Taylor Swift issued a surprise ninth studio album last week called “evermore”, which debuts at No.1 on this week’s ARIA Albums Chart, giving her a second chart-topping album for 2020.
The new Taylor set “evermore” becomes the 901st No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2020), the 751st for ARIA (1983 to 2020), the 39th No.1 for the year (2020), the 538th album to debut at No.1 (1976 to 2020), the 16th No.1 for record label for Republic (Universal) and the seventh No.1 for Taylor Swift, plus she has now achieved the smallest gap between No.1 albums at five months and three weeks (3-Aug-2020 to 21-Dec-2020), the previous holder was Ariana Grande with “Sweetener” (27-Aug-18) to “thank u, next” (18-Feb-2019), just on six months.
Earlier this year in August Taylor Swift became the first act for 2020 to land her sixth overall No.1 album (AC/DC went on to achieve this in December), and now she joins Metallica and Kylie Minogue as acts who during 2020 landed their seventh overall No.1 album in Australia. And on the list for ‘Accumulated Weeks No.1: Albums (1965-2020)’ Taylor moves from 25th to 24th at 21 accumulated weeks at No.1 locally, just ahead of The Eagles (21 weeks from 3 #1’s).
Taylor also becomes the only artist this decade to land two No.1 albums, and with her five weeks amassed during 2020, she is also the artist with the most weeks at No.1 for this year (which could increase next week, unless Paul McCartney lands at the top, or the expanded Eminem ‘Murder’ album rebounds to No.1). It’s also the first time that the word ‘evermore’ has appeared in an album title, and this new No.1 album becomes the 319th by an American artist to hit the top here and the 15th for 2020, while for Solo Female Artists this is the seventh for this year, plus the 138th No.1 album overall.
After her TV special this past week, the Delta Goodrem seasonal set “Only Santa Knows” jumps back up ten places to land at a new chart peak of No.2 this week, also landing its second week within the Top 10, as it entered at No.5 five weeks ago, plus Delta also becomes the highest charting Aussie act this week, with AC/DC the second highest, and dropping down two places to No.3 this week after four weeks of ruling the albums chart with “Power Up”.
Half of the Top 10 this week is made up of local acts, and four of them are within the Top 5, with a new entry at No.4 for The Avalanches called “We Will Always Love You”, which is the acts third studio album and now second Top 10 berth, as their seondd album “Wildflower” debuted at No.1 in July of 2016, prior to which their debut set “Since I Left You” hit No.15 in 2000. The new album has guest appearances by MGMT, Johnny Marr, Leon Bridges, Perry Farrell, Mick Jones (Clash/B.A.D.II), Tricky, Neneh Cherry, Jamie xx, Denzel Curry, Tricky, Sampa the Great and River Cuomo among its 25 tracks.
New at No.5 is the ninth live album for Australian rock act Cold Chisel called “The Live Tapes Vol.5: Live at the Bondi LifeSaver Club, February 29th, 1980”, which becomes their fourth Top 10 Live album and their highest charted live set since their first “Swingshift” (HP-1) from 1981, and it beats the No.9 peak of “The Live Tapes Vol.4” from November 2017, while overall this is the groups 17th Top 10 entry. The 2CD set contains classics like “Khe Sanh”. “Ita”, “Breakfast at Sweethearts”, “Shipping Steel”, “Choir Girl”, “Goodbye (Astrid Goodbye)” and covers of “Wild Thing” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” amongst it’s 24 tracks.
Returning to the Top 10 for a second overall week within the ten by climbing five spots to a new peak of No.6 is the latest Andrea Bocelli set “Believe”, followed by the second and final seasonal set within the Top 10, “Christmas” for Michael Buble, which holds at No.7 this week, followed by the second and final stable album within the Top 10, “T.R.U.T.H.” for Guy Sebastian at No.8. With a new Taylor Swift album entering at No.1 this week, her recently repackaged “folklore” set falls back down six spots this week to No.9, with the album picking up it’s first sales certification this week of Gold (●) in sales. And down five places to No.10 is the latest Miley Cyrus set “Plastic Hearts”.
UP:
Mariah Carey’s “Merry Christmas” set is up one spot to No.13, the Andre Rieu “Jolly Holiday” album is back up two places to No.18, Robbie Williams’ repackaged “Christmas Present” moves up two to No.29, while John Farnham & ON-J’s “Friends for Christmas” set is up one place to No.31.
Bruce Springsteen’s “Letter to You” rebounds three spots to No.14, after which there’s a return at No.22 (within the Top 100 also) for the Thelma Plum album “Better in Blak”, which was reissued on coloured vinyl (Aboriginal flag design) last week.
Queen’s “Greatest Hits” album jumps back up nine spots to No.30, while the announcement this past week of a Midnight Oil tour in 2021 sees their latest album “The Makarrata Project” rise back up six spots to No.35. Taylor Swift has a total of four albums within the Top 50 this week, with her seventh set “Lover” back up four spots to No.45 and her sixth album “1989” on hold at No.47.
DOWN:
Leaving the Top 10 this week are five albums, starting with The Kid Laroi and “F**k Love”/”Savage (EP)” (HP-2×3, WI10-9), followed by “Fine Line” for Harry Styles (HP-1×3, WI10-50) both dropping down two places each to No.11 and No.12 respectively. The other three were all new entries from last week in “Wonder” by Shawn Mendes (HP-2, WI10-1, U.S. & Canadian #1 this week) down fourteen spots to No.16, “Live at The Royal Albert Hall” for The Arctic Monkeys (HP-4, WI10-1) falling thirty-five spots to No.39, while the Yungblud set “Weird!” (HP-6, WI10-1) leaves the entire Top 50 this week.
The Powderfinger “Unreleased (1998-2010)” compilation is down four to No.17, and also dropping four is the Ariana Grande latest set “Positions”, down to No.19. There’s a five place dive to No.23 for the Dua Lipa set “Future Nostalgia” and falling seasonal sets this week are by Human Nature (22 to No.24) and Dolly Parton (37 to No.38).
Falling three places apiece are “The Speed of Now Part 1” by Keith Urban, “Love Goes” by Sam Smith and “Legends Never Die” by Juice WRLD to No.26, No.27 and No.28 respectively. There are seven place drops for the Johnny Cash & The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BTS “BE” set and “Live Around the World” for Queen + Adam Lambert to No.33, No.34 and No.36 respectively.
Luke Combs’ “This One’s for You” has a six place dip to No.41, followed by a fourteen place slide to No.42 for the latest Kylie Minogue album “Disco”. Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” set falls eight to No.48 and Post Malone with “Hollywood’s Bleeding” drops seven places to No.49.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #25 (LP#7) – Man on the Moon III: The Chosen by Kid Cudi (Republic) is the seventh studio album and now seventh Top 100 entry in Australia (6 studio sets and 1 collaboration album) for the American rapper, with this new entry becoming his highest solo entry and surpassing his third album “Indicud” (HP-28, April 2013), while he has charted higher on the Kanye West collaboration set “Kids See Ghosts” (HP-4, June 2018). He also has two albums due in 2021 already schedule, an album alongside Travis Scott under their heading The Scotts and a new solo set named “Entergalactic”.
* #46 (LP#1) – That’s What They All Say by Jack Harlow (Atlantic) is the debut album for the American rapper, which has had two singles chart here so far in “What’s Poppin'” (HP-8) and “Tyler Herro” (HP-68), while the album features guest such as Lil’ Baby, Big Sean, Chris Brown, Adam Levine, Lil’ Wayne, Tory Lanez, Static Major and Bryson Tiller among its 15 tracks.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
