Australian Albums: Jimmy Barnes 'Flesh and Blood' Tops ARIA Chart

It’s been two years and one month since Jimmy Barnes hit No.1 in Australia, and this week his 19th studio album “Flesh and Blood” becomes his 13th chart topping set locally.

“Flesh and Blood” (Bloodlines) becomes the 918th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2021), the 768th for ARIA (1983 to 2021), the 554th to debut at No.1, the 13th for Jimmy Barnes (more on that later) and the fourth for the record label ‘Bloodlines’, having scored two last year and their first with Jimmy’s last No.1 set “My Criminal Record” (10th of June, 2019).

Both of this weeks No.1 artists performed at Michael Gudinski’s memorial back on March 24th, Ed Sheeran (singles) and Jimmy Barnes (albums), while for Jimmy his thirteenth No.1 album puts him only one place behind the current leaders on the list for ‘Most No.1 Albums (1965 to 2021)’ in The Beatles (14 #1’s), while he pulls ahead of U2, Madonna and Eminem on 11 #1’s apiece. Jimmy also increases his ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1; Albums (1965 to 2021)’ to 35 overall weeks at No.1, holding in tenth place on that list between Michael Buble and Delta Goodrem (33 weeks from 5 #1’s each) and Rod Stewart (38 weeks from 7 #1’s).

One further chart feat Jimmy has also managed to achieve is having a No.1 album within the past five decades, as he had four No.1’s in the 1980’s, three in the 1990’s, two in the 2000’s, and then three in the 2010’s, while now he lands his first in this decade. Only AC/DC have managed to achieve this chart feat previously (in Nov/Dec 2020). Jimmy also exceeds AC/DC’s time between first and last No.1 albums also, as they had their first in March of 1981 with “Back in Black”, and their last in Nov. 2020 with “Power Up”, and now Jimmy sees his No.1 track record surpass the one racked up by AC/DC. Jimmy’s band Cold Chisel first hit No.1 on April 13th, 1981 with their first live album “Swingshift” (2 weeks) and now forty years and three months later he lands his eighteenth overall No.1 (13 solo, five with Cold Chisel) in Australia. Overall this is Jimmy’s 21st Top 10 Solo appearance (17 studio, 1 soundtrack, 1 Live album, 2 Best of collection).

Jimmy Barnes previously had a No.2 album in 1993 called “Flesh and Wood” (a mainly acoustic album), and now he takes “Flesh and Blood” to the top, which is the first time that the word ‘Flesh’ has appeared in a No.1 album title, while the fifth time at the top for the word ‘Blood’, with Jimmy previously hitting the top with “Blood Moon” for Cold Chisel (1 week on 16-Dec-2019), the last time that the word appeared in a No.1 album title. This new No.1 album also becomes the 260th by an Australian Artist to make it to the top locally (the 9th for 2021), and also the 261st by a Solo Male Artist (local or overseas) and the fifth for 2021 after Barry Gibb, Illy (both Jan.), The Kid Laroi (Feb.) and Justin Bieber (March-April-May 1 week in each month), making Jimmy the third local Solo Male Artist at No.1 for 2021.

After six weeks at No.1 the Olivia Rodrigo debut solo album “SOUR” is down one place to No.2, while the album remains at No.1 in New Zealand (7th straight week), Canada (6th week) and it returns to the top in England (4th week). Two of last week’s five Top 10 debut manage to score a second week within the ten, as Doja Cat remains at her entry position of No.3 for a second week with “Planet Her”, followed by last weeks No.2 entry and this weeks U.S. No.1 debuting set for Tyler, the Creator and “Call Me if You Get Lost”, which drops two places to No.4 this week.

The remainder of the Top 10 climb back up this week, moving two places apiece are “Future Nostalgia” by Dua Lipa, “All I Know So Far: Setlist” for Pink, “Justice” by Justin Bieber, The Weeknd with “The Highlights” and The Kid Laroi’s “F**k Love (mixtape)/”Savage (EP)” to No.5, No.6, No.7, No.8 and No.9 respectively. Lastly back up three spots to No.10 for it’s 37th week within the Top 10 is the Pop Smoke set “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon”, which last week celebrated it’s one year anniversary on the charts (July 13th, 2020 was it’s entry date).

UP:
TOP 20: Eight of the ten albums within the Top 20 climb this week, with both Luke Combs’ albums rising in his second set “What You See is What You Get” (18 to No.13) and his first release “This One’s for You” (22 to No.18). Back up four places each are collections for Elton John (19 to No.15) and Maroon 5 (20 to former peak of No.16), while Eminem’s “Curtain Call: The Hits” is up one to No.20.
TOP 30: Juice WRLD this week racks up one year on the charts with his posthumous album “Legends Never Die”, which is up two spots to No.23 (his older entry “Goodbye & Good Riddance” is newly ▲Platinum in sales in the lower fifty), followed by a six place rise to No.24 for the Queen biopic soundtrack to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ after Ch.9 rescreened their ‘Days of Our Lives’ documentary this past week. Lewis Capaldi rebounds six places to No.26 with his debut set, followed by an eight place rise to No.27 for Bruno Mars’ 2010 set “Doo-Wops & Hooligans”. Morgan Wallen celebrates half-a-year on the charts with “Dangerous: The Double Album” by moving back up five to No.29 and the Ariana Grande set “Positions” climbs back up six to No.30.
TOP 40: Taylor Swift’s 2019 set “Lover” leaps back up eighteen spots this week to land at No.35, while the Pitbull “Greatest Hits” is again moving up the charts, this week it moves up four places to land at a new peak of No.40 after three weeks within the Top 50 and now 43 weeks within the T100.
TOP 50: Thanks to a new Jimmy Barnes No.1 album, his band Cold Chisel see their collection “The Best of: All for You” jump back up twenty-two chart-rungs to land at No.46, followed by further climbing albums “AM” for Arctic Monkeys (56 to No.47), “Love Goes” by Sam Smith (57 to No.48) and making it’s first Top 50 appearance since February of 2015 is the 2010 third studio album by Katy Perry and “Teenage Dream (The Complete Confection)”, which moves up five places to No.50, with the album having berthed within the lower fifty since returning to the Top 100 on January 11th of this year.

DOWN:
TOP 20: All three of this week’s Top 10 dropouts fall into the lower fifty, so I’ll mention those at the end. There are only two falling albums within the Top 20 this week, Amy Shark’s “Cry Forever” down one spot to No.17 and falling four to No.19 is the latest Polo G set “Hall of Fame”.
TOP 30: No falling albums within the Top 30 this week.
TOP 40: J. Cole is down five to No.31 with “The Off-Season”, with last week’s returnee for Ed Sheeran and “No.6 Collaborations Project” dipping three places this week to No.32. Maroon 5’s latest album “Jordi” is on hold at No.33, while a big drop occurs for the INXS “Very Best of” set, down seven places this week to No.38.
TOP 50: The only falling album within this chart region is the Spacey Jane album “Sunlight”, which falls eight places to No.49. The three Top 10 dropouts from last week which descend into the lower fifty this week are Hiatus Kaiyote with “Mood Valiant” (HP-4, WI10-1), “Human” by The Veronicas (HP-5, WI10-1) and “Bittersweet Demons by The Murlocs (HP-6, WI10-1).

FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #41 (Live#7) – Live in the UK by The Seekers (Decca) is the live album the foursome recorded during their 15 date, 2014 farewell UK tour of England, Scotland and Wales, containing 25 of their tracks on the set. This is also the groups fourth chart entry in the past three years, as the previously charted with “Farewell” (#3, April 2019), plus “Hidden Treasures – The Rarities Collection Vol.1” (HP-21, June 2020) and it’s companion set “Hidden Treasures – The Rarities Collection Vol.2 (HP-56, November 2020).

*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 2nd to the 8th of July, 2021.

Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.

Noise11.com