TOP 40:
Three albums remain on hold here with “Dangerous: The Double Album” for Morgan Wallen at #31, “Rumours” for Fleetwood Mac at #33 and “Curtain Call 2” for Eminem at #36, with rises occurring for Luke Combs’ second set “What You See…” to #32, “Teenage Dream” for Katy Perry to #37 (now 7x▲Platinum), the Creedence Clearwater Revival collection “Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits” up six to #38 and a four place rise to #39 to Kanye West’s “Graduation”. “5 Star” for Stray Kids plummets fifteen places to #35 and down five to #40 is “AM” for Arctic Monkeys.
TOP 50:
Billie Eilish with her ‘Sleep’ set and XXXTentacion’s “Look at Me: The Album” are on hold at #42 and #47 respectively, with small rises going to Coldplay with “Live in Buenos Aires” to #45 and Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ soundtrack to #49. After ten weeks of charting the latest Ed Sheeran album ” – (subtract)’ falls seven places to #48 and the new #1 set in American this week is Lil’ Uzi Vert and his “Pink Tape” album, which here is down forty-three places to land at #50, while the other Top 10 dropout from last week is “Dead Club City” for Nothing But Thieves which leaves the Top 100 from last weeks #10 position.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #14 (Live#1) – Live from Joshua Tree – Rüfüs du Sol (Rose Avenue/Reprise) is the first live album for the Australian act, with this set originally issued in March of 2020, it makes its first chart appearance thanks to a physical release, which saw the vinyl edition debut at #3 this week, while overall this now becomes the Sydney bands sixth albums chart entry (4 studio, 1 Remix and now 1 Live Album).
* #25 (LP#2) – Sunburn – Dominic Fike (Sandy Boys/Columbia) is the second album and entry for the American singer-songwriter who saw his debut album “What Could Possibly Go Wrong” debut and peak at #34 on August 10th, 2020, making this new set now his highest charted, with the only single charting from this album being “Mona Lisa” (HP-92, June 19th, 2023).
* #26 (GH#3) – The Singles: Echoes from the Edge of Heaven – Wham! (Epic/Sony UK) (No.10 Vinyl) is the third collection of songs from the duo of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley to chart locally, and charts due to their debut album “Fantastic” being issued 40 years ago (started here July 25th, 1983 reaching #6 in it’s third chart week) and their new documentary about their four year career ‘Echoes from the Edge of Heaven’ being issued recently. The pair saw their first collection “The Final” also issued in July of 1986, reaching #5 (also in its third chart week), while their second was with “If You Were Here… – The Best of” (HP-29, entered Dec. 7th, 1997, peaked Jan. 26th, 1998).
* #43 (EP#3) – Sofa Kings (EP) – Royel Otis (OURNESS/AWAL) charts thanks to a physical release, entering at No.4 on the Vinyl Chart, while this their third EP was first issued in late March of this year, this also becomes Sydney duo of Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlociv first ever chart entry, having previously issued “Campus” (Oct. 2021) and “Bar & Grill (Aug. 2022).
* #44 (LP#10) – I Inside the Old Year Dying – PJ Harvey (Partisan/Liberation) is the tenth studio album for the English artist and her first new studio album since last charting with “The Hope Six Demolition Project” (HP-7, April 2016), in-between she worked on two soundtracks for “All About Eve” (issued April 2019) and the “Bad Sisters” TV series (Oct. 2022). This new entry also becomes her ninth albums chart entry in Australia (8 studio albums and 1 collaboration with John Parish), having first charted with her third album “To Bring You Love” (HP-38, peaked April of 1995), while her highest charted was with her eighth album “Let England Shake” (HP-6, Feb. 28th, 2011).
New Certifications:
Teenage Dreams (Complete Confection) – Katy Perry ▲7
Mr. Morale & the Big Steppes – Kendrick Lamar ●
HP = Highest Position
LW = Last Week
WI10 – Weeks in Top 10
TsV = Taylor’s Version
*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 7th to the 13th of July 2023
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
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