Australian Albums : Pop Smoke Debuts At No 1

The debut and posthumous album for American rapper Pop Smoke is the new No.1 album on the ARIA Charts, called “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon”.

“Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon” becomes the 885th No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2020), the 735th for ARIA (1983 to 2020), the 523rd to debut at No.1 (1976 to 2020), the 23rd No.1 album of the year (2020) and the 14th for the record label Republic and their third for the year after The Weeknd (March) and Drake (May). The album has also landed first week at the top in New Zealand, Ireland, Norway and The Netherlands (so far).

Pop Smoke (born Bashar Barakah Jackson) was born in New York in July 1999 and was killed in a home invasion in Los Angeles in February of 2020, and he had issued two mixtapes while he was alive, the second of which “Meet the Woo 2” is up to a new peak of No.24 this week (seven weeks charting so far), and the new No.1 album was finished by his mentor 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) along with a slew of famous rappers like Lil’ Baby, DaBaby, Quavo, Swae lee, Future, Roddy Ricch, Tyga, Lil’ Tjay and 50 Cent himself, with three tracks landing within the Top 50 singles this week also.

This is the third time that the word ‘Shoot’ has appeared in an album title, the first was Elton John’s “Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player” (April 1973, 3 weeks) and the last was the Motor Ace album “Shoot This” (August 2002, 1 week), the sixth title with the word ‘Stars’, the last being the Bruce Springsteen set “Western Stars” (1 week on 24th of June, 2019), the first time for the word ‘Aim’ and the fourth for a ‘Moon’ rising at the top of the charts, with “Blood Moon” for Cold Chisel the last celestial event at No.1 here back on December 16th, 2019 (1 week stay).

The new No.1 album also becomes the 311th by an American Performer (solo, duo, group, male or female) and the 251st by a Solo Male Artist (local or overseas). Pop Smoke became the 158th American act to hit the top here and also the 51st Solo Male Artist from The U.S.A. to make it to No.1 in Australia. Plus this is the sixth Solo Male Artist to make it to the top this year after Harry Styles, Eminem (both in January), Lil’ Uzi Vert, The Weeknd (both in March) and Drake (May).

Coming in at No.2 is the fourth live album for local psychedelic-rock outfit King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard who enter with “Chunky Shrapnel”, and by coming in at No.2 it becomes their highest placed Live album of the four that have charted so far, as back in January they charted with three live sets, the highest of which was the No.6 peaking “Live in Adelaide ’19”. Overall this is the band’s tenth Top 10 album locally and their 19th Top 100 entry overall, plus their third No.2 album after “Flying Microtonal Banana” (March 2017) and “Infest the Rats’ Nest” (Sept 2019), all of which are their highest charted.

After two weeks at No.2 the latest Bob Dylan album “Rough and Rowdy Ways” is down one spot to No.3 and logging a third week within the Top 10, this is his slowest declining album since “Modern Times” in September 2006 spent four weeks within the Top 10 (1-4-5-9), which became his longest running Top 10 album since 1983’s “Infidels” (HP-6, 5 weeks within the Top 10). Harry Styles’ second album “Fine Line” is down one spot to No.4 with his 30 week running Top 10 album, followed by last weeks No.1 set “Music from the Home Front” which after two weeks at the top is down four places to No.5, becoming the longest running compilation album since 2000’s Olympics set (3 weeks). Billie Eilish and her debut album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go” is also down one spot to No.6.

The soundtrack to the historical stage musical “Hamilton” sees its 2016 score return to the chart at a new peak of No.7 this week thanks to the staged, live recorded and screened version of the play to streaming services this past week (Disney+), and so by returning at No.7 it lands its first week within the Top 10 and has surpassed the No.42 peak the album achieved back in June of 2016. This is followed by the Lady Gaga album “Chromatica” down two to No.8, and after ten weeks at No.8 the Post Malone set “Hollywood’s Bleeding” is down one spot to No.9 and logging its 37th week within the Top 10, beating his previous albums 36 weeks for “Beerbong’s & Bentley’s” (TW-23), and holding onto the No.10 spot is the Dua Lipa set “Future Nostalgia”.

UP:
The albums from 10 to No.17 are all on hold this week, of note though is the one-year anniversary (52 weeks) of the fourth Ed Sheeran album “No.6 Collaborations Project” at No.14. Lewis Capaldi is back up one spot to No.18 with his debut album, followed by a set which debuted at No.1 on the 24th of April this year and then the following week fell out of the Top 100 in The Smith Street Band and “Don’t Waste Your Anger”; and now this week it makes a grand return by re-entering at No.19 thanks to a physical vinyl release of the album. Also jumping back up into the Top 20 is the Dean Lewis set “A Place We Knew” (39 to No.20).

With his posthumous debut album entering at No.1 this week the seven week old mixtape for Pop Smoke called “Meet the Woo 2” jumps up nine spots to a new peak of No.24. The Vika & Linda best of set “Akilotoa (Anthology 1994-2006)” fell forty places last week to No.50, and now this week it rebounds twenty-one spots to No.29 with other rising collections being for Eminem (45 to No.37) and INXS (42 to No.41).

Three soundtracks rising this week are for ‘Frozen 2’ (38 to No.30), ‘The Greatest Showman’ (47 to No.33), and last weeks lower fifty entry for the Will Ferrell & Rachel McAdams homeage film “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga”, which jumps up eleven spots to No.44. The debut EP for Billie Eilish in “Don’t Smile at Me” is back up fourteen to No.34. Post Malone’s first album “Stoney” rebounds six spots to No.43, thanks to a physical release the Neil Young album “Homegrown” (HP-17) rebounds fifty-one spots to No.45 and also rising back up into the Top 50 are Juice WRLD with “Goodbye & Good Riddance” (56 to No.45), “The Kids are Coming” EP for Tones and I (53 to No.47) and “Free Spirit” for Khalid (57 to No.48).

DOWN:
Leaving the Top 10 this week are three albums, starting with the biggest drop into the lower fifty for the highest entry from last week “Mordechai” for Khruangbin (HP-4, WI10-1), as well as the other new entry from last week for HAIM and “Women in Music Pt.III” (7 to No.35, WI10-1) and after two weeks the Ocean Alley set “Lonely Diamond” (HP-3, WI10-2) is down twelve spots to No.21.

BTS see their latest album “Map of the Soul: 7” drop down one spot to No.22, and during the upcoming week they are issuing an expanded edition of the album, so it might rebound next week (or be classed as a new entry), the XXXTentation album “?” drops three to No.27, Halsey’s “Manic” set dips five to No.31, falling collections are for Cold Chisel (32 to No.36), Maroon 5 (28 to No.38) and Queen (35 to No.49), and finally the Eminem set “Music to Be Murdered by” drops six places to No.50.

NO FURTHER NEW ALBUMS ENTRIES THIS WEEK.

Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.

Noise11.com