Matchbox Twenty debut at No.1 with their fourth studio album “North” becoming their fourth of five charting albums to reach the top of the ARIA Albums Chart, plus it also achieves Gold sales status in its first week of release.
Matchbox Twenty - Photo By Ros O'Gorman
Gavin Ryan reports that “North” is the 653rd No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2012) and the 512th for ARIA (1983 to 2012), plus it helps Matchbox Twenty to it’s fifteenth accumulated week at No.1, matching the tally achieved by both Bon Jovi (8 albums) and Split Enz (3 albums), placing the group at No.35 on the list ‘Most Accumulated Weeks at No.1: 1965-2012’, plus they become one of thirteen acts who have achieved four No.1 albums in Australia, the list includes Abba, Dire Straits, Led Zeppelin, Midnight Oil, Coldplay and most recently Michael Buble amongst it.
Matchbox Twenty have previously gone to No.1 with the albums “Yourself or Someone Like You” (6 weeks from May 1998), “Mad Season” (5 weeks from May 2000), and their best of collection “Exile on Mainstream” (3 weeks from October 2007). Also lead singer Rob Thomas had a solo No.1 with his first set “Something to Be” (1 week, May 2005), but I didn’t add that to the bands tally.
“North” is the second No.1 this year for the Atlantic label, Ed Sheeran‘s “+” being the other one back in the second week of August, and it’s the first time that the word ‘North’ has appeared in a No.1 album, the only other nautical direction previously to hit No.1 was included in the album “Chef Aid: The South Park Album” (Dec 1998). {“East” by Cold Chisel unfortunately spent eight weeks at No.2 from July 1980, and Westlife are the closest the word West comes to having a No.1 here}.
Lastly “North” is the 308th No.1 album by a Group, the 237th by an American Group, the last US group to hit No.1 here being Foster the People with “Torches” (Feb 2012), and with “North” debuting at the top, it becomes the 311th album to do so, with Karise Eden’s “My Journey” (2-July-2012) being the last summit-debut.
After one week at the top, Birdy and her self-titled album drops back to No.2, pushing the previous No.1 “The Sapphires” Soundtrack also down a place, to No.3 this week. Seven of the Top 10 albums this week are current or former No.1’s, with “+” for Ed Sheeran holding at No.5 this week, “The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle” for Missy Higgins down two places to No.6 and Karise Eden with “My Journey” also down two, to No.8 this week.
“Overexposed” for Maroon 5 spends its tenth week (of eleven weeks on the chart) inside the Top 10 by holding at No.7, and Fun. drop two places to No.10 this week with “Some Nights”, but joining the Top 10 for the first time in its twenty-three week Top 100 chart run is “The Awakening” for James Morrison, up four places to No.9 this week, becoming his first Top 10 entry in Australia, as his two previous albums didn’t quite make it up here; “Undiscovered” (HP-17, Nov 2006) and “Songs for You, Truths for Me” (HP-21, Oct 2008).
Northern Ireland three-piece band Two Door Cinema Club land the second Top 10 debut of the week, as their second album “Beacon” lands at No.4, giving the band their first Top 10 placing, as their first album “Tourist History” peaked at No.44 in February of 2011, having first charted in May 2010 (HP-100), then again in August 2010 (HP-95).
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: Frank Ocean’s album “Channel Orange” (HP-18) jumps back up fourteen places to No.19 this week, whilst Flo Rida’s “Wild Ones” (HP-5) is back up eleven places to No.28 thanks to a No.3 debut of “I Cry”. The Beach Boys current tour has helped their new album “That’s Why God Made the Radio” leap up twenty-nine places to No.31, their first studio album inside the Top 50 since “Still Cruisin” (HP-10, peaked Feb 1990) debuted at No.50 in the second last week of 1989.
DOWN DOWN: With three albums entering the Top 10 this week (two debuts and a climber), the three to leave are “Timomatic” (3 to 13) for Timomatic after one week, “Elvis by Request” (9 to 14, HP-4) after two weeks, and after 31 accumulated weeks, “Up All Night” for One Direction drops from No.10 to No.18.
After their respective tours, Pitbull with “Planet Pitbull” (19 to 36) and Slash with “Apocalyptic Love” (29 to 49) see their albums tumble this week, but the two Top 10 debuts from three weeks ago are making a quick exit, as “Four” by Bloc Party has gone 3-20-44, and “Fear & Freedom” by Ricki-Lee has fallen 7-25-55, whilst a further album that debuted that week, “Hot Cakes” for The Darkness falls 15-31-53.
Adam Brand’s “There Will Be Love” (HP-4) is down fourteen places to No.46, and after debuting high last week, “Chapter V” for Trey Songz is down forty-eight places to No.66 (from No.18). “Fortune” for Chris Brown drops twenty places to No.70, and after entering at No.21 last week, “Deep Heat” for Oh Mercy plummets sixty-two places to No.83 this week. Finally debuts from last week that fall hard and lands outside of the Top 100 this week include “Rogers plays Rogerstein” for Tim Rogers (from No.45) and the b-sides collection for Elbow entitled “Dead in the Boot” (from No.52).
Ronan Keating’s ninth album studio album is entitled “Fires”, and it debuts at No.12 this week, the same place it landed in his home country of Ireland this past week. All of his nine studio and one best of albums have reached No.25 or higher in Australia, with five of those studio albums having reached the Top 10, his only No.1 album here being “Songs for My Mother” (April/May 2009 for four weeks). Ronan also returns at No.94 with his “10 Years of Hits” (HP-13) collection.
The eighth studio album for Canada’s Alanis Morissette debuts at No.22 entitled “Havoc and Bright Lights”. It’s her first studio album for Sony (Collective Sounds through Sony), having previously had her albums distributed by Maverick through Warner. This new album has already gone to No.1 in her home country plus Austria and Switzerland. Unless the album climbs any higher here, it’ll be her lowest charting album, currently being beaten by the No.21 peak of the “Jagged Little Pill Acoustic” set from August 2005.
Australian rock veterans The Angels debut at No.24 with their twelfth studio album entitled “Take it to the Streets” It’s been fourteen years since they released and charted with “Skin & Bones” (HP-27, March 1998), thirty-four years since their second album “Face to Face” (HP-18) first charted from August 1978. {Their self-titled first album failed to crack the local Top 100 at the time in mid-1977}. The bands charting career here is listed below…
Entry Date|HP|WI|Titles
14-Aug-78|18|71|Face to Face
25-Jun-79| 8|33|No Exit
12-May-80| 5|25|The Angels Greatest (Alberts)
23-Jun-80| 5|23|Dark Room
07-Dec-81|13|20|Night Attack
09-May-83| 6|24|Watch the Red
11-Feb-85| 5|24|Two Minute Warning
25-Nov-85|38| 9|Greatest Volume II (Epic)
08-Dec-86| 6|39|Howling
29-Feb-88| 3|25|Liveline
10-Jun-90| 1|46|Beyond Salvation (two weeks at No.1)
08-Dec-91|14|15|Red Back Fever
30-Aug-92|28|08|Red Back Fever/Left Hand Drive (Live)
25-Oct-92|76| 4|The Angels “Their Finest Hour…and Then Some” (Alberts)
11-Dec-94|30|15|Evidence (Mushroom Best of)
15-Mar-98|27| 5|Skin & Bone
17-July-06|22|13|Wasted Sleepless Nights – The Definitive Greatest Hits (Liberation)
14-July-08|53| 2|Tour EP 2008
10-Sep-12|24|*1|Take it to the Streets
There is a stream of five new entries between 22 and 27, the third of which is Mark Knopfler with “Privateering” at No.25, his eighth solo studio album, and first in three years. It’s his twelfth album to chart here overall, his list of solo chart entries in Australia are listed below…
Entry Date|HP|WI|Titles
30-May-83|12|27|Music from ‘Local Hero’ (Soundtrack)
21-Jan-85|83| 2|Cal (Soundtrack)
25-Jan-88|87| 8|Princess Bride (Soundtrack)
28-Apr-96|28|29|Golden Heart
02-Oct-00|16|20|Sailing to Philadelphia
07-Oct-02|47| 5|Ragpicker’s Dream
04-Oct-04|69| 5|Shangri La
14-Nov-05|35|15|Private Investigations: Best of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits
01-May-06|41|12|All the Roadrunning (with Emmylou Harris)
24-Sep-07|41| 5|Kill to Get Crimson
21-Sep-09|43| 7|Get Lucky
10-Sep-12|25|*1|Privateering
Charlyn Marshall is better known by her musical moniker Cat Power, and her ninth album entitled “Sun” debuts at No.26, to become her fourth album to chart in Australia. She first charted here with her sixth album “You Are Free” (HP-71, April 2003) and then came “The Greatest” (HP-25, Jan 2006), whilst her last chart appearance here was with “Jukebox” (HP-36) in January 2008. The last of the Top 30 debuts for the week comes from Byron Bay natives In Hearts Wake with their debut album entitled “Divination” coming in at No.27. Whilst the last Top 50 entry of the week is the No.43 debut for “Come of Age” the second album for English indie-rock band The Vaccines, their first to chart in Australia.
Lower 50: At the end of April 2012, Of Monsters and Men’s album “My Head is an Animal” made it to No.89, this week it re-enters and scores a new peak of No.82. Also returning this week is “The xx” (#89), “No Plans” (#97) for Cold Chisel and “By the Horns” (#100) for Julia Stone.
The Go-Betweens debut at No.51 with “Quiet Heart – The Best of”, their second of three greatest hits compilations to chart, the other being May 1999’s “Bellavista Terrace: Best of The Go-Betweens” (HP-58).
Rap super-group Slaughterhouse take their second album into the ARIA Albums chart this week at No.63 entitled “Welcome to: Our House”. Their first self-titled album failed to chart here in 2009. The ninth studio album for Animal Collective entitled “Centipede HZ” debuts at No.75, they have previously charted with their eighth album “Merriweather Post Pavilion” (HP-63, Jan 2009).
The eleventh studio album for Melissa Etheridge is the final new entry of the week, as “4th Street Feeling” debuts at No.78. Melissa hasn’t charted in Australia since her October 2005 set “Greatest Hits: The Road Less Travelled”, and below is her local chart discography…
Entry Date|HP|WI|Titles
17-Oct-88| 3|67|Melissa Etheridge
09-Oct-89| 9|36|Brave and Crazy
03-May-92| 8|13|Never Enough
31-Oct-93|39|34|Yes I Am
19-Nov-95|17|35|Your Little Secret
11-Oct-99|15| 4|Breakdown
13-Aug-01|30| 4|Skin
23-Feb-04|91| 1|Lucky
31-Oct-05|94| 1|Greatest Hits: The Road Less Travelled
10-Sep-12|78|*1|4th Street Feeling
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com.
The ARIA chart is updated every Sunday at 6pm.
Watch the Ed Sheeran Noise11.com interview.
Watch the Noise11.com interview with Ricki-Lee.
Watch The Angels perform live at Noise11.
