Kendrick Lamar’s fifth studio album titled “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” enters at No.1 on the ARIA Albums Chart this week.
“Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” (Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope) is the 948th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2022), the 799th for ARIA (1983 to 2022), the 583rd to debut at the top, the 17th No.1 Album for 2022, the 37th for the record label Interscope and now the second for Kendrick after his third set “To Pimp a Butterfly” went to the top for a single week on March 23rd, 2015.
Mr. Lamar’s new set also becomes his sixth Albums Chart entry, made up of 4 studio, 1 compilation and 1 soundtrack for ‘Black Panther’, his last albums chart appearance in late February of 2018, reaching No.2 upon entry for two weeks. This new No.1 becomes the fourth to contain the word ‘big’ in it’s title, with the last being from this week’s No.2 entrants Florence + the Machine with “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” (8th of June, 2015). It’s the first time for the words ‘Mr.’, ‘morale’ and ‘steppers’, but we have had two previous ‘Step’ sets from Kylie Minogue (July 2019) and Lime Cordiale with ‘steps’ (July 2020).
This is the fourth rap artist to score a No.1 Album this year, after Huskii (Feb), Machine Gun Kelly (April) and Future two weeks ago on May 9th. The new No.1 set also becomes the 332nd by an American Artist (solo male or female, duo or group) to make it to the top (sixth for 2022), and the 272nd by a Solo Male Artist (local or overseas), the eighth for this year, and the third in a row after Daniel Johns last week and Future the week prior. Kendrick’s new album has also landed first week at No.1 in New Zealand, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands and Lithuania, while it landed at No.2 in both England and Scotland, plus it has placed fourteen songs (of it’s 18 in total) within the Top 50 singles chart this week, with three landing within the Top 10, “N95” (#3), “Die Hard” (#5) and “United in Grief” (#7).
Also debuting with their fifth studio album are Florence + the Machine with “Dance Fever” (#3 vinyl) coming in at No.2, while the set took out the top spot in England and Scotland, plus a No.2 entry in N.Z., Ireland, The Netherlands and Germany too. All of the groups five studio albums have landed at No.3 or higher, with their two No.1’s being “Ceremonials” (LP#2, 1 week on Nov. 7th, 2011) and “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” (LP#3, 1 week on June 8th, 2015), plus they have also charted two further Top 20 albums, making their tally of seven chart entries locally.
Last week’s highest new entry for Jack Harlow’s “Come Home the Kids Miss You” drops down one spot this week to No.3, followed by another single downward move for Olivia Rodrigo’s “SOUR” to No.4, the set logging it’s one-year chart and Top 10 anniversary this week, as her album has yet to depart the Top 10, having only ever dropped as low as No.9 on two occasions (Nov. 22nd and Dec. 20th, 2021).
After returning to the Top 100 last week at No.12, The Hilltop Hoods sixth album “Drinking From the Sun” rises seven places to land at No.5 this week, retaining the No.1 selling vinyl album this week, while the set logs it’s tenth week inside of the Top 10, last being within the ten on August 13th, 2020 (#7). The third and final Top 10 debut is the first studio album for local artist Mallrat called “Butterfly Blue” (#2 vinyl), which lands at No.6 this week, becoming her second Top 10 placement, as her third EP “Driving Music” debuted and peaked at No.10 in mid-September of 2019.
Harry Styles dropped his third studio album “Harry’s House” on Friday (May 20th), and it could be next week’s No.1 (he’s up against Flume’s new set), and his second studio album “Fine Line” (#12 vinyl) is this week down two spots to No.7. Last week’s No.1 album for Daniel Johns with “FutureNever” drops back down seven places this week to land at No.8, followed by two place drops for both The Weeknd’s package “The Highlights” and Doja Cat’s “Planet Her” to No.9 and No.10 respectively.
UP:
Harry Styles’ self-titled debut album is back up nine places this week to No.14, while it’s also the #10 selling vinyl album of the week. Taylor Swift has three rising albums this week, “1989” (20 to No.18), “Lover” (38 to No.36) and her “Reputation’ rebounds seven places to land at No.39.
Kid Laroi landed back in Australia on Friday, ahead of his national tour starting on Thursday (26th of May) in Sydney, while his mixtape’s “F**k Love” is back up four places this week to No.20. Both Billie Eilish sets rebound three places each with ‘Sleep’ to No.22 and ‘Happier’ up to No.25, while Drake’s “Certified Lover Boy” is also up three spots to No.28.
The Weeknd’s “After Hours” set jumps seven spots to No.30, while the new No.1 Album for Kendrick Lamar has dragged two of his previous albums back up the chart this week, with “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” jumping six spots to No.34 and his “Damn.” set jumps fourteen places to No.48.
Nine weeks ago UK artist Charli XCX debuted at No.1 with her latest album “Crash”, which thanks to a vinyl chart #7 placing this week, the album returns to the Top 100 at No.38 this week, while the last climbing set within the Top 50 is “AM” (#15 vinyl) for Arctic Monkeys to No.47.
DOWN:
Two of the four Top 10 dropouts land within the Top 50 this week, with Ed Sheeran’s “= (Equals)” (HP-1×1, WI10-28) leaving the Top 10 for the first time in it’s 29 week chart run, down six places to No.12, while notching up it’s half-year (26 weeks) chart anniversary is Adele’s “30” (HP-1×7, WI10-18a), which falls down eleven places this week to No.15. Last week’s Top 10 debuts for Alison Wonderland (#9) and Stand Atlantic (#10) both fall into the lower fifty this week.
The third and final Top 50 entry for The Weeknd and his most recent release “Dawn FM” (#11 vinyl) drops down six places to No.19, the Fleetwood Mac 1977 set “Rumours” (#17 vinyl) drops five to No.24, the ‘Encanto’ soundtrack plummets out of the Top 20 for the first time, down twelve places to No.27 (it’s lowest position other than it’s #29 debut in the first week of the year).
Taylor Swift moves down with “Red (TsV)” (32 to No.33) and “folklore” (34 to No.40), Lewis Capaldi drops back down seven places to No.43, followed by a twenty-seven place tumble to No.44 for the Future set “I Never Liked You”, while Adele’s second fall for the week sees her “25” set decline eleven places to No.50. Further Top 50 dropouts from last week were for Arcade Fire (#11), Kylie Minogue (#27) and Mark Vincent (#41).
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #11 (V/A) – Eurovision Song Contest: Turin 2022 by Various Artists (Universal Denmark) rises into the Top 100 this week (LW-168) thanks to the broadcast last weekend in Turin, Italy of the 66th Eurovision Song Competition, which was won by the Ukrainian entry and their track “Stephania”. Australia’s entry by Sheldon Riley and “Not the Same” made it to No.8 in the jury voting, but dropped to No.15 after the audience voting was included. The album continues it’s annual entry of the music from the ceremony charting, which began in 2012 (the album’s entering, not the competition!).
* #35 (LP#11) – Dropout Boogie by The Black Keys (Nonesuch) is the eleventh studio and now ninth Top 50 entry for the American rock duo, who charted exactly one year ago with their tenth album “Delta Kream” (HP-8, May 24th, 2021), while they scored a No.1 with “Turn Blue” (LP#8) for one week on May 19th, 2014.
* #41 (LP#1) – A Light for Attracting Attention by The Smile (XL/Inertia) is the debut studio album for the English rock group, which landed at No.19 on their homeland chart this week. The trio are made up of two Radiohead members Thom Yorke (vocals) and Johnny Greenwood (guitar), alongside Sons of Kemmet drummer Tom Skinner, plus the album was produced by longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich.
* #46 (LP#1) – Listen to the Water by Luke Steele (EMI Australia) is the first solo release for the former Empire of the Sun and The Sleepy Jackson lead singer. This is now his seventh overall albums chart entry, having logged two with The Sleepy Jackson; “Lovers” (LP#1, HP-23, July 2003) and “Personality – One Was a Spider, One Was a Bird” (LP#2, HP-10, July 2006), and three more with Empire of the Sun; “Walking on a Dream” (LP#1, HP-6, October 2008), “Ice on the Dune” (LP#2, HP-3, June 2013) and then “Two Vines” (LP#3, HP-7, November 2016), while he teamed up with Daniel Johns in 2018 for their project DREAMS, which spawned the album “No One Defeats Us” (HP-42, September 2018).
HP = Highest Position
LW = Last Week
WI10 – Weeks in Top 10
*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 13th to the 19th of May, 2022.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
