Australian Charts: Bluey The Album is Number One

The soundtrack to the ABC Kids show Bluey debuts at No.1 this week, called “Bluey The Album”, it becomes the first kids set to make it to the top of the Australian Album Charts, also a first for it’s composers Joff Bush and David Barber.

“Bluey The Album” becomes the 904th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2021), the 754th for ARIA (1983 to 2021), the 541st to debut in the top spot (since 1976), the third consecutive album to debut at No.1 this year and the third for a local act, while it’s the first for its record label Ludo Studios (through Universal Australia and DMG/BBC worldwide).

The new No.1 album becomes the first soundtrack to make it to top locally this decade, as the last soundtrack at the top was almost two years ago (1 year and 355 days, 10 days shy) on February 11th, 2019 when “A Star is Born” soundtrack returned to the top for an eleventh and final week after it’s Oscar win. Overall this new No.1 becomes the 54th soundtrack to make it to No.1 here and the seventh TV Soundtrack too, the last one being Jessica Mauboy’s “The Secret Daughter” set in October of 2016.

There has been no word ‘Bluey’ in a No.1 album title previously, but there have been nine previous ‘Blue’ titled albums, while ‘The Album’ or ‘Album’ has also had nine No.1 appearances. Lastly as this is the third local TV Soundtrack (‘Molly’ in Feb 2016 was the first) to hit the top, and it is also performed by Australian artists, it becomes the 253rd Australian performed No.1 album, and follows on from last weeks Illy set “The Space Between” as the first two Aussie’s to make it to the top in 2021.

It’s a top two for local acts this week, as rising one spot to a new peak of No.2 is The Kid Laroi with his mixtape “F**k Love” alongside his EP “Savage”, which is followed by a returning album from early November of 2020, Bring Me the Horizon with “Post Human: Survival Horror” at No.3, which returns to the chart thanks to a physical CD and vinyl release last week, and by coming back in at three it surpasses the No.7 peak it first achieved last year, and a second overall week within the Top 10, plus the set lands at No.2 on our vinyl chart and at No.1 in their home country of England this week.

No.1 in America and Canada for a second week is the Morgan Wallen set “Dangerous: The Double Album” (HP-2), which here rises back up two places to No.4, while bouncing back up three spots to No.5 is “Fine Line” for Harry Styles (55th week within the T10). The first No.1 from this year was last year’s carry-over Taylor Swift set “evermore”, which is down two places to No.6, the only dropping entry within the Top 10.

Pop Smoke rises back up two spots to No.7 with “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon”, while another passed rapper in Juice WRLD rebounds seven places to No.10 with “Legends Never Die”, which is helped back up the charts thanks to his many placings within the Triple J Hottest 100 for 2020 (#39, #40, #49 & #60), as too Lime Cordiale’s “14 Steps to a Better You” which leaps back up twenty-eight spots to No.8, thanks to landing five placings within the countdown, #26, #25, #20, #16 and #11. Also back into the ten, up three spots to No.9 is Luke Combs’ “What You Get is What You See”, spending a 17th week within the Top 10.

UP:
TOP 20: The No.2 placed act (along with #81, #28 and #15) on the J100 countdown were Spacey Jane whose album “Sunlight” (HP-2) zooms back up thirty spots to land at No.14, while their single “Booster Seat” becomes their first Top 10 entry locally, making to No.8 this week. Machine Gun Kelly managed one spot in the countdown, No.36 with “forget me too”, while his album “Tickets to My Downfall” rises again this week, up six spots to No.18.
TOP 30: Glass Animals took out the J100 No.1 spot with their single “Heat Waves”, along with the positions #51 and #18, and now their mid-August 2020 No.6 entry “Dreamland” returns to the Top 100 this week at No.22. With last weekend also being the Australia Day long weekend, local acts whose best of sets rise this week include INXS (39 to No.29) and Cold Chisel (55 to No.30).
TOP 40: The ARIA Album of the Year for 2020 in the Tame Impala set “The Slow Rush” leaps back up thirty-one places to land at No.35, thanks to three J100 entries at No.33, No.17 and No.5 with “Lost in Yesterday”, while Halsey scored two (one as a duet with M.G.K.) entries at No.36 and No.19, which helps her “Manic” album to rise back up two to No.38.
TOP 50: Climbing back into the Top 50 this week are collections for Foo Fighters (57 to No.46) and Green Day (54 to No.47), along with ‘The Greatest Showman’ soundtrack (51 to No.45) and the Post Malone set “Beerbongs & Bentley’s” (53 to No.49).

DOWN:
TOP 20: Five albums leave the Top 10 this week, but only one of them remains within the Top 50. The Eminem repackaged set “Music to Be Murdered by” (HP-1, WI10-9a) drops back down six places to No.11, with the set entering at No.1 53 weeks ago (Jan 27th, 2020). Last weeks No.1 for Illy and “The Space Between” (HP-1, WI10-1) leaves the entire Top 50 this week, as too does last weeks No.2 entry “The Good Times and The Bad Ones” (HP-2, WI10-1) for Why Don’t We and Zayn’s third album “Nobody is Listening” (HP-10, WI10-1), plus the No.1 album from two weeks ago is also gone, Barry Gibb’s “Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers’ Songbook 1” (HP-1, WI10-2), meaning that of the four No.1’s for 2021 so far, only two have remained within the Top 10 (or Top 50) this week, this weeks new No.1 album and Taylor’s “evermore”. Further former No.1’s to drop within the Top 20 are for Billie Eilish (14 to No.15), AC/DC’s “Power Up” (11 to No.16) and Taylor’s “folklore” set (16 to No.20).
TOP 30: Miley Cyrus slips down six spots to No.21 with “Plastic Hearts”, Sam Smith and The Weeknd dip three places each to No.24 and No.25 respectively, while Ariana Grande’s latest set “Positions” drops eight to No.26.
TOP 40: The current album for Guy Sebastian called “T.R.U.T.H.” falls eleven spots to No.31, while Lewis Capaldi and Harry Styles are both down six places each to No.32 and No.34 with their debut sets. Post Malone’s most recent album “Hollywood’s Bleeding” falls seven to No.36, Ed Sheeran’s last set “No.6 Collaborations Project” falls six to No.39 and falling nine spots to No.40 is the Eminem collection “Curtain Call: The Hits”.
TOP 50: Queen’s biopic soundtrack ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ dips four spots to No.41, Taylor Swift’s older two entries in “Lover” (35 to No.42) and “1989” (38 to No.43) both drop down, Dua Lipa’s first self-titled set slips three to No.44 and Jack Harlow’s debut set “That’s What They All Say” falls seven places to land at No.50.

FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #12 (LP#2) – Isles by Bicep (Ninja Tune) is the second album for Northern Ireland duo, but their first to chart entry locally, as their self-titled debut set from 2017 didn’t chart here, neither did any of their 14 EP’s they’ve released from 2010 onwards. This set also debuted at No.3 on the vinyl chart this week.

* #19 (Live#1) – Live at the Continental by Chris Wilson (Cheersquad Records) was first released as a cassette and CD only in 1994 by the local bluesman, and after the passing in January of 2019 it’s now been re-issued digitally and on vinyl, while it lands the No.1 spot on the ARIA Vinyl chart this week, and becomes his third Top 100 and second Top 50 entry after “Short Cool Ones” alongside Diesel (HP-18, 1996) and “The Long Weekend” (HP-75, 1998).

*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 22nd to the 28th of January, 2021.