Barbra Streisand debuts at No.1 on the ARIA Albums Chart with her thirty-third studio album “Partners”.
The album features duets with such acts as Michael Buble, Elvis Presley, Lionel Richie, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, John Mayer, Babyface, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban and her son Jason Gould amongst the many acts.
“Partners” is Barbra’s second No.1 album in Australia, but her first on the ARIA Albums Chart, as her set “Guilty” climbed to the top and spent six straight weeks at No.1 from early November 1980, thus this becomes her highest debuting album here, with her only other Top 10 debut being “Back to Broadway” (late July 1993) which debuted and peaked at No.3. The album is also the 716th No.1 in Australia (1965 to 2014) and the 567th for ARIA (1983 to 2014), plus the 365th album to debut at No.1, plus fifth chart topping album for the Columbia label this year after Pharrell, MKTO, Beyonce and Springsteen.
Bob Dylan was 65 when he hit the top in 2006 with “Modern Times” (4-Sept), but Barbra is currently 72, so she becomes the oldest act to land at No.1 here in Australia (both Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra have yet to hit the top). It’s the first time that the word ‘Partners’ (or even the singular) has featured in a No.1 album and the set also becomes the 260th by an American Act to hit the top, plus the 106th by an Female US artist, whilst Barbra also becomes the eleventh US Female Act to now have multiple No.1 albums here, Madonna is in the lead with ten, whilst Barbra now has two alongside Janet Jackson, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey. Plus this becomes the seventeenth Top 10 album for Barbra in Australia since she first charted in 1965 with her debut set “The Barbra Streisand Album” (HP-6) and her last Top 10 entry was back in 2002 with “The Essential Barbra” which made it to No.5 (around Mother’s Day) and spent two weeks within the ten.
Barbra sold over 10,000 copies of her album as physical sales, whilst only 3000 digital (#6 on the digital chart), whereas the No.2 debut of the second album for alt-J entitled “This is All Yours” was the biggest selling download album with over 7000 copies sold. This becomes their highest charting album in Australia, plus their second Top 10 album, as their debut set “An Awesome Wave” (TW-73) climbed to No.9 for a single week in February 2013, its 22nd week within the Top 100.
Missy Higgins was on track earlier in the week for her fourth consecutive No.1 album, but alas her covers album of Australian songs entitled “Oz” (#3 digital) debuts at No.3. The set features covers of songs by Icehouse, Divinyls, Paul Kelly, Something for Kate, Dan Sultan, Slim Dusty, The Angels and The Go-Betweens amongst its many tracks. This does becomes Missy’s fourth Top 3 album, and all of her three previous albums have all debuted at No.1 in their first week.
Chris Brown comes in at No.4 with his sixth studio album entitled “X”, which instantly becomes his fourth Top 10 album, and third consecutive Top 4 album, as his last two sets “Fortune” (HP-2, LP5; July 2012) and “F.A.M.E.” (HP-3, LP4; March 2011) both debuted and peaked in their first week on the charts, whilst his other Top 10 set was his second album “Exclusive”, which climbed to No.5 for three broken weeks in July and August of 2008.
The Script debut at No.5 with their fourth album “No Sound without Silence”, which also becomes their fourth Top 10 album in the process, with the album having so far seen the single “Superheroes” peak upon debut at No.25, this week its back up to No.37. By debuting at No.5, it also becomes their second highest charting album, as their previously hit No.2 with their second set “Science & Faith” (Sept 2010), and their self-titled debut (peaked early June 2009) and their third album “#3” (Sept 2012) both peaked at No.9.
The sixth and final Top 10 debut this week is the re-teaming of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga with their duets album “Cheek to Cheek”, coming in at No.7. The two acts first sung together on Tony’s set “Duets II” (HP-2, Oct 2011) where they did a rendition of ‘The Lady is a Tramp’. This now becomes the second Top 10 album for Tony in Australia, and with this being his 56th studio album released; it’s also the fourth Top 10 album for Lady Gaga.
There are only four albums retaining their Top 10 status from last week, with current promo visitor (and AFL Grand Final performer) Ed Sheeran, whose “x” album is back up four places to No.6 (meaning there are two albums entitled ‘X’ in the Top 10 this week), whilst Sam Smith drops down five places to No.8 with his debut album “In the Lonely Hour”. Last weeks No.1 for The Madden Brothers “Greetings from California” is down eight places to No.9 and dropping six to No.10 is Jimmy Barnes with his collection “30:30 Hindsight”.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: With so many albums jumping into the higher end of the charts, the first album traveling back up the charts occurs within the Top 30, as Justin Timberlake and his current tour help his albums to fly back up, “The 20/20 Experience” is back up thirty-two places to No.32, whilst his ‘Complete Experience’ set is up thirty-four spots to No.42 and his previous album “FutureSex/LoveSounds” is back into the Top 100 at No.42. Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons set “Jersey Beat: The Music of” is up fifteen places to a new peak of No.35 and another tourist; Andrea Bocelli; leaps up fifty-three places to No.39 with his February 2013 album “Passione” (HP-33), and lastly the Linkin Park album “The Hunting Party” leaps back up thirty-eight places to No.48 this week.
DOWN DOWN: The Hilltop Hoods drop three places to No.12 with “Walking Under Stars” (HP-1×2) after six weeks within the Top 10, whilst Paloma Faith drops five spots to No.13 a “A Perfect Contradiction”, the album achieving Gold (●) in sales this week (the only new LP certification too). Two of last weeks Top 10 debuts tumble down this week, with Slash dropping twelve places to No.14 with “World on Fire” (HP-2) and Megan Washington down twenty to No.25 with “There There” (HP-5), and the final two dropouts are both former No.1’s “Dream Your Life Away” for Vance Joy down nine to No.15 and “My Everything” for Ariana Grande down nine also, to No.16 after four weeks within the Top 10. Angus & Julia Stone drop seven to No.20 with their self-titled album and down nine to No.29 is Maroon 5 with “V”. The Eagles fall nine too to No.33 with their “Selected Works” collection and last weeks boost due to a tour for Kingswood sees their “Microscopic Wars” album fall back sixteen this week to No.34. Train are down twenty-three places to No.38 with “Bulletproof Picasso” and Iggy Azalea drops fifteen to No.41 with “The New Classic”, Sia drops sixteen to No.45 with “100 Forms of Fear” and Pharrell is back down nine to No.47 with “G I R L”. Dropping out from last weeks Top 50 are Queen (43 to 54, Greatest Hits) and also their “Platinum Collection” (46 to 77), Milky Chance (48 to 57), Sheppard (40 to 58), 360 (32 to 60), The Wiggles (47 to 61), Ryan Adams (27 to 62), Robert Plant (36 to 64), The Kooks (41 to 65), Interpol (28 to 67), Pink (34 to 68), Rodriguez (49 to 75), Banks (44 to 78), The Wolfe Brothers (39 to 80), Motionless in White (19 to 82) and The Tea Party (42 to 95), whilst now that Kanye West has finished his tour here, his two entries both leave, with “Yeezus” out from No.31 and “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” leaving from No.74.
The thirteenth studio album for Tim McGraw entitled “Sundown Heaven Town” comes in at No.11 this week, becoming his second highest charting album here in Australia, as his last studio album “Two Lanes of Freedom” debuted and peaked at No.10 back in February 2013, plus this also becomes his sixteenth ARIA Albums chart entry this week (eleven studio and six best of compilations).
At the start of September the covers group Pentatonix saw their first two albums chart for the first time as “PTX Vols 1 & 2” which made it to No.63, now this week they debut at No.19 with their second chart entry “PTX, Vol.III”. A few places lower at No.21 is Aphex Twin with “Syro”, his first new studio album in almost thirteen years, as his 2001 fifth studio set “Drukqs” made it No.87 in October of 2001, which means this becomes his first ever Top 50 placing here in Australia, and second entry overall.
Lenny Kravitz debuts at No.31 with his tenth studio album entitled “Strut”, which also becomes his eleventh albums chart entry (ten studio and one best of), whilst its his highest charting album since 2000’s “Greatest Hits” collection peaked at No.14 in January of 2001, as his past four albums have peaked between 42 and 59. The final entry to this weeks Top 50 is the fourth studio album for Sydney-sider Amber Lawrence entitled “Superheroes”, which becomes her second chart entry and Top 50 album, as her third album “3” peaked at No.41 in January 2012.
Lower 50: JT’s other charting album “The 20/20 Experience–2 of 2” is back up forty eight places to No.52 and Ed Sheeran’s promo visit also helps his first album “+” back up twenty-seven places to No.56 this week. Violent Soho jump back up nineteen places to No.70 with “Hungry Ghost”, current tourists (and X-Factor performers) American Authors see their April charted No.35 album “Oh, What a Life” return at No.76 and other returning albums this week include “Flume” for Flume at No.87, “Coming from Reality” for Rodriguez at No.97 and Passenger returns at No.99 with “Whispers”.
Gary Clark Jr. makes his second ARIA Albums chart entry this week with his new live set simply entitled “Live”, new at No.55, whilst his self-titled third album debuted and peaked at No.34 back in October 2012. US country rock group Blackjack Billy sees their debut album “Rebel Child” come in at No.69 this week and making their second album becomes their first Australian Albums chart entry are Norwegian indie pop group Highasakite with “Silent Treatment” coming in at No.91. Wilco front-man Jeff Tweedy goes under the moniker of just Tweedy and his debut album “Sukierae” comes in at No.91, whilst the final entry is from current tourist Andrea Bocelli with “Love in Portofino” at No.92.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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