The eleventh studio album for Kasey Chambers entitled “Dragonfly” becomes her fifth No.1 Album in Australia by entering at the top of the ARIA Albums Chart this week.
“Dragonfly” becomes the 795th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2017) and the 646th for ARIA (1983 to 2017), the fourth No.1 for 2017 and the first for an Australian artist, plus the third No.1 album on Kasey’s own record label Essence Entertainment after her second and third chart-topping sets in “Wayward Angel” (5 weeks from 7th June, 2004) and “Carnival” (1 wk on 28th Aug, 2006), plus her other summer sets were “Barricades & Brickwalls” (2 broken wks on 25th Feb and 25th March in 2002, via EMI) and “Rattlin’ Bones” with her husband Shane Nicholson (1 wk on 28th April 2008, via Liberation), overall this is Kasey’s eighth Top 10 album in Australia too.
So with this new Kasey album becoming her fifth No.1 album, she also racks up her tenth accumulated week at No.1 on the Australian Albums chart, moving her from equal 72nd to now equal 60th on the list ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums’ alongside the ten weeks achieved by Coldplay and Silverchair (both from 5 #1’s), Human Nature (4 #1’s), Live, Missy Higgins and Bruce Springsteen (3 #1’s) plus Dido and Paul McCartney (2 No.1’s each). Plus she is also now equal seventeenth with eleven other acts who have garnered five No.1 Albums such as Neil Diamond, Celine Dion, Powderfinger, Crowded House, AC/DC and The Hilltop Hoods.
This is the first time that the word “Dragonfly” has appeared in a No.1 album title, and no solo ‘Dragon(s)’ either, but two previous ‘Fly’ sets in a Butterfly albums; the same titled Mariah Carey album (1 wk 28th Sept 1997) and the Kendrick Lamar set “To Pimp a Butterfly” (1 wk 23rd March 2015). Whilst the only previous album entitled “Dragonfly” to chart here in Australia was the ninth album for Jefferson Starship in May 1975 which reached No.60.
This new No.1 becomes the 211th chart topping album for an Australian act, and the 118th for a Solo Female Artist, plus Kasey is now the equal first placed Solo Female Australian Artist with the most No.1 albums alongside Olivia Newton-John (who scored her fifth in December of 2016), after which Kylie Minogue and Delta Goodrem are in second place with four apiece. Kasey is also third equal in the category of ‘Most Weeks at No.1 on the Albums chart for Australian Solo Female Acts’. In first place with 32 weeks is Delta, followed by Olivia with 15 weeks and tied with 10 weeks are Kasey and Missy Higgins, after which Kylie is next having racked up 8 wks.
The next albums are all animated film soundtracks (school goes back next week, so expect a drop in two weeks time for most of these), as the “Trolls” set is stable at No.2 and back up one place each are “Sing” and “Moana” to No.3 and No.4 respectively, whilst also back up one place to No.5 is “25” by Adele ahead of her tour here in a couple of weeks.
Last weeks two Top 10 debuts are up next, with local sister act The McClymonts down three places to No.6 with “Endless” and last weeks No.1 debut in the third album for The xx and “I See You” is down six places this week to No.7. The fourth and final Top 10 soundtrack this week is for “La La Land” which picked up 14 Oscar Nominations this past week and is down one spot to No.8, whilst also dropping a single spot are “Blue & Lonesome” for The Rolling Stones and “Ripcord” by Keith Urban to No.9 and No.10 respectively.
UP:
* The current national tour of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds again helps their second No.1 album “Skelton Tree” to climb, this week it is back up six spots to No.16.
* The Triple J Hottest 100 on this past Thursday had quite a lot of “Like a Version Vol.12” songs in the countdown, and that helps the set to rise back up four places to No.17 this week.
* The Bruce Springsteen collection “Chapter & Verse” leaps back up twenty spots to No.20 thanks to his tour here starting Perth on the 25th of January, whilst he will be here until the 18th of February.
* Two local best of sets jump back up (again) this week after falling last week, with the Cold Chisel “All for You-Best of” leaping back up thirty-one spots to No.30 (last week it fell from 25 to 61), and the INXS “Very Best of” is back up ten to No.32 (last week dropped from 22 to 42).
* The Triple J 100 effect also benefits the Childish Gambino album “Awaken, My Love!” (his song “Redbone” was #4), this week back up ten spots to No.34.
* Passenger is also touring the country at the moment, and his former No.1 set “Young as the Morning, Old as the Sea” zooms back up thirty-eight spots to No.43.
* Hillsong Worship see their “Let There Be Light” album rise back up ten spots to No.46.
* The only new album certification this week is for the Leonard Cohen final album “You Want it Darker”, which is up one spot to No.47 and newly crowned Gold (●) in sales.
* Illy scored two big entries in the Triple J 100 listing for 2016, and his “Two Degrees” album is back up sixteen places to No.53, whilst Violent Soho landed five songs within the hundred, which sees their “WACO” set rise nine places to No.54.
* RuFuS scored two entries into the J 100 as well, and their “Bloom” album returns from the undergrowth to re-enter at No.63, with further J entrants benefiting from returning albums in Tash Sultana (2 entries) with her “Notion” EP at No.74, A.B.Original (2 entries) and “Reclaim Australia” at No.81 and Catfish and the Bottlemen (3 entries) with “The Ride” at No.92.
* The Hilltop Hoods landed two J songs for 2016, and their parent album “Drinking… Walking… Restrung” is back up seven places to No.66, with The Amity Affliction landing three songs in the 100, which helps their former No.1 set “This Could Be Heartbreak” to jump back up twenty-eight spots to No.71.
* The ‘Matilda” cast recording is back up ten places to No.75.
* The final returning album is from PJ Harvey and “The Hope Six Demolition Project” at No.86, helped by her recent tour here, which finished up on the 28th of January in Brisbane.
NEW ENTRIES:
* #12 – AFI (The Blood Album) (LP#10) by AFI is the tenth studio album by this US rock band, and their first new material in over three years. This is the band’s fifth album to chart here (all studio sets, from #6 onwards), and now third highest charted after “Burials” (LP#9, Oct 2013, HP-10) and their highest charting set was “December Underground” (LP#7, June 2006, HP-3). They have also charted “Sing the Sorrow” (LP#6, HP-65, April 2003) and “Crash Love” (LP#8, HP-16, Oct 2009).
* #38 – Xenocide (LP#3) by Aversions Crown is the Brisbane four-piece Metal acts third studio album and first to chart nationally.
* #40 – Lovelight (LP#3) by The Lachy Doley Group is a group led by Blues Soul Rock Organ Player Lachy Doley, and this is also the third studio album and first albums chart entry for the act, who are touring the country nationally.
* #49 – The Last Text EP (EP#1) by Jacob Sartorius is the first EP for the 14-year-old internet act, which features his current US and Canada charted single “Sweatshirt”, and is his first entry here.
* #52 – Vessels (LP#2) by Starset is the first chart entry and second studio album for the US four-piece band led by Dustin Bates.
* #56 – Us (LP#1) by Bryan Lanning, who is a vlogger on ‘Daily Bumps’ (over 2 million subscribers) sees his first solo album chart here this week, having previously released an EP a couple of years ago.
* #61 – Return to Ommadawn (LP#26) by Mike Oldfield is the follow-up to his third studio album “Ommadawn” (HP-60, Dec 1975), and this becomes his thirteenth album to chart in Australia and now his first for this century, as he was last on our charts back in October of 1998 with “Tubular Bells III” (HP-96), plus this album enters one place lower than the originals peak position.
* #78 – QSP (LP#1) by QSP is the trio of Suzi Quatro (the Q), Andy Scott (the S) from The Sweet and Don Powell (the P) from Slade who has joined together to do a covers and originals album of 14 songs, the covers include “Little Sister” (Elvis Presley), “The Price of Love” (Bryan Ferry), “Just Like a Woman” (Bob Dylan) and “Tobacco Road” (Nashville Teens) amongst the tracks.
* #96 – Okay (LP#2) by As it is, which is the first entry here for the British five-piece pop punk band.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
