Ed Sheeran’s “+” (plus and/or positive) jumps up two places to land at No.1 after forty-six weeks within the Top 100, becoming the equal-fifth longest climb to No.1 in ARIA Chart history (1983 to 2012). The album originally debuted at No.1 in the UK last September, but did take 39 weeks to climb to the top in Ireland, where it went back to No.1 this week.
Ed Sheeran, Photo Ros O'Gorman
Gavin Ryan reports, this is the list of albums that took the longest to reach No.1 on the ARIA Albums chart:
69 weeks| Rhythm Nation 1814 – Janet Jackson (debut 16-Oct-89, peak 3-Feb-91)
65 weeks| Come on Over – Shania Twain (debut 23-Nov-97, peak 8-Feb-99)
59 weeks| Elephunk – Black Eyed Peas (debut 14-July-03, peak 23-Aug-04)
52 weeks| Don’t Ask – Tina Arena (debut 27-Nov-94, peak 19-Nov-95)
46 weeks| Whitney Houston – Whitney Houston (debut 17-June-1985, peak 2-June-86)
46 weeks| + – Ed Sheeran (debut 3-Oct-11, peak 13-Aug-12)
45 weeks| Crowded House – Crowded House (debut 28-July-86, peak 8-June-87)
45 weeks| The Duchess – Fergie (debut 25-Sep-06, peak 30-July-07)
43 weeks| Escape – Enrique Iglesias (debut 12-Nov-01, peak 26-Aug-02)
41 weeks| Dream of the Blue Turtles – Sting (debut 8-July-1985, peak 21-Apr-86)
41 weeks| Marshall Mathers – Eminem (debut 29-May-00, peak 5-Mar-01)
40 weeks| Hysteria – Def Leppard (debut 23-Oct-88, peak 31-July-89)
Ed’s jump to No.1 with “+” is due to his recent national tour, plus four singles (here) have been lifted from the album so far, with new track “Drunk” up to a new peak of No.11 this week, and former hits “The A Team” (TW-87, HP-2) and “Lego House” (TW-32, HP-4) still charting {second single was “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You” (HP-74, Feb 2012)}. The “+” album also has an exclusive iTunes edition with nine bonus tracks, and Ed announced that he will be back in Australia in 2013, whilst we also see him enter the Top 100 ARIA Albums chart at No.43 with “Australian Tour Pack” which contains three of his previous EP’s in one collection, exclusively for this Australian tour.
It’s the second time that we’ve had a symbol at No.1, the other being Prince’s (love symbol) album back on 25-Oct-92 for 1 week. “+” is the 650th No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2012) and the 509th for ARIA (1983 to 2012), and the 14th chart-topping album for the year (this time last year we were up to 10 No.1’s because of Adele’s long runs at the top). Ed’s album is also the 15th No.1 for the Atlantic label, and their first this decade, with “Pretty.Odd” for Panic at the Disco being their last back in April 2008.
“+” for Ed Sheeran is the 129th album by an English performer, the last being “Up All Night” for One Direction (April 2012), and Ed is the 64th English performer to reach No.1 in Australia (BTW: The Beatles were the first act at No.1 on the Australian albums chart back in January 1965). Ed is also the 24th solo English Male artist to hit No.1 here, Robbie Williams being the last one in November 2009, whilst Paul Potts (Sept 2007) was the last NEW English Male Solo performer to hit the top of the ARIA Albums chart. Lastly Ed’s album is the 180th No.1 by a Solo Male performer, and the fifth this year, with Michael Buble, Keith Urban, John Mayer and Justin Bieber being the other four.
After six weeks at No.1, Karise Eden’s “My Journey” album drops back to No.2, which also pushes the fun. album “Some Nights” down a place to No.3. Holding for a third non-consecutive week at No.4 are Maroon 5 with “Overexposed”, but jumping into the Top 10 at No.5 after debuting at No.17 last week is the soundtrack to the new Australian movie “The Sapphires”. The last Soundtrack up this high was “Rock of Ages” (HP-4, TW-drops out) six weeks ago, and the last locally produced film and soundtrack to chart this high was “Happy Feet” (HP-4, Jan 2007) {although the ‘Packed to the Rafters’ TV Soundtrack hit the Top 10 in January of 2009}. The “Sapphires” soundtrack could also be classed as Jessica Mauboy’s third Top 10 album too, as she sings on a majority of the tracks.
Missy Higgins’ “The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle” drops back a place to No.6, but charging back into the Top 10 at No.7 (up from No.24) are The Hilltop Hoods with “Drinking From the Sun”, spending it’s ninth week inside the Top 10. “Believe” for Justin Bieber and “Up All Night” for One Direction are both down two places each to No.8 and No.9 respectively, and holding at No.10 for another week is Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection”.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: 360 scores another Top 40 hit, and his album “Falling and Flying” climbs back into the Top 20 to No.18 this week. “The Awakening” for James Morrison jumps back up fourteen places to No.19, and Jack White also rejoins the Top 20, back up three places to No.20 with “Blunderbuss”.
Birdy’s self-titled album originally hit No.29 upon release here back in May, but this week thanks to two singles within the Top 100 (“People Help the People” #35 and “Skinny Love” returns at #80) it jumps up twenty-seven places to a new peak of No.25. But the biggest leap of the week is the soundtrack to the recently opened film “Step up 4: Miami Heat” which bullets seventy (yes 70) places to No.28.
Whether it was the Channel 7 interview Molly Meldrum did with Elton John last weekend, or his impending November tour, but his best of collection “Rocket Man” (HP-10) blasts back up forty-six places to No.37, whilst also returning to the Top 50 are “Born and Raised” (HP-1) for John Mayer (71 to 47), “Days Go By” (HP-7) for The Offspring (53 to 46) and “Nothing But the Beat” (HP-3) for David Guetta (67 to 49).
DOWN DOWN: Leaving the Top 10 after three weeks is Darren Percival’s “Happy Home” (HP-3×2), whilst the other Top 10 dropout was last weeks highest new entry, “Ill Manors” for Plan B, which drops twenty-three places (from 9 to 32) this week. Rachael Leahcar’s “Shooting Star” is down seven places to No.22 (she’ll be touring with Delta Goodrem in October and November though), and “Cornerstone” for Hillsong Live falls sixteen places to No.35. Rick Ross debuted at No.41 last week, but drops dramatically to No.87 this week, and leaving the Top 100 altogether from inside last weeks Top 50 are “Tomorrow Never Knows” by The Beatles (#34, DL only), “Isles of Wonder: London 2012 Opening Ceremonies” (#44, but now released on CD, as these were download sales initially), “Happy to You” by Miike Snow (#48) and “Apple Seed” for local singer Tamara Stewart (#49).
Sydney indie-rock act Dappled Cities score the highest new entry of the week with their fourth album entitled “Lake Air”, coming in at No.41. It beats their previous best effort for their third album “Zounds” (HP-48, August 2009), and this is their second album to chart on the ARIA Top 100 Albums chart.
Neil Diamond’s 1972 live album “Hot August Night” became the No.1 selling album of the 1970’s, and up until the album “Brothers in Arms” by Dire Straits in 1985 (34 weeks @#1) it was the third longest running No.1 album in Australia spending 29 weeks at the top, it now sits at equal fifth placing with Delta Goodrem’s “Innocent Eyes”. A newly re-mastered 2CD edition of the album has been issued, also marking the fortieth anniversary of the album’s release, it debuts at No.48 this week.
Initially the album entered the Australian charts in early December of 1972, hitting the Top 10 in January 1973, climbing to No.1 in May of 1973 for two weeks, then another two weeks at the top in late June, followed by seventeen straight weeks at No.1 from the end of July 1973, with another two runs at the top in late December 1973 and a last run in March 1974 (with another of his albums “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” at No.1 in between “Hot August Night’s” last two runs in February 1974). The album stayed in the Top 10 for an accumulated total of 91 weeks, and has had seven previous chart runs in Australia, with the initial 1972 run followed in 1973 with a No.71 peak, after which it returned in January 1976 (HP-16), June 1982 (HP-5), July 1985 (HP-67), October 1991 (HP-19), and lastly in February 1996 (HP-39).
Lower 50: “Triple J’s Like a Version 7” jumps back up twenty places to No.54; Mumford and Sons new album is due soon (new single released on Friday entitled “I Will Wait”), but their debut album “Sigh No More” jumps back up thirty-two places to No.57. Florence + the Machine’s long-running “Between Two Lungs” is back up sixteen places to No.62 in its 154th week within the Top 100, whilst their “MTV: Unplugged” set is back twenty places to No.68; Slash and his album “Apocalyptic Love” jumps back up twenty-five spots to No.65; and Julia Stone’s album “By the Horns” was at 100 last week, but jumps back up eleven places to No.89.
Albums returning to the Top 100 include “19” for Adele (it fell out for the first time last week) at No.73, also out last week was “The xx” for the band of the same name, this week that album returns at No.92. “Moonfire” for Boy & Bear is back in at No.93; Newton Faulkner’s third album “Write it on Your Skin” is back in at No.94 after only two initial weeks in the chart making it to No.32 upon debut. Django Django’s self-titled (HP-60) album returns at No.95, and “Tuskegee” for Lionel Richie is back in at No.98.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-charts.com
The ARIA chart is updated every Sunday at 6pm.
Read Gavin Ryan’s ARIA singles report here.
Watch the Noise11.com interview with Ed Sheeran.
Watch the Noise11.com interview with 360.
Watch the Noise11.com interview with Django Django.
