The ‘Barbie The Album’ soundtrack regained the #1 spot in Australia this week.
For the first time this decade a soundtrack album has gone back to #1, while it’s the sixth time during 2023 that an album has regained the top selling spot, with three of those returns being for “Midnights” by Taylor Swift (Feb 13th, June 5th and July 10th), with the others being Harry Styles (March 6th), Morgan Wallen (May 1st) and now the ‘Barbie The Album’ set, which originally spent a solo week at the top upon entry on July 31st.
The last soundtrack album to climb back to #1 in Australia occured on February 11th, 2019 when after winning an Oscar the set for ‘A Star is Born’ returned to the top for a single week, and I’m not sure whether ‘Barbie’ can score another week next week, as Drake is supposed to be dropping his new set “For All the Dogs”, but it hasn’t surfaced at the time of writing. ‘Barbie’ is holding for a third broken week at the top of the New Zealand album charts, at #3 in Canada and #4 in The U.S.A., while here it’s also the No.5 Vinyl Album this week, and three singles within the Top 10 again.
Taylor Swift rises back up one spot to #2 with “Speak Now (TsV)” (No.7 Vinyl, No.1 Country), while she is down to only three Top 10 entries this week as “Midinights” is on hold at #6 (No.8 Vinyl) and “1989” drops two places to #7 (No.15 Vinyl), while it was announced recently that “1989” will be the next ‘Taylor’s Version’ done, due at the end of October this year.
The Weeknd announced this past week a national tour of Australia in November 2023, which has pulled a heap of his albums back up the chart, none more so than his collection “The Highlights”, which flies up ten places to land at #3, plus it clocks up its 104th week within the Top 10 (equal to 2 years), and it’s the #1 Catalogue Album this week too.
Ghanaian-Australian singer Genesis Owusu sees his second album “STRUGGLER” become the highest new entry this week at #4, while it also takes out the No.1 Vinyl Chart position, The No.1 Hip-Hop/R&B Album and the No.1 Australian Albums Chart spot also. And by debuting within the Top 10 it becomes his first such entry, as his debut set “Smiling with No Teeth” debuted and peaked at #27 on March 15th, 2021.
Travis Scott is down only one spot to #5 this week, while the set holds for a third straight week at the top in The U.S.A., while current tourist Luke Combs is up one spot apiece with “This One’s for You” and “Gettin’ Old” to #8 and #9 respectively, while his single “Fast Car” jumps from No.8 to No.2 this week on the singles chart. The other Top 10 return this week is a one-place rise to #10 for Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time”, after it spent its first week out of the Top 10 last week, the set regains the No.1 spot in Canada this week (19th week overall).
TOP 20:
With the dropping down of two Taylor Swift albums from this Top 10 this week, Ms. Swift has as many Top 20 entries as she does within the Top 10 (three apiece), with “Reputation” (HP-1×2, WI10-24a, No.14 Vinyl) and “Lover” (HP-1×1, WI10-29a, No.11 Vinyl) both down four places each to #11 and #12 respectively, while her “folklore” set is down two places to #14. With four new entries debuting within the Top 20 this week, the three remaining albums are Luke Combs with “What You See…” (14 to #16), SZA with “SOS” (15 to #19) and The Weeknd rises back up two places to #18 with his “Starboy” set…
TOP 30:
…while The Weeknd also has a massive fifteen place jump to #27 with his “After Hours” album, its highest placement since late March of this year, while lower down he re-enters with “Dawn FM” (#65) and “Beauty Behind the Madness” (#93, last charted Jan 2022). Elton John’s “Diamonds” are on hold at #26 this week, with dropping collections are by Post Malone (21 to #24) right after his latest set “AUSTIN” (16 to #23), Eminem’s first “Curtain Call” (24 to #28) and Maroon 5 (27 to #30). The two Taylor sets within the Top 30 are “Red (TsV)” (23 to #25) and “evermore” (25 to #29).
TOP 40:
The third and final Top 10 dropout from last week is the #1 entry for G Flip and “Drummer” which falls to #34 this week (No.12 Vinyl), while the final Top 50 entry for Taylor Swift is her “Fearless (TsV)” album, down ten places this week to #38. Four place drops occur for “Heroes & Villains” by Metro Boomin’ (29 to #33) and “The Essential” Foo Fighters (31 to #35), with five place slides occurring for Ed Sheeran’s ” ÷ (divide)”, Kanye West with “Graduation” and Harry Styles’ “Fine Line” to #37, #39 and #40 respectively.
TOP 50:
Eminem’s second collection falls four places to #41, while the Creedence ‘Chronicle’ dips to #47 and the Green Day GH’s set falls nine to #50. With Billie Eilish losing the #1 singles spot this week her debut album ‘Sleep’ is back down seven places to #43, followed by a twenty-six place fall to #44 for the Michael Gudinski doco album “Ego”, while Arctic Monkeys’ “AM” falls eight to #46 and Luke Combs’ fourth and final entry “Growin’ Up” is down five to #49.
Special mention to the INXS collection “The Very Best”, which drops to #76 this week, it logs its 574th week within the Top 100, which is the longest chart run ever in Australian chart history, and it’s equal to 11 years (including leap-years) of charting.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #13 (LP#3) – Unreal Unearth – Hozier (Rubyworks/Columbia) is the third studio album for the Irish singer-songwriter, becoming his third #1 Album in his home country, while it becomes his first in England, with the set also entering at #2 in New Zealand and our No.10 selling Vinyl album, plus his self-titled debut set rises back up to #81 this week having racked up 66 weeks within the Top 100 (issued Oct. 2014), four of those in the past month, originally peaking at #3 (April 6th, 2015), while his March 2019 second set “Wasteland, Baby!” debuted and peaked at #8.
* #15 (LP#7) – self-titled – Dan Sultan (Liberation) is the seventh album and entry for the local artist (5 studio albums and 2 EP’s), and his first new album in over four years, as he last issued the kids set “Nali & Friends” in April 2019, a month prior though he charted with his fifth album “Aviary Takes” (HP-47, March 2019), while his two Top 10 entries have been “Blackbird” (LP#3, HP-4, April 2014) and “Killer” (LP#4, HP-5, August 2017). Debuted at No.4 on the Vinyl Sales chart this week.
* #17 (LP#2) – Positive Spin – Gretta Ray (Welcome to Ballarat/EMI Australia) is the second album and now third chart entry (2 Albums and 1 EP) for the Melbourne singer-songwriter, who first charted with her second EP “Here and Now” (HP-46, August 2018), while her debut studio album “Begin to Look Around” debuted and peaked at #13 on September 6th, 2021. Debuted at No.3 on the Vinyl Sales chart this week.
* #20 (LP#3) – ISTJ – The 3rd Album – NCT Dream (SM Entertainment/Warner) is the third album and first chart entry for the South Korean seven-member act who issued their first album “Hot Sauce” in May 2021, their second “Glitch Mode” in March 2022, and this new set was issued digitally in mid-July, making the chart this week thanks to a physical release here last week, while the set lands at #1 in their home country, #2 in Japan and #30 in New Zealand.
* #32 (EP#1) – Don’t Close Your Eyes (EP) – Parkway Drive (Parkway Records) is the debut release for the Australian metalcore act, originally an eight track EP (issued in June 2004, re-issued in 2006, now 13 tracks) which sees it’s first chart appearance thanks to a limited edition vinyl release, which helps it to debut at No.2 on the vinyl sales chart this week. Overall this becomes their ninth Albums chart entry, 7 studio, 1 live and now 1 EP in total.
* #42 (LP#1) – Snow Angel – Reneé Rapp (Interscope) is the debut album for the American singer and actress, who has starred in the stage production of ‘Mean Girls: The Musical’ on Broadway as the Regina George character. This album has landed within the Top 10 first week in both England (#7) and Scotland (#3).
HP = Highest Position
LW = Last Week
WI10 – Weeks in Top 10
*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 19th to the 25th of August 2023
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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