Back in May 2011, The Wombats debuted and peaked at No.2 in Australia with their second album “This Modern Glitch”, which is on the 14th Floor Records label (through Atlantic/Warner here).
Birdy
Now this week the UK label lands their first No.1 album in Australia with the self-titled debut album by English songstress Birdy, which climbs a place to take over the No.1 position on the ARIA Albums Chart.
“Birdy” by Birdy is the 30th self-titled album to reach No.1 in Australia, the last being The Temper Trap’s May 2012 No.1 album. It is also the 652nd No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2012) and the 511th on the ARIA Albums Chart (1983 to 2012). It’s the first No.1 album here to feature the word ‘birdy’ or even ‘bird’, and “Birdy” becomes the 130th album by an English artist to hit No.1 in Australia. She is also the 65th English act to reach the top here, and the first English female to top our charts since Adele (32 weeks from May 2011). Birdy is only the fifth English female artist to reach No.1 locally, with Dido (2 albums), Leona Lewis, Lily Allen and Adele being the previous four, and lastly Birdy is the 94th female solo act to hit the top of the Australian charts, and the fifth this year. The album also matches the No.1 peak it achieved in The Netherlands and Belgium.
After two weeks at No.1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, “The Sapphires” soundtrack slips down a place to No.2, also following suit on the Australian Box Office reports too, as it drops from two weeks at No.2 to No.3 this past week: http://boxofficemojo.com/intl/australia/?yr=2012&wk=34&p=.htm .
The self-titled second album for local R’n’B singer Timomatic drops into the No.3 position upon release. His debut album “Welcome” failed to chart when released last year , but this new set debuts at No.3 first week, and has so far achieved three Top 20 singles from the album “Set it Off” (HP-2), “If Looks Could Kill” (HP-8) and “Can You Feel it” (HP-18). His latest single “Incredible” debuted at No.38 on the digital charts this week, and he has been one of the three guest acts touring the country with Pitbull this past week (Havana Brown and Taio Cruz being the other two).
“The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle” for Missy Higgins jumps back up five places to No.4 this week, but Ed Sheeran’s “+” holds at No.5. “My Journey” for Karise Eden moves back up four places to No.6, whilst Maroon 5’s “Overexposed” is back up one place to No.7. Fun is down two places to No.8 with “Some Nights”, and the only survivor from last weeks three Top 10 debuts is the “Elvis by Request” collection which drops five places to No.9. Returning to the Top 10 at No.10 are One Direction and their “Up All Night” album.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: With Father’s Day in Australia on Sunday the 2nd of September, a lot of sales for Dad move back up the charts. “The Story So Far” for Keith Urban halves last week’s position, climbing twelve places to No.12. “The Awakening” for James Morrison jumps back up seven places to No.13 a new peak for this album. The newly re-packaged “Hot August Night” for Neil Diamond is up twenty-six places to No.30, and collections for Bob Seger (83 to 42), Creedence Clearwater Revival (58 to 48) and Pink (55 to 49) return to the Top 50 this week.
The new ‘platinum’ edition of 360’s “Falling & Flying” album is up nine places to No.17, and tourists Pitbull and Slash see their albums rise back up. “Planet Pitbull” (HP-5) jumps twenty-two places to No.19 and “Apocalyptic Love” (HP-2) for Slash is back up twenty-five places to No.29.
DOWN DOWN: After an impressive No.3 debut last week, Bloc Party’s “Four” drops seventeen places to No.20, and Ricki-Lee’s No.7 entry for “Fear & Freedom” falls all the way to No.25 this week. “Believe” for Justin Bieber is down nine places to No.27, whilst The Darkness tumbles sixteen places to No.31 with their third album “Hot Cakes”. Adam Brand falls thirteen places to No.32 with “There Will Be Love”, and after jumping up last week Xavier Rudd’s “Spirit Bird” falls twenty-three places to No.40 this week. Chris Brown’s “Fortune” is down seventeen places to No.50, but two giant drops this week are by Owl City and “The Midsummer Station” (29 to 83) and “Southern Air” for Yellowcard (30 to 92). There are three albums dropping out of the Top 100 from last weeks Top 50; “Last Lights” by Hand of Mercy (#44), “Fragrant World” for Yeasayer (#47) and “Milling the Wind” for Tim Hart (#48).
Trey Songz’s fifth album “Chapter V” became his first US No.1 album last week, and it also becomes his first to chart in Australia, as it debuts at No.18 this week. And entering a few places lower at No.21 is local band Oh Mercy with their third album “Deep Heat”. Their second album “Great Barrier Grief” was their first to chart reaching No.13 in March 2011.
Former You Am I front man Tim Rogers debuts at No.45 with his new album “Rogers Plays Rogerstein”, his seventh album away from his former band, and his first in five years. His previous albums chart entries have been…
Entry Date|HP|WI|Titles
08-Mar-99|14|09|What Rhymes with Cars & Girls (with The Twin Set)
03-May-04|52|02|Spit Polish (with The Temperance Union)
12-Sep-05|48|02|Dirty Ron/Ghost Songs (with The Temperance Union)
11-Sep-06|31|03|My Better Half (with Tex Perkins)
08-Oct-07|41|02|The Luxury of Hysteria
Lower 50: The current tour by The Beach Boys help’s their recent new album “That’s Why God Made the Radio” return to the charts at a new peak of No.60. Also returning this week is Adam Lambert at No.65 with “Trespassing” (HP-10), “Heaven” for Rebecca Ferguson (HP-14) at No.75, “Vows” (HP-4) by Kimbra at No.90 and at No.91 is “For Emma, Forever Ago (HP-32) by Bon Iver.
Fathers Day sales also can be found in the lower half of the album chart too, “The Ultimate Bee Gees” (64 to 56), “Thirty Miles West” for Alan Jackson (78 to 63), “The Best of Cold Chisel” (75 to 64), “Two Worlds Collide” by The McClymonts (90 to 67), “Live – One Night Only” (100 to 70) and “The Number Ones” for The Bee Gees (96 to 82), “The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac” (85 to 76) spending it’s 312th week within the Top 100 (that’s exactly SIX years in total, even though it debuted on the charts back in November 2002). Lastly “Hits” for Jimmy Barnes climbs back up eleven places to No.86.
British indie-rock band Elbow have released five albums, three of which have charted in Australia, “Asleep in the Back” (HP-80, July 2001), “Leaders of the Free World” (HP-90, Oct.2005) and last years “Build a Rocket Boys” (HP-13, March 2011). This week they debut at No.52 with a collection of b-sides entitled “Dead in the Boot”.
Australian classical flautist Jane Rutter lands her highest charting album so far by debuting at No.54 with “An Australian in Paris”, beating the No.58 peak of her debut album “Nocturnes & Preludes for Flute” (Sept 1990). This is her fifth charting album locally, with “Romancing the Flute” (HP-92, Nov 1998), “Brazil” (HP-66, March 2004) where she teamed with Slava Grigoryan, and her last album to chart was “The Very Best of Jane Rutter” (HP-90, May 2005).
The final new entry of the week is also another local female artist, Katie Noonan who teams with classical guitarist Karin Schaupp on the No.81 entry “Songs of the Southern Skies”. They cover songs by Icehouse, Big Runga, and Nick Cave and have guests on the album such as Iva Davies, Chris Cheney and Gurrumul. This is Katie’s fifth album to chart, her best effort being the No.6 album from August 2007, “Skin”.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-charts.com
The ARIA chart is published every Sunday at 6pm.
Check out Gavin Ryan’s ARIA singles report here.
Watch the Noise11.com interview with Timomatic.
Watch the Noise11.com interview with James Morrison.
Check out the Noise11.com interview with 360.
Check out the Noise11.com interview with Ricki Lee.
Watch the Noise11.com interview with Trey Songz.
Watch the Noise11.com interview with Alexander Gow from Oh Mercy.
Watch the Noise11.com interview with Katie Noonan and Karin Schaupp.
