The Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper soundtrack for their film ‘A Star is Born’ rises three places to claim the No.1 slot on the ARIA Albums Chart, the set also taking the top spot in New Zealand (1st week), England (returns for 2nd week), America and Canada (holds for a second week).
The soundtrack for “A Star is Born” becomes the 839th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2018), the 690th for ARIA (1983 to 2018), the 30th No.1 for the record label Interscope (and third this year after J. Cole {April} and Eminem {Sept.}), while also the third No.1 album for Lady Gaga with her two previous chart topping sets being “The Fame Monster” (3 weeks from 5th of April, 2010) and “Born This Way” (2 weeks from 30th of May, 2011), which means she has now amassed six weeks at the top during this decade, moving her up to eighth on the list for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums; 2010’s’ breaking away from the tie with The Hilltop Hoods and John Farnham (5 weeks apiece). Plus by climbing to the No.1 spot it also surpasses the No.3 peak of the 1977 soundtrack by Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.
This is the tenth time that a ‘Star’ has appeared in a No.1 album title, while it’s also the sixth to feature the word ‘Born’ with Gaga already having one of this with “Born This Way” and the last birth at the top was for John Mayer with “Born and Raised” (1 wk on 4th of June, 2012). This is also the 52nd soundtrack album to take out the No.1 spot in Australia since ‘The Sound of Music’ was the first in April of 1965 and it also becomes the third soundtrack at the top during 2018 after ‘The Greatest Showman’ (8 weeks from 8th of January) and ‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’ (2 weeks from 30th of July), which matches 2016 as the year with the most soundtracks at No.1 (and also 2001) this century, plus with the new Queen biopic opening next week and its soundtrack entering this week we could be seeing a fourth film themed album hit the top this year. Plus this is the twentieth time that a soundtrack and its single have been at the top of both charts, as the current No.1 single is “Shallow” which becomes the fifth time this century that this has occurred, the first being for Coyote Ugly (Jan to Feb 2001), followed by Moulin Rouge (28th of May, 2001), 8 Mile (Jan & Feb 2003) and the last one was for Fifty Shades of Grey (Feb & March 2015).
Four albums debut right behind the new No.1 album from acts that have all had previous No.1 albums, with the highest new entry this week being the third album for local electro-act Rufus Du Sol (formerly known as RÜFÜS) who come in at No.2 with “Solace” which becomes their third Top 3 album as they previously hit No.1 with “Atlas” (1 wk on 19th of Aug, 2013) and “Bloom” (1 wk on 1st of Feb, 2016). This is followed at No.3 by the seventh studio album for heavy metal act Disturbed and “Evolution” with this their seventh Top 100/40 entry and fourth Top 10/3 album with their two former No.1 albums being “Indestructible” (1 wk on 16th of June, 2008) and then “Immortalized” (2 broken weeks on 31st of Aug, 2015 and again 25th of April, 2016).
There are only three albums left within this weeks Top 10 from last weeks, with the ‘A Star is Born’ soundtrack one of them, while also hanging in there are Eminem with his “Kamikaze” set down two spots to No.4, and 86 weeks running Ed Sheeran’s third album “÷ (Divide)” dropping to its lowest point ever of No.8 this week.
Next week the biopic for the group Queen from their founding to Live Aid (early 70’s to mid-80’s) opens in cinemas and this week the soundtrack to the upcoming release entitled “Bohemian Rhapsody” debuts at No.5, becoming the groups ninth Top 10 album and their first entry this century to the ten, as they last debuted at No.3 in November of 1995 with Freddie’s last album “Made in Heaven”, while their first was their only No.1 set “A Night at the Opera’ (2 weeks at No.1 from 15th of March, 1976). 20 of the 22 tracks on this new album are by Queen including live tracks and remastered album songs.
The new Triple J’s “Like a Version Volume 14” collection enters at No.6 becoming the first of the past five volumes not to enter in the No.1 slot, as the series has placed a chart-topping set at the summit during October with Vol.9 (28-Oct-13), Vol.10 (20-Oct-14), Vol.11 (12-Oct-15), Vol.12 (17-Oct-16) and Vol.13 (16-Oct-17) all for a single week at the top, while overall this is the thirteenth of the fourteen to chart (Vol.2 didn’t chart in 2006), and this new set contains covers by Gang of Youths, Angus & Julia Stone, Dean Lewis, Grinspoon, Thundamentals, Billie Eilish, Tove Stryke and The Kooks among the 39 tracks.
Local country singer Troy Cassar-Daley lands his fifth Top 10 album locally with his fifth “Greatest Hits” collection coming in at No.7 this week, while over eleven years ago he took his second best of “Born to Survive: The Best of” to No.18 (July 2007) and was last within the Top 10 with his August 2016 eleventh studio album “Things I Carry Around” (HP-5, early September 2016).
The last two Top 10 entries this week (7 in total) is the seven track EP for 20 year old Khalid entitled “Suncity” which enters at No.9, becoming his first Top 10 albums chart entry here, as his debut set “American Teen” peaked at No.13 (TW-33), with this new EP containing current chart entries “Better” (TW-6), the title track “Suncity” (TW-30) and “Saturday Nights” (TW-84). Coming in at No.10 are the band Greta Van Fleet with their debut studio album “Anthem of the Peaceful Army”, the band made up the three brothers Josh, Jake and Sam Kiszka along with drummer Danny Wagner, with this album also entering the Top 10 in Germany (#3), Italy, Scotland, Sweden (all #6) and New Zealand (#7).
UP:
* With Taylor Swift in the country on tour her almost one year old album “Reputation” rises five spots to No.12, while her 209 week old previous album “1989” is up fifteen places to land at No.37.
* With a new Top 10 single for Billie Eilish her album “Don’t Smile at Me” (which the new entry is NOT from) is back up four spots to No.20.
* With the new soundtrack for the upcoming Queen biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ entering within the Top 5 their two collections also rise in their 1981 set “Greatest Hits” (29 to 25) and 2003’s “Platinum Collection” (44 to 29), while other rising best of’s are by Jason DeRulo (80 to 79), Red Hot Chili Peppers (96 to 90) and Fleetwood Mac (Very Best of returns at No.98).
* The new singles chart entry for Post Malone sees his older album “Stoney” back up five spots to No.30.
* Khalid’s new entry to the current top ten helps his debut studio set “American Teen” back up eight places to No.33.
* The newly expanded Dua Lipa self-titled album and new Top 40 singles chart entry helps the album to leap back up thirty-two places to land at No.53.
* The soundtrack for ‘Molly’ is back up five spots to No.59, with the ‘Deadpool 2′ set up eight to No.91.
* Three older Eminem albums in the lower fifty all rise this week with “The Eminem Show” (81 to 66), “Revival” (88 to 87) and “Recovery” (98 to 88).
* With Lady Gaga hitting No.1 this week she returns with “The Fame Monster” (#78) and also the singular edition in “The Fame” (#96).
* The fourth and final returning album this week is the Kygo set “Kids in Love” at No.95.
DOWN:
* With seven album debuting within the Top 10 this week the seven to fall out are led by Paul Kelly’s “Nature” (HP-1, WI10-1) which debuted at the top last week and it drops down fourteen places to land at No.15, while bigger falls occur for Hands Like Houses with “Anon” (HP-4) and the repacked anniversary edition of the Powderfinger set “Internationalist” (#8) which both leave the Top 100 this week, which I think means Hands Like Houses have the highest charted dropout ever from No.4. Also sliding out of the ten is “Scorpion” (HP-1×2, WI10-16) by Drake down four to No.11 and leaving the ten for its first time, followed by the re-packaged 2CD edition of “The Greatest Showman” soundtrack (HP-1×8, WI10-44a) down three to No.13, the No.1 album from two weeks ago in “Trench” for twenty one pilots (HP-1×1, WI10-2) down ten places to No.19 and lastly Morgan Evans’ “Things That We Drink to” (HP-5, WI10-1) plummets twenty-seven spots to land at No.32.
* Ariana Grande has no Top 50 entries this week on the singles chart, and her latest album “Sweetener” falls down six places to No.18.
* The repacked Cold Chisel “The Best of-All for You” drops down eight spots to No.21, with other falling collections being for Eminem (21 to 22), Maroon 5 (47 to 51), Pink (43 to 52), INXS (50 to 56), ABBA (Gold, 51 to 64 and Gold & More 77 to 86), Green Day (75 to 82) and The Foo Fighters (91 to 100).
* Jess Glynne falls nine spots to No.27 with last weeks entry of her second album “Always in Between”.
* Amy Shark moves down thirteen places to No.35 with her “Love Monster” album.
* Now that he’s lost the No.1 singles chart slot the George Ezra album “Staying at Tamara’s” drops down eleven spots to No.38.
* Two of last weeks Top 20 debuts fall into the Top 50 this week, with the self-titled debut set for Ella Mai down twenty-one to No.40 and the first album for Quavo and “Quavo Huncho” dropping twenty-five to No.41.
* Vance Joy drops down eleven places to No.42 with “Nation of Two”, while his first album “Dream Your Life Away” slides down twelve places to No.81.
* Nicki Minaj’s crown slips twelve spots to No.46 with her latest album “Queen”.
* The soundtrack for ‘Guardians Vol.1’ falls eight spots to No.47, with other falling soundtracks being for ‘Black Panther’ (53 to 57), ‘Suicide Squad’ (55 to 60), ‘Moana’ (65 to 72) and Jimmy Barnes’ ‘Working Class Boy-The Soundtracks’ (38 to 77).
* 6lack drops down eleven places to No.48 with his “East Atlanta Love Letter” set.
* John Butler Trio’s “Home” moves down twenty-three places this week to settle at No.49.
* Imagine Dragons devolve ten places to No.55 with their set “Evolve”.
* Now that their tour here is over the Panic! At the Disco set “Pray for the Wicked” drops down a massive twenty-eight places this week to No.61.
* 5 Seconds of Summer and their “Youngblood” set is down fifteen places this week to No.69.
* Logic drops down twenty-one places to No.70 with his “YSIV (Young Sinatra Vol.4) album.
* Troye Sivan dips down eleven places to No.71 with “Bloom”.
* Gang of Youths fall ten places to No.73 with “Go Farther in Lightness” just as their new Unplugged album was issued on Friday.
* The Tony Bennett and Diana Krall album “Love is Here to Stay” had been spending the past five weeks within the Top 40, now this week it plummets forty-five spots to land at No.75.
* Anne-Marie’s debut album “Speak Your Mind” is down thirteen places to No.80.
* The BTS album “Love Yourself: Answer” moves down twelve spots to No.84.
* Tash Sultana tumbles sixteen spots to land at No.84 with her set “Flow State”.
* Brockhampton plummet thirty-three places to No.89 with their former No.6 set “Iridescence”.
* Maroon 5 falls twenty-one places to No.93 with their “Red Pill Blues” album.
* The Sigala album has held on for a fourth week within the Top 100, this week “Brighter Days” slips down twelve spots to No.99.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #23 (LP#4) – Rue by Hellions is the Sydney punk bands fourth album and chart entry having previously charted with “Die Young” (LP#1, HP-40, late Sept 2013), “Indian Summer” (LP#2, HP-19, Feb 2015) and their last entry was “Opera Oblivia” (LP#3, HP-4, Aug 2016).
* #28 (MixTape#1) – WRLD on Drugs by Future and Juice WRLD is the first collaborative mixtape between the two rappers with the pairs single together “Fine China” debuting at No.85 this week, while guest acts on the sixteen tracks includes Young Thug, Lil’ Wayne and Nicki Minaj among them.
* #36 (MixTape#2) – Mono by RM (born Kim Nam-joon) is the second mixtape for the South Korean rapper and lead singer with the group BTS, with the set charting highest (so far) in Norway (#17), Scotland (#21) and Sweden (#28).
* #62 (LP#3) – Nothin’ 2 Prove by Lil’ Yachty is third album and entry for the US rapper, who first charted with his “Teenage Emotions” (also HP-62, June 2017) and then hit the Top 40 with “Lil’ Boat 2” (HP-36, March 2018), with this new album featuring guests such as Juice WRLD, Lil’ Baby, Cardi B, Offset and Trippie Redd among its fifteen tracks.
* #74 (GH#1) – Major Lazer Essentials by Major Lazer is a twenty-five track collection of his hits and new songs including “Lean On”, “Cold Water”, “Bubble Butt” and “Get Free” among them.
* #92 (LP#1) – Stand by Me by The Kingdom Choir is the debut album for the choir that most people first saw at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, with this album containing their renditions of “Stand by Me”, “All of Me”, “I Say a Little Prayer”, “Halo”, “Fix You”, “Amazing Grace” and “You’re the Voice” among its fifteen tracks.
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Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
