English rock band Foals see their third album “Holy Fire” debut at the No.1 spot in Australia this week.
Foals Holy Fire
That gives The Foals their first international No.1 album (so far), and their highest charting album here, far surpassing the No.68 peak their second album “Total Life Forever” (and first to chart here) achieved this week two years ago (20-Feb-2011).
“Holy Fires” is now the 662nd No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2013) and the 521st for ARIA (1983 to 2013). It’s only the second album to have ‘Holy’ in its title, the other being Led Zeppelin’s “Houses of the Holy” (3 weeks from June 1973). With the word ‘Fire’ having appeared in two previous albums, “Wheels of Fire” by Cream (2 weeks from Dec. 1968) and “The Unforgettable Fire” for U2 (1 week, 29-Oct-84), with further ‘Fire’ coming from “Two Fires” for Jimmy Barnes (Sept 1990) and Cat Stevens’ “Teaser & the Firecat” (from Dec 71).
The last English band we had debut at No.1 here was also the last English group to reach the top here; One Direction in November of 2012 with “Take Me Home” (TW-33), and Foals become the 36th English group, the 312th Group, the 66th English performer, and the album is the 132nd by an English performer to make it to No.1 in Australia (1965 to 2013). Also Foals joins a list of previous animals from England to have hit the top spot on the Australian Albums chart, travelling back from now we have seen Birdy, The Gorillaz, Arctic Monkeys, Jive Bunny, Def Leppard, Wings, and The Beatles.
Last weeks No.1 album for Of Monsters and Men “My Head is an Animal” drops back to No.5 this week, but holding this week are Bruno Mars with “Unorthodox Jukebox” and “The Truth About Love” for Pink at No.2 and No.3 respectively.
Welsh heavy metal band Bullet for My Valentine gain their third consecutive Top 5 debut as their fourth album (third to chart here) “Temper Temper” debuts at No.4 this week. Their second album “Scream. Aim. Fire” debuted and peaked at No.4 in February of 2008, and then in May 2010 they debuted and peaked at No.5 with their third album “Fever”.
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis drop a place to No.6 with “The Heist”, helped by their recent tour, and currently touring the country is Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees, whose box-set “Mythology” holds at No.7 again this week. Flume’s self-titled album is down four places to No.8 and Grammy Winner for ‘Album of the Year’ Mumford & Sons see their album “Babel” back up six places to No.9 this week.
After eleven albums and twenty years with Curb Records, Tim McGraw has changed to the label Big Machine, and his twelfth studio album is the first for that record company, entitled “Two Lanes of Freedom” it debuts at No.10 this week to become his first Top 10 album in Australia. Nine of his previous studio albums and five Greatest Hits sets for Tim have charted here in the past, and he is also currently charting with “Tim McGraw & Friends” (HP-68) which is sitting at No.77 this week. Tim’s previous chart efforts in Australia are listed below…
LP#|Entry Date|HP|WI|Titles
A02|10-July-94|78|5|Not a Moment Too Soon
A04|20-July-97|40|11|Everywhere
A05|31-May-99|84|7|A Place in the Sun
G01|05-Feb-01|87|3|Greatest Hits
A06|09-July-01|95|2|Set This Circus Down
A07|03-Feb-03|74|2|Tim McGraw & the Dancehall Doctors
A08|27-Sep-04|36|5|Live Like You were Dying
G02|24-Apr-06|69|4|Greatest Hits Two
A09|09-Apr-07|49|6|Let it Go
A10|09-Nov-09|96|1|Southern Voice
A10|16-Aug-10|12|9|Southern Voice ®
G05|30-Aug-10|19|5|Tim McGraw’s Greatest Hits Volume 1, 2 & 3
G06|13-Dec-10|72|7|Number One Hits
A11|06-Feb-12|14|12|Emotional Traffic
G06|26-Mar-12|83|2|Number One Hits ®
G07|04-Feb-13|68|3*|Tim McGraw and Friends
A12|18-Feb-13|10|1*|Two Lanes of Freedom
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: After returning re-packaged last week, “Rumours” for Fleetwood Mac is up three places to No.15 this week, whilst Grammy winner Frank Ocean (Best Urban Contemporary Album) sees his “Channel Orange” (HP-17) rise back up eleven places to No.18. Gotye won ‘Best Alternative Album’ for “Making Mirrors (HP-1×1), and that album re-enters the Top 100 at No.24 this week, and Fun won two awards (‘Song of the Year’ for “We Are Young” and ‘Best New Artist’), and that helps their album “Some Nights” back up thirteen places to No.28 this week.
The Presets zoom back up thirty-nine places to No.35 with “Pacifica” (HP-3), with Andrea Bocelli also returns to the Top 50, “Passione” (HP-33) is back up twenty-nine places to No.44 this week. Current tourist Carole King sees her 1971 landmark album “Tapestry” (HP-3, Go-Set #1×1) return to the Top 100 at No.45, another 60’s/70’s artist is also jumping up the ARIA Albums chart, as Russell Morris sees his new album “Sharkmouth” leap up thirty-four places to No.47, his first Top 50 Albums placement since January 1981 (See last weeks column for Russell’s album discography).
DOWN DOWN: “An Awesome Wave” for Alt-J is down seven places to No.16 after one week inside the Top 10 at No.9 and is now Gold (●) in sales, and Swedish House Mafia drop back eleven places to No.21 after their one week at No.10 with “Until Now”. Keith Urban’s national tour is over, so his album “The Story So Far” drops down seventeen places to No.25, and after two weeks inside the Top 10, Justin Bieber’s “Believe Acoustic” tumbles twenty places this week to No.26.
Josh Groban is down six places to No.17 with last weeks highest new entry “All That Echoes”, and since mid-December, “The Sapphires” Soundtrack has been sitting within the Top 20, but this week it’s down ten places to No.23. Another film soundtrack, “Pitch Perfect” is down seven places to No.30, and after debuting at No.17 last week, Pete Murray’s “Blue Sky Blue-The Byron Sessions” is down twenty-two places to No.39.
“Our Version of Events” for Emeli Sande drops down eight places to No.46, and Cold Chisel’s “Best of – All for You” tumbles nineteen places to No.52. “Opposites” for Biffy Clyro debuted at No.22 last week, but is down to No.62 this week, whilst Chet Faker’s “Thinking in Textures” drops twenty-seven places to No.71. After leaping up to No.21 last week, Bat for Lashes fall back sixty places to No.81 with “The Haunted Man”, and dropping out of the Top 100 after entering last week we say goodbye to “Oddfellows” for Tomahawk (from #37) and “Pedestrian Verse” for Frightened Rabbit from No.55.
The first new material from Canadian rock-twins Tegan & Sara in over three years debuts at No.14 this week entitled “Heartthrob”, becoming the girls’ highest placed and third album to chart in Australia. Their fifth album “The Con” first charted here in August of 2007 reaching No.32 upon entry, and that was followed by their sixth album “Sainthood” in November 2009, which debuted and peaked at No.21. And the final Top 50 debut is by California hardcore punk band The Bronx, who debut at No.37 with their latest album “IV” (four), beating the No.98 peak their set “III” (three) made in November of 2008.
Lower 50: Sarah Blasko is up twenty places to No.59 with “I Awake” (HP-9), and Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” jumps back up fifteen places to No.61. Pink Floyd’s “A Foot in the Door” is up eighteen places to No.76, and returning albums this week include “The Ultimate Collection” for Whitney Houston (one year anniversary of her passing) at No.80, “The Ultimate Bee Gees” at No.87 (helped by the tour), “Living Things” for Linkin Park at No.97 and back in at No.100 is the self-titled third album for Birds of Tokyo (HP-2).
New entries in the lower fifty come from Melbourne synth-pop group Strange Talk with their debut album “Cast Away” in at No.56, followed at No.75 by the thirteenth album for The Eels entitled “Wonderful, Glorious”. Coheed and Cambria see their sixth album “The Aftermath: Descension” enter at No.85, their third album to chart in Australia, and debuting at No.95 is Silverstein, a Canadian post-hardcore band with their first entry here, but their seventh album entitled “This is How the Wind Shifts”.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-charts.com
The ARIA chart is updated Sundays at 6pm
Stay updated with your free Noise11 daily music newsletter. Subscribe to Noise11 Music News here
