Justin Bieber’s third album becomes his second No.1 album here in Australia, as “Believe” debuts at No.1 this week, also becoming the 309th No.1 debut and the fifth consecutive top-spot debut.
Justin Bieber Believe
Now that Justin has scored his second ARIA No.1 album he joins Bryan Adams (2) and Michael Buble (4) as the only three Canadian solo male singers to have No.1 albums here, all of which have now had multiple chart-topping albums. Plus it’s the 23rd No.1 album by a Canadian artist, the previous being Michael Buble in December last year with his “Christmas” album. Justin’s “My Worlds” album hit No.1 twice at the start and end of May 2010.
“Believe” for Justin becomes the 648th No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2012) and the 507th for ARIA (1983 to 2012), plus as Justin is now on the Island label in Australia (first album was through Def Jam), “Believe” becomes the 17th No.1 album here for that label with “Ceremonials” for Florence + the Machine being the last (Nov 2011). It’s also the second album with the word ‘Believe’ in it’s title to hit No.1, the last being the Bring Me the Horizon album from Oct 2010 “There is a Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen it…”.
Keith Urban’s “The Story So Far” (HP-1) returns to No.2 for a third time, up two places from last week, and no doubt helped by his appearances and performances on The Voice. Last week’s No.1 “The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle” for Missy Higgins drops two places to No.3, but blasting into the Top 5, up twenty-nine places from last week to No.4 this week is the “Rock of Ages” soundtrack. It’s the first soundtrack to hit the Top 10 this year, the last being the “Twilight: Breaking Dawn” album from November of 2011.
“Up All Night” for One Direction, “+” by Ed Sheeran and “21” for Adele all hold still at No.5, No.6 and No.8 respectively, whilst last weeks debut at No.3 of Usher’s “Looking 4 Myself” drops down four places to No.7 this week. “El Camino” for The Black Keys drops two spots to No.9, and returning to the Top 10 at No.10 is Seal with his “Hits” collection. But unfortunately, Xavier Rudd’s “Spirit Bird” tumbles from it’s No.2 debut down to No.11 this week.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: “The Voice: The Final 24” album jumps up eight places to a new peak of No.13 this week. And thanks to his duet with son-in-law Joel Madden on The Voice, Lionel Richie returns to the Top 100 at No.20 with his “Tuskegee” duets album, and with his “The Definitive Collection” at No.51. And The Voice judge Keith Urban also has two returnees to the Top 100, with his “Get Closer” (HP-11, peaked Nov 2010) album back in at No.23 (which features the No.39 single this week “Without You”). Plus his first best of “Greatest Hits: 18 Kids” (HP-7 peaked Dec 20078) returns at No.66. Lady GaGa is blitzing the country with her current national tour, and her second album “Born This Way” this week jumps back up twenty-three places to No.22, whilst her first album, the repackaged “The Fame Monster” returns to the Top 100 at No.67.
Paul Simon’s 1986 album “Graceland” has been re-mastered, re-packaged and returns to the Top 100 this week at No.12. The album originally entered the ARIA charts in mid-September 1986 taking only six weeks to climb to No.1 (thanks to the great first single from the album “You Can Call Me Al”), and staying atop for three weeks during late October and early November, returning to No.1 in the first two weeks of April 1987 giving the album five weeks at No.1. This was Paul Simon’s biggest solo album, and his first and only solo No.1 album in Australia. He had last been at No.1 in Australia in September 1970 when he was a part of Simon & Garfunkel on their album “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (three runs at No.1 for a total of 16 weeks from April 1970). “Graceland” spent fifty-six weeks on the ARIA chart initially, with forty-two unbroken weeks inside the Top 10 (early Oct 86 to the last week of July 1987), and the album has returned once before to the ARIA chart. Back in February 1992 “Graceland” spent a further eight weeks in the charts reaching No.36.
Canadian new wave rock band Metric score their second ARIA Albums Chart entry this week with their fifth album entitled “Synthetica”, which comes in at No.21. Their 2009 fourth album “Fantasies” was their first to chart here, reaching No.48 in April of that year. Whilst the final Top 50 debut of the week is from Tedeschi Trucks Band with their second album entitled “Everybody’s Talkin’” which debuts at No.49 this week.
Lower 50: Boy & Bear’s “Moonfire” album jumps back up fourteen places to No.52. Fun. are touring here from late July, and their album “Some Nights” returns to the Top 100 at No.64, helped also by the title track debuting at No.46, whilst also returning to the Top 100 are Jay-Z and Kanye West with “Watch the Throne” at No.93.
Glen Hansard enters at No.77 with his solo debut album “Rhythm and Respose”. He is the former lead singer for the Irish group The Frames, and one half of the duo The Swell Season, and is also known for his acting in the films ‘The Commitments’ and ‘Once’.
The fifth album for the group Motion City Soundtrack is entitled “Go” and it debuts at No.84. Their third and fourth albums have previously charted here; 2007’s “Even if it Kills Me” (HP-52) and 2010’s “My Dinosaur Life” (HP-50).
The ARIA chart updates every Sunday at 6pm
Gavin Ryan, www.australian-charts.com
