Landing his second No.1 album during his career this week is Anthony Callea, with his stripped back covers album entitled “Backbone” entering at the top of the ARIA Albums Chart this week.
“Backbone” becomes the 782nd No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2016) and the 633rd for ARIA (1983 to 2016), plus the 428th album to debut at No.1, and the 33rd for 2016 (this time last year we had achieved 24 No.1’s), whilst it also becomes the 20th No.1 album for Sony (direct) and their third this year after Delta Goodrem (July 11th) and Human Nature (1st & 8th of August), whilst Anthony has now racked up four overall weeks at the top of the ARIA Albums Chart, his first self-titled album spent three weeks at No.1 from the 4th of April in 2005.
Earlier in 2016 Anthony was a part of the reality game show “I’m a Celebrity Get Me out of Here”, which has no doubt brought him new fans, and with promotion for this new album during the past week, it’s only competition this week was from a resurgent “Suicide Squad” soundtrack or the new Usher album. “Backbone” contains stripped-back and/or re-done versions of famous songs by Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Pat Benatar, Steve Winwood, Whitney Houston, Queen, Bananarama and Celine Dion amongst the twelve covers, plus the original album title track written by Anthony.
This is the fourth album of covers to hit No.1 this year after sets by The Hilltop Hoods (redoing their own songs with an orchestra), Jimmy Barnes, Human Nature and Barbra Streisand, plus the ‘Molly’ TV soundtrack was a collection of 70’s and 80’s tracks, so that could be classed as a fifth set (maybe). Anthony also joins former Australian Idol place-getters who now have multiple No.1 albums, the first of which was Shannon Noll, followed by Damien Leith, then the third was Guy Sebastian who didn’t land his second No.1 until his sixth album “Armageddon” (Oct 2012), nine years after his first, and now Anthony who first hit the top in April of 2005 for three weeks lands his second No.1 album and also third Top 10 entry, as only his debut self-titled and then follow-up set “A New Chapter” (HP-9, Dec 2006) have previously logged any time within the ten.
This is the fifth album with the word ‘Back’ in its title to make it to No.1 in Australia, and the third with a ‘Bone’ too, but no former “Backbone(‘s)'” having made it to No.1 (or even charted for that matter), and the only other elongated word with a ‘Back’ in its title occurred this week seven years ago (28th Sept 2009) when Pearl Jam took “Backspacer” to the top for a week. Anthony’s new album also becomes the 206th by an Australian Act (solo or group) to make it to No.1 and the 16th for 2016, plus its also the 217th by a Solo Male Artist (local or overseas) to hit the top, and the fifth by a Solo Australian Male artist this year, a tie with 2013 when we also achieved five by solo Aussie males.
It looked as though the soundtrack for the “Suicide Squad” could’ve retaken the top spot this week, but instead, the album is back up two places to No.2, whilst last weeks No.1 debut of “Skeleton Tree” for Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds drops down two places to No.3 this week. The album also this past week was No.1 in six overseas countries; New Zealand, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Finland and Denmark, with No.2 entries in England, Switzerland and The Netherlands plus a No.3 berth in Germany and Poland.
Last week’s No.3 entry for Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris in the compilation of their works “My Dear Companion: Selections from the Trio Collection” is only down one spot this week to No.4, after which the second of five new entries to the Top 10 occurs at No.5, “Hard II Love” for Usher, the RnB singer’s eighth studio album and seventh to chart here, plus his sixth Top 10 entry and fifth consecutive Top 10 debut also, with the lead single from the album “Crash” (TW-29) a recent No.10 hit.
Barbra Streisand’s recent No.1 album “Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway” is on hold at No.6 this week and the only other album saved within the Top 10 this week is “25” by Adele, which is back up one spot to No.8 in its 44th week inside the ten. The third Bridget Jones film opened around the world last week, and the soundtrack for “Bridget Jones’s Baby” debuts at No.7 this week, helping to keep the franchise’s soundtrack all as Top 10 hits, with the first two hitting No.1 (Aug-Sept 2001 for five broken weeks) and No.8 (Nov 2004) for ‘Edge of Reason’ respectively. This new album’s lead single is this week’s No.21 entry for Ellie Goulding entitled “Still Falling for You”, and this is the first of the three Bridget Jones soundtrack’s to actually debut within the Top 10 too.
The fourth album for South African rap-rave act Die Antwoord entitled “Mount Ninja and Da Nice Time Kid” enters at No.9, and by doing so it becomes the band’s first Top 10 entry here, whilst their third set “Donker Mag” just missing out on the ten by peaking at No.11 in June 2014. The fifth and final Top 10 entry this week is new at No.10 and is the second album for local hip-hop artist REMI entitled “Divas and Demons”, beating the No.29 peak that his first album “Raw x Infinity” achieved back in June of 2014.
UP: “The Getaway” for Red Hot Chili Peppers leaps back up eighteen spots to No.15 and after last week’s 60 Minute interview and their announcement of a 2017 tour here, the Crowded House compilation “The Very Very Best of” bullets seventy-five spots to No.20 this week. Now that her album has a Top 3 hit, the Ariana Grande set “Dangerous Woman” is back up eleven to No.30, “x” for Ed Sheeran rebounds thirteen spots to No.36, the Matt Corby album “Telluric” is back in the Top 100 at No.40 this week, and jumping back into the Top 50 this week are INXS (54 to 47), Bring Me the Horizon (66 to 48) and Adele’s “21” (55 to 49).
DOWN: All five Top 10 dropouts debuted within the ten last week, so they’ve all had a single week inside the ten, first of which is “Internal” by Safia (2 to 11) followed by Jason Aldean and the current US No.1 album “They Don’t Know” (5 to 12), and The Beatles “Live at the Hollywood Bowl” (8 to 16), after which the current No.1 UK album for a second week, but here it falls twenty places; the Bastille album “Wild World” (7 to 27) and finally the fifth dropout is “Transcendence” for Devin Townsend Project (10 to 63). A Day to Remember fell eleven places last week with their former No.1 (from 3 weeks ago) “Bad Vibrations”, which this week is down ten spots to No.22. The Jack White “Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016” collection falls fifteen to No.28, “Blonde” by Frank Ocean is down ten to No.31, Troy Cassar-Daley falls twenty-seven places to No.38 with “Things I Carry Around”, “Civil Dusk” for Bernard Fanning is also down ten to No.42 and Florida Georgia Line see their first Top 10 album here in “Dig Your Roots” tumble sixteen spots to No.45. Falling into the lower fifty this week are Of Mice & Men (27 to 53), Roy & HG (31 to 59), Big Scary (30 to 69), Wilco (16 to 72), GroupLove (20 to 89) and Britney Spears (50 to 91), whilst falling out the Top 100 from last weeks fifty are What So Not (#19), All Time Low (#22), Travis Scott (#37), Northeast Party House (#38) and The Hard Aches (#48).
The fourth studio album for US rapper Mac Miller entitled “The Divine Feminine” enters at No.13 this week, becoming his third albums chart entry and now highest charting, as he previously took his second and third albums into the chart, “Watching Movies with the Sound off” (LP#2, HP-54, June 2013) and then “GO:OD AM” (LP#3, HP-32, Oct 2015). The second album for local Melbourne artist Darren Hart, who goes under the stage name of Harts becomes his first albums chart entry at No.21 this week entitled “Smoke, Fire, Hope, Desire”.
The continued reissue and remastering of the Led Zeppelin catalog now sees the No.33 debut of “The Complete BBC Sessions”, which the UK broadcaster recorded between 1969 and 1971, with the original version of the album coming out in November of 1997, here it reached No.60, so this re-entry at No.33 is a new peak for the album.
Lower 50: Like their current album rising, the RHCP “Greatest Hits” set is back up five to No.57, whilst Justin Bieber’s “Purpose” is back up ten places to No.58, with Michael Jackson’s “Essential” also back up ten to No.65. Jimmy Barnes’ appearance in recent magazines and on the ABC’s “Q&A” last week help his recent album “Soul Searchin'” to rise back up twenty-one spots this week to No.71, plus he in on Ahn Do’s ‘Brush with Fame’ this coming week too. “The Positions” for Gang of Youths is back up sixteen spots to No.75 and the third of eight re-entries this week is at No.76, “Beauty Behind the Madness” for The Weeknd, whilst further returning albums include two collections in “All for You-Best of” for Cold Chisel at No.82 and The Beatles “#1” at No.92, with sets also back in for Troye Sivan (#83), Dr Dre’s “2001” (#88), and Bring Me the Horizon’s “Sempiternal” (#90).
The thirteenth studio album for Meat Loaf debuts at No.52 this week entitled “Braver Than we Are”, whilst a few places lower at No.54 is “Tidal Wave” for Taking Back Sunday, the bands seventh studio album and fifth to chart here; this new one becoming the band’s second to not achieve a placing within the Top 50, as their last set “Happiness is” only made it to No.94 in March 2014. Another two places lower at No.56 we see the second album for AlunaGeorge entitled “I Remember” debut, which charts higher than their first set “Body Music” (HP-71, Aug 2013). New at No.61 is the seventh studio album and second entry here for Florida-based punk rock band Against Me! entitled “Shape Shift with Me”, beating the No.89 that their sixth album “Transgender Dysmorphoria Blues” achieved back in February of 2014. And finally new at No.86 is the seventh studio album for Christian rock act Casting Crowns entitled “The Very Next Thing”, which becomes the band’s first chart entry here.
Compiled by Gavin Ryan for Australian-Charts.com
