The 8th studio album for Taylor Swift called “Folklore” starts the eighth month of the year off as the 888th No.1 Album in Australia this week.
“Folklore” by Taylor Swift is not only the 888th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2020), but also the 738th for ARIA (1983 to 2020), plus the 26th album for 2020, the 525th set to debut at No.1 (1976 to 2020), and the fifteenth for the record label Republic and their fourth for the year after Pop Smoke (July), Drake (May) and The Weeknd (March). Plus the album also lands first week at the top in both England and New Zealand.
The new No.1 set becomes the sixth for Taylor Swift in Australia, she first hit the top in Nov. 2010 with “Speak Now” (1 week), after which “Red” spent three weeks at the top from late Oct. of 2012. Then her “1989” set spent nine broken weeks at No.1 from November 2014 through to mid-February of 2015, after which she also topped the charts here with “Reputation” (2 weeks from 20th of Nov., 2017) and her last was “Lover” (1 week on 2nd of Sept., 2019). So she moves up on the listings for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums (1965 to 2020)’ from No.38 to No.35, just behind the 17 accumulated weeks for Bon Jovi (from 10 #1’s), while on the list for ‘Accumulated No.1 Albums’ she now has six placing her equal seventh on that list, alongside Pink, Kylie Minoigue, Hilltop Hoods, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Michael Jackson.
It’s the second time for Taylor to hold the top spot on both charts, as she first did it for one week on December 1st, 2014 with the album “1989” and the single “Blank Space”. Overall this is the 133rd time (since 1965) that the same artist and album have held the top of both charts in Australia, as her single “Cardigan” also debuts at No.1 this week. This is also the first time that the word ‘Folklore’ has appeared in a No.1 album title, and the new No.1 set is the 313th by an American Artist (solo, duo, group, male or female) to top the Australian Albums Chart (the 9th for 2020), and for Solo Female Performers this is the 136th (local or overseas) and the fifth for 2020 after Selena Gomez (Jan), Billie Eilish (Feb), Dua Lipa (April) and Lady Gaga (June). In regards to Female American Solo Singers Taylor’s sixth No.1 set ties her in second place for ‘American Solo Female Acts: Most No.1’s Albums’, with Madonna on top at 11 #1’s, followed now by Taylor and Pink with six apiece, third place is also a tie with Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey and Ariana Grande with four each.
There are four new entries to the Top 10 this week, three of which start their chart careers within the Top 3. Coming in at No.2 is the fourth studio album, third entry and first Top 10 placing for Brisbane based act Cub Sport and “Like Nirvana”, which lands ten places higher (#12) than their third self-titled album achieved in early 2019, while the band first charted with their third set “Bats” which made it to No.67 in 2017. Another local artist comes in at No.3 with his first album, Sydney hip-hop artist The Kid Laroi (born Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard) having first come to our attention via the Triple J Unearthed High competition in 2018. The album also lands at No.5 in New Zealand, No.10 in Ireland and No.12 in England, while it currently has two singles within the Top 50 in “Go” with Juice WRLD (HP-23, TW-36) and the newer entry “Tell Me Why” (TW-49).
Last week’s No.1 album for Juice WRLD and “Legends Never Die” is down three spots to No.4, followed by another posthumous former No.1 in the Pop Smoke set “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon”, with both albums at the top this week in America and Canada respectively. Down two places each are the two long-running Top 10 entries in “Fine Line” for Harry Styles (4 to No.6, 33 weeks within the T10) and Billie Eilish with “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” (6 to No.8, 68 weeks inside the T10). In between those two is last week’s highest new entry in The Chicks with “Gaslighter”, which drops down five spots to No.7, while the ‘Hamilton’ Cast Recording is this week down three places to No.10.
This week in chart history former Boyzone member Ronan Keating was scoring his first No.1 single with “When You Say Nothing at All” (Ireland 2nd & final week, England 1 of 2 weeks), plus his first and second albums were at the top this week in the past in ‘Ronan’ (5th of August, 2000 2 weeks in the UK) and ‘Destination’ (1 week in NZ on July 29th, 2002), and coming in at No.9 is his eleventh solo studio album called “Twenty Twenty”, which by landing at No.9 becomes his eighth Top 10 placement and his twelfth Top 50/100 entry (11 studios and one best of). His new album also features guests such as Emeli Sande, Shania Twain, Clare Bowen, Nina Nestbitt, Robbie Williams and Alison Krauss.
UP:
The older Taylor Swift entries rise back up this week, with her last set “Lover” up four to No.12 and her “1989” set rebounds thirteen places to No.26. Back in mid April The Strokes saw their sixth album “The New Abnormal” debut and peak at No.21, and this week thanks to a vinyl, CD, cassette and ltd. ed. colour vinyl release last week (July 24th) the album returns to the chart near its former peak, coming back in at No.23. Also returning to the Top 50 (and some the Top 100) this week are the former One Direction albums, thanks to their recent 10 year anniversary, as four of their five albums are back up this week, starting with “Take Me Home” at No.28 (Top 100 return), then “Four” (66 to No.29), “Midnight Memories” (88 to No.30) and “Made in the A.M.” (75 to No.37).
Another album which returns to the chart this week at No.38 is the 1980 seventh studio album for AC/DC called “Back in Black” which is celebrating its 40th anniversary at the moment, and this is its first Top 50 entry since March 2010 when it came back up as high as No.44. This could occur again next week as Split Enz just issued their 40th ann. edition of “True Colours” this past week. The only rising album within the lower end of the charts is the Cold Chisel “Best of – All for You” (50 to No.45).
DOWN:
Four albums leave the Top 10 this week starting with the Lime Cordiale set “14 Steps to a Better You” (HP-1×1, WI10-2, 5 to No.13) followed by Luke Combs with “What You See is What You Get” (HP-1×1, WI10-11a, 10 to No.15), last weeks high flyer for BTS and “Map of the Soul: 7 ~ The Journey” (HP-9, WI10-1, 9 to No.22) and plummeting are DMA’s with “The Glow” (HP-2, WI10-2) which is down twenty-six places to No.32 this week.
All three Post Malone albums drop down this week in “Hollywood’s Bleeding” (11 to No.16), his second set “Beerbong’s & Bentley’s” (24 to No.35) and “Stoney (41 to No.50). Elton John’s best of set “Diamonds” drops down eight to No.20. Lady Gaga has an eleven place slide to No.25 with her set “Chromatica”, Lewis Capaldi drops down seven to No.27 and the compilation album “Music from the Home Front” falls eighteen places this week to land at No.31.
Bob Dylan’s latest “Rough and Rowdy Days” falls twelve to No.33, XXXTentacion’s “?” drops back down nine spots to No.36, the self-titled Dua Lipa set falls ten to No.39, Eminem’s “Curtain Call: The Hits” tumbles fourteen places to No.40, the Billie Eilish EP “Don’t Smile at Me” slides down nine to No.42 and Dean Lewis falls fourteen places to No.48 with “A Place We Knew”.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #11 (LP#5) – Lion Side by Jasmine Rae is the highest charted solo album for the Melbourne based country singer and her first new album in over five years. All five of Jasmine’s albums have charted, with her third set “If I Want to” (Aug 2013) was her previous highest charted album, making it No.23.
* #14 (LP#6) – No Pressure by Logic is the sixth and final studio album for the American rapper (he says he’s retiring to look after his new child), and the seventh albums chart entry in Australia for him (six studios, one mixtape). He has placed an album on the charts for the past four years in 2017, 2018 (1 studio, 1 mixtape), 2019 and now this year, with his last set called “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” (HP-12, May 2019).
* #46 (LP#4) – All Distortions are Intentional by Neck Deep is the fourth album for the Welsh pop-punk outfit and now their third to chart in Australia after “Life’s Not Out to Get You” (LP#2, HP-28, August 2015) and their last was “The Peace and The Panic” (LP#3, HP-8, late Aug. 2017).
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
