For the first time since August a No.1 Album holds the top spot for a second week, as AC/DC’s “Power Up” logs another week at the top of the ARIA Albums Chart.
“Power Up” and its second stay at the summit becomes the equal longest running No.1 album for AC/DC, tying with their chart-topping album from this week in 1992, the double “Live” set which logged two weeks at the top on the 22nd and 29th of November, 1992. This extra week at the top gives the band an increase to eight overall weeks at the top in Australia, moving them up on the list of ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums (1965-2020)’ from 92nd to now 84th, moving ahead of Ariana Grande (8 weeks from 4 #1’s). Their new album also debuted at No.1 in The U.S.A. and Canada this past week.
Of the 38 No.1 albums for 2020 so far, this is only the seventh album to log a second week at No.1, the others were by Harry Styles (Jan), BTS (March), Drake (May), Lady Gaga (June), “Music from the Home Front” (late June) and the last was for Taylor Swift who logged four consecutive weeks from the start of August with her Top-10-returning album this week, “folklore”.
What could have potentially been the new No.1 album this week, as it landed at the top in New Zealand, was the fifth studio album for BTS called “BE”, which comes in at No.2 this week, the first of four consecutive Top 10 entries. The Korean boy band did hit No.1 back in March with “Map of the Soul: 7” for two weeks, and overall this is their seventh Top 10 album placing in Australia (5 studios and 2 EP’s), while the album has two Top 30 charting singles this week in “Dynamite” (HP-2, TW-16) and “Life Goes On” (new at #27).
The next new entry at No.3 is the debut studio album for local songwriter, actor and musical writer Tim Minchin called “Apart Together”, and while he has written stage musicals like ‘Matilda’ and ‘Groundhog Day’ and issued six live albums since 2005, this is his first ever ARIA Albums Chart entry, plus he has managed one charting single in 2016’s “Come Home (Cardinal Pell)” (HP-11). The album has also landed in the Top 30 this week in both England and Scotland.
Returning to the charts for the first time in eight years is Melbourne band Something for Kate with their seventh studio album called “The Modern Medieval”, which the band started writing in 2017, finished in late 2019 and were due to release the material in mid-2020, but due to the pandemic, delayed its release until November instead. The album enters at No.4 this week becoming their sixth Top 10 album in Australia and first since “Leave Your Soul to Science” hit No.5 in early October of 2012.
The third successive Australian act as a new entry this week comes in at No.5, Nick Cave’s new live album “Idiot Prayer-Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace”, which becomes his fifth issued live album, and also his thirteenth Top 10 placing in Australia. The live show was a one-off performance on July 23rd, 2020 after his European and American tours were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, thus he live streamed the show from London’s Alexandra Palace around the world, and now the live show has been issued as a DVD, Blu-Ray and CD for all of to enjoy.
A repackaged edition of the latest Taylor Swift album “folklore” helps the album to rebound fifteen places to land at No.6 this week, giving the album its 14th week within the Top 10, with the other album returning to the Top 10 this week being the Harry Styles set “Fine Line”, up one spot to No.10 (48th week within the Top 10 too). In between those two climbers are three dropping albums in “Positions” for Ariana Grande (3 to No.7), “F*ck Love/Savage” for The Kid Laroi (4 to No.8) and “T.R.U.T.H.” for Guy Sebastian (6 to No.9), giving us six Aussie acts within the Top 10 this week.
UP:Last week’s new entry for Johnny Cash and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is this week up seven places to a new peak of No.12, while another of last week’s entries for Andrea Bocelli and “Believe” leaps up eleven spots to score a new peak of No.24. The biggest ever selling seasonal-set in Australia in the Michael Buble album “Christmas” leaps up this week twenty-two spots to No.38, with another long-running Xmas set for Mariah Carey and “Merry Christmas” jumping up twelve spots to land this week at No.47, and as she has a new Xmas special coming out soon, this album could jump again, and this week we have five seasonal-sets within the Top 50.
DOWN:Six albums leave the Top 10 this week, with the first two Xmas sets to make the Top 10 this year both dropping down this week for Delta Goodrem and “Only Santa Knows” (5 to No.11, WI10-1) and “Jolly Holiday” for Andre Rieu (10 to No.19, WI10-1). Also down are “Disco” for Kylie Minogue (2 to No.14, WI10-2), “Letter to You” by Bruce Springsteen (9 to No.15, WI10-4) and two more of last week’s new entries in “Against All Odds” by OneFour (7 to No.33, WI10-1) and “Push the Blues Away” for Josh Teskey and Ash Grunwald (HP-8, WI10-1), which falls down into the lower fifty this week. Falling four places each are Sam Smith with “Love Goes” (12 to No.16) and the repackaged Luke Combs set “What You See is What You Get” (14 to No.18), after which the Billie Eilish debut album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” is leaving the Top 20 for the first time, after 87 weeks of charting it’s down five places to No.22, followed by five place drops for Juice WRLD and “Legends Never Die” and Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” to No.23 and No.25 respectively. Midnight Oil’s “The Makarrata Project” tumbles down fourteen places to No.30, multi ARIA Award nominees Lime Cordiale and their set “14 Steps to a Better You” is down nine spots to No.32, as too is the Luke Combs debut album “This One’s for You” (27 to No.36). Elton John’s “Diamonds” collection drops down nine to No.39, while the best of sets for Eminem (37 to No.48) and Maroon 5 (36 to No.50) also fall. Machine Gun Kelly’s “Tickets to My Downfall” tumbles eleven spots to No.43, BLACKpink’s “The Album” falls eighteen places to No.46 and the new entries from last week for both Chris Stapleton and Benee drops into the lower fifty this week.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:* #17 (EP#4+5) – Holiday Food / Everyone is Good at Something by Skegss (Ratbag/Warner) are the fourth and fifth EP’s from the local act, originally issued in 2016 (Everyone…) and 2017 (Holiday) and for the first time issued on vinyl, and like their third EP “50 Push Ups for a Dollar” (HP-4, late Oct 2020), it becomes the first chart placing for their older re-issued material, plus their fourth albums chart entry all up.
* #20 (GH#42) – Classic Diamonds by Neil Diamond & The London Symphony Orchestra (Capitol) is a collection of fourteen classic Neil songs accompanied by the London Orchestra like “Song Sung Blue”, “September Morn”, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”, “Play Me”, “Love on the Rocks”‘ Heartlight” and “Sweet Caroline” amongst them, plus it’s also Neil’s first albums chart entry since his late December 2016 set “Acoustic Christmas” (HP-46).
* #21 (LP#16) – K.G. by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (Flightless) is the sixteenth studio album for the local psych-rock act, with the albums subtitle being ‘Explorations into Microtonal Tuning, Volume 2’, and this becomes their 22nd chart entry (15 studios, 5 live, 1 EP, 1 comp) plus their seventh albums chart entry for 2020 (5 live sets, 1 comp and now 1 studio album).
* #26 (LP#9) – Harmony by Josh Groban (Reprise) is the ninth studio album for the American artist, with this new set becoming his twelfth albums chart entry (9 studios, 2 live, 1 best of), and the album contains covers of such songs as “Angels” by Robbie Williams, “Shape of My Heart”, “Both Sides Now”, “She” by Charles Aznavour, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, “It’s Now or Never” and “The Impossible Dream”, as well as duets with Kirk Franklin, Leslie Odom Jr. and Sara Bareilles.
* #28 (LP#1) – Parachutes (20th Ann. Ed.) by Coldplay (Parlophone) has been re-issued on limited edition yellow vinyl for it’s twentieth anniversary, with the set this week in 2000 sitting at No.50, while it would go on to hit No.2 in mid February of 2001 for a four week broken stay.
* #35 (Live#1) – Delicate Sound of Thunder (expanded) by Pink Floyd (Pink Floyd Music/Sony) was the musical giants’ first ever live album, issued in December of 1988, eventually hitting No.4 for two weeks in the last two weeks of that year. The album has been re-issued with eight extra tracks and expanded onto 2 CD’s for over 2 hours of Pink music, while the live concert has also been re-issued on digital platforms recently.
* #37 (LP#7.2) – Walking Under Stars (Instrumental Version) by Hilltop Hoods (Hilltop Hoods Inc.) was the Adelaide bands seventh studio album from August 2014, hitting No.1 for two weeks from mid-August, logging seventeen weeks within the Top 10. This new instrumental edition of the album follows on from their other reissues of their older material like “State of the Art” (HP-31, 12th of October, 2020) and “Drinking from the Sun” (HP-21, 2nd of November, 2020).
* #41 (LP#1) – Good News by Megan Thee Stallion (300 Entertainment/Atlantic) is the debut album for the American female rapper, and the set features her former No.4 single here “Savage”, but NOT her Cardi B duet “WAP”. And of her seven releases (3 EP’s and 3 mixtapes, 1 album) this is her first albums chart entry in Australia.
* #44 (LP#2) – Breakfast at Pathetics by Tired Lion (Dew Process) is the second album for the Perth indie rock band plus their second albums chart entry, as their 2017 debut set “Dumb Days” made it to No.21 in late September of that year.
* #45 (LP#2) – Reluctant Hero by Killer Be Killed (Nuclear Blast) is also the second album for the metal supergroup, and it lands two places higher than their self-titled first albums’ chart entry of No.47 in mid-May of 2014 (HP-47).
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
http://www.australian-charts.com
