Now that Christmas is over, the chart sweeps aside the festive albums, and with School Holidays in full swing, it’s over to the animated soundtracks to rush into the vacated seasonal void. The musical treat that is the ‘Trolls’ sees its soundtrack leap up five places to land at No.1, becoming the first new chart-topping album for 2017.
“Trolls” becomes the 793rd No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2017) and the 644th for ARIA (1983 to 2017), plus the 37th for the RCA Record label (their last here was the Zayn album in early April 2016), and the 48th film soundtrack/cast recording/TV Soundtrack to make it to the No.1 spots in Australia.
This is the first time the word “Trolls” has appeared in a No.1 album title (in fact I can’t even find a previously charted troll in Australia), and this is the fourth animated film soundtrack to take out the top of the ARIA Albums Chart, the first was “Chef Aid-The South Park Album” (Dec 1998), followed by “Shrek 2” (July 2004) and the last was for the Disney film “Frozen” (May 2014), and last year we saw three soundtracks reach the top here (Molly, Suicide Squad and The Secret Daughter), the most since 2001’s three No.1’s, so for 2017 to kick off with a soundtrack could mean we saw more this year than ever before, the record so far was 1998 which had six No.1 soundtracks.
Adele will be here on tour in February and March, and her “25” album is back up one spot to No.2 this week, plus it is newly certified 9x▲Platinum in sales (the only LP cert this week too), plus the album was the #1 selling set for 2016, the second year in a row after it took out the top sale honours in 2015 too, after which there are two more animated soundtracks blasting into the Top 5. “Sing” jumps eighteen spots to land at No.3 this week, followed by the new Disney film ‘Moana’ which is up twenty-one spots to a new peak of No.4, plus with the ‘Suicide Squad’ soundtrack back up one to No.9, it means we have four film soundtracks within the Top 10 this week, also a new record.
Spending it’s fifth week within the Top 5, and down one place to land at No.5 are The Rolling Stones with “Blue & Lonesome”, whilst also dropping a single chart rung to No.6 is the No.2 selling album for 2016, and the highest placed Aussie in the EOY chart, Keith Urban and “Ripcord”, and on hold at No.7 is Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic”. Last week two George Michael best of albums returned within the Top 15, and this week his first collection “Ladies & Gentlemen… The Best of” is up six places to land at No.8, the first time this century that the album has made a Top 10 berth, as it was last up this high in September of 1999, giving the album the 15th week within the ten. And with The Weeknd now having two Top 10 singles, his parent album “Starboy” is back up three places to No.10 logging the third week overall within the ten now.
UP:
* The current UK No.1 album is the Little Mix fourth album “Glory Days” (4th week there), and here it is back up five places to No.14 ahead of their July tour here.
* Two multi-year charting best of sets jump back into the Top 20 this week, with “Greatest Hits” for Guns N’ Roses back up eleven spots to No.18 ahead of their early February 2017 tour, and the INXS “Very Best of” jumps eighteen places to No.19.
* Shawn Mendes is back up ten places to No.24 with his “Illuminate” album.
* Beyonce sees her “Lemonade” re-energized this week by climbing back up twenty-two spots to No.25.
* twenty one pilots jump back up nine to No.26 with their “Blurryface” set.
* Two more best of sets also rise, “The Very Best of” for Prince (56 to 30) and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Greatest Hits” (63 to 39).
* Two RnB acts who climb back up are Drake with “Views” (45 to 32) and Childish Gambino’s latest “Awaken, My Love!” (46 to 34).
* The debut solo album for George Michael in “Faith” jumps back up seventeen places to No.36, giving him four albums within the Top 100 this week.
* After sitting at the bottom of the Top 50 for the past couple of weeks, the James Arthur second album “Back from the Edge” is up nine to No.40 this week.
* With the whiff of a new Ed Sheeran single announced earlier in the week (and released on Friday the 6th of Jan), his second album “x” is back up fourteen places to No.45.
* Leaping back up forty-one spots to No.50 is “Bloom” for Rufus.
* Halsey sees her “Badlands” set jump back up twenty-one chart rungs to No.52.
* Best of sets to rise in the lower fifty include The Wiggles (84 to 55), both David Bowie comps “Legacy” (76 to 61) and “Nothing Has Changed” (82 to 75) ahead of the one year anniversary of his passing occuring this coming week, whilst his “Blackstar” is also up (95 to 84). “The Essential” for Leonard Cohen (77 to 62), Queen (85 to 63), “Abba Gold” returns at No.65, Fleetwood Mac’s “Very Best of” (89 to 72), Neil Diamond (94 to 79), Play School’s “50 Best Songs” is back in at No.89, and finally at No.99 is “The Essential” for Michael Jackson.
* Further returns are for Hillsong Worship and “Let There Be Light” (#58), “The Ride” by Catfish & the Bottlemen (#76), “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.1” Soundtrack (#78), Alessia Cara’s “Know-it-All” (#87), “Nine Track Mind” by Charlie Puth (#90), “Death of a Bachelor” by Panic! at the Disco (#91), “Title” by Meghan Trainor (#92, with her “Thank You” set jumping back up twenty-four spots to No.73) and the last is The Weeknd with “Beauty Behind the Madness” (#98).
* Further big rises in the lower fifty are for A Tribe Called Quest (98 to 59), Hilltop Hoods (88 to 69) and the “Just… Fabulous Rock ‘N’ Roll” by Cliff Richard (87 to 71).
DOWN:
* After six weeks within the Top 10 the Metallica album “Hardwired… to Self Destruct” (HP-1×1, WI10-6) drops down two places to No.11.
* Leaving the Top 10 for the first time also is the Jessica Mauboy “The Secret Daughter” (HP-1×3, WI10-11) TV Soundtrack, which by staying so long within the Top 10 becomes her longest charted album within that chart region, beating the four weeks for “Beautiful” (2013 & 2014).
* “Nobody But Me” for Michael Buble is down eight to No.20 this week, more on his seasonal drop in the lower and final Christmas wrap-up.
* The trio of Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt see their compilation “My Dear Companion” drop thirteen spots to No.35.
* Seeing as their tour here is over, the Coldplay “4CD Catalogue Set” drops sixteen places this week to No.48, and also falling the same chart distance is the Robbie Williams “Heavy Entertainment Show”, to No.49.
* After three weeks within the Top 50 the self-titled album for XF’16 winner Isaiah is down fiffteen to No.54.
* One Fleetwood Mac best of is up, their “Greatest Hits” set is down, dropping fifteen to No.70.
* Norah Jones returned at No.57 last week with her latest set “Day Breaks”, which this week is down twenty places to No.77.
* The Cold Chisel best of “All for You” is up to No.23 this week, whilst their recent “Live Tapes Vol.3” is down twenty-eight to No.80.
* Green Day drop seventeen spots to No.81 with their “Revolution Radio” album.
* The Bruce Springsteen compilation “Chapter and Verse” drops down twenty-six to No.95, whilst the Beatles “#1” best of is down eighteen to No.97.
Bye to Christmas Titles:
* Last week saw the tail end of the Christmas period affect the charts, and now that we are two weeks shy of the seasonal sales, we see a massive drop for last weeks Top 2 albums, with the John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John set “Friends for Christmas” (HP-1×2, WI10-7) down fifty-one spots to No.53 this week, and after returning for a fourteenth broken week at the top, the Michael Buble “Christmas” (HP-1×14, WI10-4) set is down eighty-four places to No.85, his biggest drop from the top spot ever (and any other #1 drop too), previously he has dropped hard, but not this hard, as in 2011 (1 to 29), 2012 (1 to 28), 2013 and 2014 (both 1 to 36).
* These are the only two seasonal sets left within the Top 100 this week, as we say goodbye to big drops and Top 100 evacuees Mariah Carey (#20), Pentatonix (#26 and #68), Human Nature (#41) and from the lower fifty were Kylie Minogue (#60), The Ten Tenors (#70) and Rod Stewart (#90).
NEW ENTRIES:
* #31 – La La Land – Soundtrack, features music from the new Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling romantic film, the score composed and orchestrated by Justin Hurwitz.
* #89 – Red Dog: True Blue – Soundtrack; well to keep the summer movie soundtracks coming, we only have two new entries this week and both are from films. The main music is by Cezary Skubiszewski, but the album also features music from Australian acts like The Easybeats (two songs), Daddy Cool, Ted Mulry Gang and Sherbet, plus a Traveling Wilburys track too. This is the follow-up to the film “Red Dog”, whose soundtrack debuted and peaked at No.30 in October 2011.
