Adele’s “30” becomes the last No.1 for 2021 by holding for a fifth consecutive week at the top of the ARIA Album Charts.
“30” is also again at the top in England, Ireland, New Zealand (also fifth week), The U.S.A. and Canada (both fourth week), plus locally it becomes the second longest running No.1 Album for 2021 and also for this decade. Below is a listing of the longest running Albums for this past year.
8 weeks – SOUR by Olivia Rodrigo (6 weeks and two single returns)
5 weeks – 30 by Adele
3 weeks = Justice by Justin Bieber (3 separate single weeks at the top)
3 weeks = Certified Lover Boy by Drake (2 weeks and one further week)
2 weeks = evermore by Taylor Swift (Jan)
2 weeks = Cry Forever by Amy Shark (May)
2 weeks = Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish (Aug).
Adele increases her overall tally at No.1 to 45 weeks and remains outright fifth on the listing for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums’, and now sits one week behind the 46 accrued by Neil Diamond, while on a similar list for this decade Adele now is equal third alongside Drake (5 weeks from 2 #1 albums), while ahead of them both are Olivia Rodrigo (8 weeks) and Taylor Swift (10 weeks from 4 #1 berths).
Five of it’s eight chart weeks have been spent at No.2 for Ed Sheeran’s “= (Equals)” album, the same place we find it this week, while Paul Kelly has the highest selling seasonal album for this week as his “Christmas Train” album rises back up two spots to land at No.3, followed by further rising albums for ABBA and “Voyage” (6 to No.4) and the second and final Xmas set within the Top 10, Michael Buble’s “Christmas” album which rebounds three spots to land at No.5.
The only falling album within the Top 10 this week is the Taylor Swift redone “Red” set, which drops down two spots to No.6, after which are rising albums for Olivia Rodrigo and “SOUR” plus “Planet Her” for Doja Cat, both back up two spots to No.7 and No.8 respectively, while returning the Top 10 is the second album for Billie Eilish and “Happier Than Ever” (15 to No.6) and Nirvana’s 1991 breakout album “Nevermind”, jumping up eight places to land at No.10 (#3 vinyl), logging it’s 17th week within the Top 10, and it’s first Top 10 appearance since October 2011 when it returned for it’s 20th Anniversary at No.5.
UP:
TOP 20: The Weeknd sits just outside of the Top 10 with his collection “The Highlights”, back up one spot to No.11, while the high vinyl sales for Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” move it back up a single spot also, to sit at No.15 this week, while after one week outside of the Top 20 for the first time in it’s two year chart run occurred last week for Harry Styles’ “Fine Lines” album, this week it rises back up three places to No.18.
TOP 30: Three further high selling vinyl albums at the moment are “AM” for The Arctic Monkeys, up one spot to No.21 (#5 vinyl), followed by the 1973 classic from Pink Floyd and “The Dark Side of the Moon” which snuck back into the Top 100 last week at No.96, and this week it leaps up seventy-four places to land at No.22 (#4 vinyl), having last charted this high and in that position in early October of 2011. Thirdly, the Amy Winehouse album “Back to Black” is sitting within the Top 10 selling vinyl this week, and it rebounds twelve places to land at No.30 (it’s highest position since 9th of Nov.,2015 when it rose back up to No.33).
TOP 40: After being at it’s lowest chart position for the past two weeks at No.38, the debut Billie Eilish set “When We All Fall Asleep,…” is this week back up five places to No.33, while a Xmas duet infused Elton John album in “The Lockdown Sessions” sees it fly back up eleven chart rungs to No.35. The Andre Rieu album “Happy Together” (HP-28) moves up four places to No.36, followed by Taylor Swift’s “evermore” (45 to No.37) and best of sets for INXS (47 to No.38) and The Foo Fighters (60 to No.39).
TOP 50: With Paul Kelly flying high on the chart with his seasonal set, his collection “Songs of the South: Greatest Hits 1985-2019′ jumps back up twenty-one places to No.42, while Pink’s live album “All I Know So Far: Setlist” climbs seventeen spots to No.48 and Nirvana has a second Top 50 album this week as their “MTV Unplugged in New York” album re-enters the Top 100 at No.50.
DOWN:
TOP 20: After peaking at No.3 last week the first of two Top 10 dropouts is for the “Songs of Disappearance” album by Australian Bird Calls (HP-3, WI10-2), which swoops down ten places to perch at No.13, with last week’s highest new entry for Juice WRLD and “Fighting Demons” (HP-7, WI10-1) tumbling thirteen places down the chart, with the third biggest dropping set within the Top 20 being the Justin Bieber album “Justice” declining six places to No.19.
TOP 30: Adele’s “25” set drops down six places to No.23, followed by a four place decline to No.24 for the Kid Laroi mixtapes “F**k Love”, and lastly Elton John’s “Diamonds” collection drops two to No.26.
TOP 40: Two albums dropping into the Top 40 this week are “Certified Lover Boy” for Drake, down eight to No.31 and Lil’ Nas X’s “Montero”, dropping seven places to No.32, while the only other significant downward mover is “1989” for Taylor Swift, down three to No.34.
TOP 50: But Taylor has two further albums which decline in double figures, “Fearless (Taylor’s version)” down eleven to No.41 and “folklore” falls ten to No.44. The Beatles “Let it Be” album falls eleven spots to No.43, while Pop Smoke and his first set “Shoot for the Stars,…” also moves down ten places to land at No.46.
XMAS TITLES: With two seasonal sets within the Top 10 for Paul Kelly (#3) and Michael Buble (#5), the next three occur within Top 20, with Delta Goodrem’s “Only Santa Knows” down one spot to No.12, Mariah Carey’s “Merry Christmas” rising five places to No.14 and after making it’s first Top 50 appearance last week, this week the Norah Jones set “I Dream of Christmas” jumps up ten places to score a new peak of No.16. The sixth and final Xmas set sees the Human Nature “Christmas Album” rise three places to land one week within the Top 50 this week at No.49.
NEW ENTRY:
* #25 (LP#3.2) – Echolalia by Something for Kate (Sony Australia) was the third album for the Melbourne trio, which originally debuted at No.2 on the 2nd of July, 2001, logging four weeks within the Top 10. It returned to the chart this week at No.25 thanks to a limited edition clear vinyl version of the album, which celebrated it’s 20th Anniversary this past year. When the band reformed and re-issued their back catalogue in 2014, this album returned to the chart at No.45 (14th of July, 2014), it’s last chart appearance.
*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 17th to the 23rd of December, 2021.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
