For the first time in ten years (and 3 weeks) Robbie Williams has scored a No.1 album in Australia, as last weeks new entry “The Christmas Present” climbs a spot and becomes his fifth overall chart-topping album in Australia for the English singer and performer.
“The Christmas Present” for Robbie Williams becomes the 862nd No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2019), the 712th for ARIA (1983 to 2019), the 24th No.1 of 2019 and the 46th for his current record label Columbia (only his second album with them too) and their third for this year after Bruce Springsteen in June and Luke Combs a few weeks ago in November.
This is now the fifth overall No.1 album for Robbie Williams in Australia, who at this time in 2004 was riding the top of the LP charts (and until the end of the year) with his first ever “Greatest Hits” package, which held the top for nine weeks, after which he has had three more single week stays at the top in “Intensive Care” (31-Oct, 2005), “Rudebox” (30-Oct, 2006) and his last was with “Reality Killed the Video Star” (16-Nov, 2009). On the tally board for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums’, Robbie rises from equal 53rd to now 48th, matching the overall weeks at the top as Led Zeppelin, Midnight Oil (both with four #1’s), James Blunt and Susan Boyle (both with two #1’s), plus he also moves up to equal eighth on the list for ‘Most No.1 Albums’ alongside other acts with five No.1’s in Neil Diamond, Celine Dion, Silverchair, Powderfinger, Crowded House, Michael Buble, AC/DC and from this year Taylor Swift.
This is the first time that a ‘Present’ has appeared in a No.1 album title, and only the third ever ‘Christmas’ titled album and seasonal set to hit the top, as the first was 2011’s “Christmas” for Michael Buble (5 weeks in 2011, 4 weeks in 2012, 3 weeks in 2013, 1 week in 2014 and one final week in 2017, making it 14 weeks in total), and then in 2016 we had “Friends for Christmas” for John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John (2 weeks from 19-Dec). The new No.1 album also becomes the 157th by an English act (solo, duo, group, male or female) and the fifth for 2019, while Robbie knocks off Coldplay from the top with the last English act to dislodge another UK artist occurring back at the start of the year when Queen were knocked off the top by Bring Me the Horizon. The current chart-topping set is also the 245th by a Solo Male Artist (local or overseas) and the tenth for 2019, plus Robbie is now the equal No.1 holder in his native England for most Solo No.1 Albums by a Solo Artist tying with Elvis Presley with 13 No.1 albums, while here in Australia he remains in second place on the listing for ‘Solo English Male Artist’ behind a tie between Rod Stewart and Elton John with seven No.1 albums apiece.
With the opening last week of the sequel Disney film “Frozen 2” in Australian cinemas the soundtrack for the film this week leaps up twenty-two places to land at No.2, reaching that peak one week earlier than the original soundtrack achieved in 2014 (it hit No.2 in its fourth week on the chart), while the third new peaking album in a row is from last weeks inductees into the ARIA Hall of Fame in Human Nature with their third collection and first to land within the Top 10 “Still Telling Everybody: 30 Years of Hits” which jumps up seven spots to land at a new chart height of No.3 and is their highest album since last years No.2 set “Romance of the Jukebox” (late August 2018).
Another collection of hits from an Aussie act lies right behind Human Nature in Paul Kelly’s “Songs from the South: Greatest Hits 1985-2019” which holds at No.4 this week, while 4xARIA Award winner Tones and I benefits from a full week of sales since the awards ceremony (last weeks chart only included five hours of sales around the ARIA Awards, so this week is more of an indicator or total sales since that event), and she is back up three places to No.5 with her debut EP “The Kids are Coming”.
The second seasonal set within the Top 10 this week is the nine-year running Top 10 and multi-No.1 album “Christmas” for Michael Buble, which this week leaps up thirteen places to land at No.6 and log its 54th overall week within the Top 10 (see above in the fourth paragraph for the albums previous No.1 slots), after which is a bunch of declining albums within the Top 10 as Ed Sheeran’s “No.6 Collaborations Project” is down one place to it’s lowest position ever of No.7 (after two weeks at its namesake of No.6), last weeks No.1 entry in the Coldplay set “Everyday Life” falls seven spots to No.8, while the third of last weeks Top 3 entries in the Rod Stewart and The R.P.O. album “You’re in My Heart” falls down this week six spots to No.9 and rounding out the Top 10 and halving its position from last week is the Post Malone set “Hollywood’s Bleeding” landing at No.10.
UP:
* With Elton John starting his national three month tour last week in Perth, his “Diamonds” collection of hits is back up four places to No.14, with his classic 1974 album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” returning at No.57 and the soundtrack to his biopic “Rocketman’ back in at No.71.
* The Beatles 1969 No.1 (at this time) in “Abbey Road” rebounds a massive twenty-nine spots this week to land back at No.24.
* Last weeks entry for Andre Rieu and “Happy Days” is up four spots to a new peak of No.25.
* Jess Mauboy is back up four spots this week to No.26 with her recent No.1 set “Hilda”.
* Queen rebounds this week too with their biopic soundtrack ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (38 to No.30) and their “Greatest Hits” (81 to No.60), while their “The Platinum Collection returns at No.78.
* ARIA Award winners The Hilltop Hoods won and performed last week at the ceremony and this helps their latest set “The Great Expanse” to jump up thirteen places to No.37.
* Further climbing soundtracks this week are for ‘A Star is Born’ (43 to No.38), Frozen (72 to No.54 thanks to the new one out), ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.1’ (returns at No.93) and the Bruce Springsteen soundtrack for ‘Western Stars-Songs from the film’ (re-entry at No.95).
* The Teskey Brothers older album “Half Mile Harvest” returned last week after their many ARIA Award wins and this week is up eighteen spots to No.39, while their current studio album “Run Home Slow” is down one spot to No.15.
* After the rising Queen sets are further climbing best of collections for Cold Chisel (47 to No.41, new LP issued on Friday) and The Killers (84 to No.80).
* The Fleetwood Mac 1977 set “Rumours” was re-issued on clear vinyl last week along with four of the bands other albums, and that possibly helps the set to rebound thirty-one places this week to No.43.
* Khalid was in the country last week on a promo tour, and his first album “American Teen” is back up five places to No.44, while his latest set “Free Spirit” is down four to No.21.
* The “Like a Version Vol.15” set from Triple J is back up eight places to No.51.
* ARIA nominated artist Ziggy Alberts sees his debut set “Laps Around the Sun” rises back up fourteen places to No.68.
* Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” rebounds eighteen spots to No.73.
* After landing near the end of the chart last week, this week the Lana Del Rey set “Norman F**king Rockwell” rebounds fourteen places to No.85.
* Adele’s “25” was spending its second week at the top this time in 2015, and this week the four year old album (210 weeks this week) is back up nine spots to No.86.
* The seventh and final returning album for the week is from ARIA Award artist Thelma Plum and her debut set “Better in Blak” at No.99.
DOWN:
* Two albums leave the Top 10 this week, firstly is “Lover” (HP-1×1, WI10-14) for Taylor Swift which is only down two places to No.11 and having its first week outside of the Top 10, while recent No.1 set “What You See is What You Get” for Luke Combs (HP-1×1, WI10-3) falls six spots this week to No.13, with Luke’s first set “This One’s for You” also down six spots, to No.28.
* The new No.1 album in Canada this week is the first posthumous release for their native poet Leonard Cohen with “Thanks for the Dance”, which here is down five spots to No.16.
* Celine Dion’s “Courage” only slips five spots this week to land at No.18.
* Dean Lewis’ debut set “A Place We Knew” has now had a full week of sales since winning ‘Album of the Year’ at the ARIA Awards last week, but is down two places to No.23.
* INXS’ “Very Best of” falls back down six places to No.29, with other dropping collections being for Kylie Minogue (25 to No.55), Maroon 5 (58 to No.66), Eminem (64 to No.75, No.1 this week in 2005), The Wiggles (88 to No.90), Green Day (80 to No.92) and Jason DeRulo (83 to #100).
* All three Post Malone entries are down this week, his second album and entry in the former No.1 “Beerbongs & Bentleys” drops six places to No.32 and his first album “Stoney” falls nine places to No.71.
* Lewis Capaldi’s debut set rebounded a little last week as the set was expanded, but this week “Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent” falls down eight places to No.36.
* The only soundtrack to drop this week is for ‘The Greatest Showman’ (42 to No.46) which logs its second year on the charts at 104 weeks.
* With his 2019th birthday coming in three+ weeks time, the title of Kanye West’s current album “Jesus is King” can’t be a chart-saviour this week as it declines twenty-three spots to land at No.50.
* Drake’s “Scorpion” set slinks down eight places to No.56.
* The “Ocean” set for Lady Antebellum tumbles this week nineteen places to No.58.
* Travis Scott falls nine places to No.63 with his set “Astroworld”.
* There’s a ten place slide to No.65 for the Lizzo album “Cuz I Love You”.
* Tool plummets back down twenty-three places to No.69 with their “Fear Inoculum” set.
* XXXTentacion could join his current entry “?” with another album next week, as on Friday his label issued “Bad Vibes Forever” becoming his second posthumous album, and this week his “?” is down fourteen places to No.74.
* Chris Brown drops down sixteen places to No.81 with his 23 week old entry “Indigo”.
* Rapper NF and his album “The Search” falls down thirteen places to No.82.
* Rex Orange County continues his descent with his third set “Pony”, this week it rides down fifteen places to No.83.
* Eminem’s second entry this week in “Kamikaze” slips down eleven spots to No.87.
* Hayden James’ “Between us” set falls thirteen places this week to No.88.
* The biggest internal fall of the week is for the current U.S. No.2 entry in “9” for Jason Aldean which here plummets seventy-three spots to No.89.
* Lil’ Tecca’s mixtape “We Love You Tecca” slips down twenty-one spots to No.90.
* There’s a ten place drop to No.96 for the Sticky Fingers album “Caress Your Soul”.
* Cardi B.’s album “Invasion of Privacy” could be spending its 85th and final week within the Top 100 as her set falls nineteen places to land at No.98.
* Two albums that leave the Top 100 from last weeks Top 50 are the new entry for Beck and “Hyperspace” (highest dropout from #33) and now that their tour here is over the U2 1987 set “The Joshua Tree” (#37).
CHRISTMAS TITLES:
* The soundtrack for the film ‘Last Christmas’ with music by George Michael and Wham! is down two places to No.17, but the title track of the film returns to the singles chart at No.38 this week.
* With two seasonal titles in the Top 10 this week, there are two more back-to-back in the Top 20 this week in the Mariah Carey set “Merry Christmas” (36 to No.19), with the albums major single “All I Want for Christmas is You” almost matching the album by jumping to No.20 this week.
* This is followed by current tourists here Human Nature with their Set “The Christmas Album” which jumps up fifteen places to No.20.
* The John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John seasonal album “Friends for Christmas” jumps up twenty-five spots this week to No.27.
* After returning to the chart last week at No.51, this week The Seekers set “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” is up eighteen places to score a new peak of No.33.
* Last weeks entry for Bring Crosby and the London Symphony Orchestra in “Bing at Christmas” is up two spots this week to a new peak of No.42.
* Last weeks entry for Chris Tomlin called “Adore: Christmas Songs of Worship” jumps up twenty-two places to land at a new peak of No.67.
* The Wiggles return at No.76 with their seasonal set “Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas!” (HP-29).
* The eleventh and final seasonal set this week is a new entry at No.59 in a collection of previously issued Pentatonix Xmas-songs under the name “The Best of Pentatonix Christmas”, which becomes their fourth Christmas set to chart in Australia.
NEW ENTRIES:
* #45 (BoxSet) – The Later Years 1987 – 2019 by Pink Floyd is the follow-up to “The Early Years 1965-1972” and contains five albums including 1987’s “A Momentary Lapse of Reason”, the live set “Delicate Sound of Thunder”, unreleased live and studio songs, the “Live at Knebworth” album plus DVD and Blu-Ray of their concerts, while it was also issued as a single disc twelve track album too.
* #47 (Mix#4) – A Love Letter to You 4 by Trippie Redd is the new No.1 album in the U.S.A this week and the fourth mixtape for the rapper and singer, and features guests such as Lil’ Mosey, Juice WRLD, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, XXXTentacion, Tory Lanez, DaBaby, Lil’ Yachty and PnB Rock among its 22 tracks, and it becomes his fourth Top 100 and Top 50 entry in Australia after his two albums “Life’s a Trip” (HP-14, August 2018) and “!” (HP-24, August 2019) and his previous mixtape “A Love Letter to You 3” (HP-36, November 2018).
* #48 (LP#17.2) – My Criminal Record / Modus Operandi: Live at the Horden Pavilion by Jimmy Barnes is a re-packaged edition of his June 2019 No.1 album “My Criminal Record” which now features a bonus live CD from his 2019 tour around Australia, with seven tracks from the album alongside his older solo stuff (“Driving Wheels”, “Ride the Night Away”, “Lay Down Your Guns”, “I’d Die to be With You Tonight”, “No Second Prize” and “Working Class Man”) along with Cold Chisel classics like “Khe Sanh” and “Goodbye (Astrid Goodbye)”.
* #53 (LP#9) – Born 2 Rap by The Game is the U.S. rappers first new album in over three years and now his eighth entry in Australia (6 studio albums, 1 soundtrack, 1 compilation), with his last entry here being his eighth album “1992” (HP-19, October 2016) and his first being his debut set “The Documentary” (HP-42, peaked late April in 2005).
* #59 (Comp#1) – The Best of Pentatonix Christmas by Pentatonix (see above Christmas section for the write up about this one).
* #84 (GH#4) – Sunnyboys 40 by Sunnyboys is a re-packaged edition of the Sydney bands debut self-titled EP issued in December 1980 (as opposed to their debut self-titled album which came out in September of 1981). This re-issue also contains four new recordings from the era which come from songwriter and front-man Jeremy Oxley.
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Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
