Not since Pink has an act scored the ARIA No.1 Album of the Year twice, but for 2015 Adele and her third set “25”, it took out the top honors, matching the top spot her previous album “21” achieved for 2011.
“25” debuted at the top of the ARIA Albums Chart in the last week of November, staying at No.1 for the rest of 2015 (and even now), as it has been over three years since she issued her last album “21” (#32 for 2015), and the albums lead single “Hello” sold enough to become the fifth biggest selling single for 2015. This becomes her third overall EOY Top 10 appearance too, as “21” was also the third biggest selling album in 2012 and we could see “25” at the top of the 2016 EOY chart if it continues to sell as well as it has been, racking up 7x▲Platinum by years end, with “21” having achieved 15xP by now, and “25” was also the #1 album in the UK for 2015.
2014’s #1 album is #2 for 2015 in “x” (multiply) by Ed Sheeran, which of its eight weeks at No.1 here, scored two of those in 2015 (6 weeks in 2014) and also managed 49 weeks within the Top 10 for the year, and only dropped as low as No.13 in October. The “x” album for Ed went back to the top on the 18th of May and 29th of June for a single week, neither time when he was touring here plus its also the #2 album in the UK for last year, and his first album “+” (positive) made it to No.30 for 2015, its fifth year in a row to make the EOY chart after 2011 (#58), 2012 (#5), 2013 (#12) and 2014 (#38).
Taylor Swift’s “1989” album also spent five weeks at No.1 during 2015 (Jan & Feb), and after being the No.2 album for 2014, it drops a place to become the #3 album of 2015. During the entire year the album only left the Top 10 for a single week (mid-May) and she landed five EOY Top 100 singles entries from the set too, whilst coming in at #4 is the guy who scored four Top 30 EOY Singles placements, Justin Bieber with “Purpose” which debuted and peaked for a single week at No.1 on the 23rd of November, after which Adele blew in and everyone away. This is also Justin’s first ever EOY Top 10 position, with his previous highest effort being “My Worlds” which was #12 for 2010.
The first new No.1 album of 2015 was the debut set for Meghan Trainor called “Title” which debuted at the top in mid-January and rose again to the No.1 spot for a second and final week on the 10th of August. Her album scored four songs over on the singles EOY chart for 2015 and “Title” lands at the #5 position for last year, whilst another debut album lands at #6, Sam Smith with “In the Lonely Hour”, which was also the sixth biggest selling album for 2014 too. The one thing that his album was able to do in 2015 that it didn’t the previous year, was to make it to No.1 here in Australia, for two weeks from late April around the time of his first attempt at touring here, as he had to cancel due to strained vocal chords, and completed the tour here later in the year.
Michael Buble and his seasonal album “Christmas” did not manage to go back to No.1 for fifth year in a row in 2015 due to Adele holding the top spot, but it did climb back to No.2 and create a new chart record by becoming the first album to land in the ARIA EOY Albums chart Top 10 five years in a row. In 2011 it was the #2 set, following in 2012 at #4, 2013 it was #7 and in 2014 it was #8, whilst for 2015 it manages to become the #7 album of the year, and the first of two non-No.1 album during 2015 to make it into the Top 10.
The highest placed Australian act in the 2015 EOY Albums Chart is country artist Lee Kernaghan and his set “Spirit of the ANZACS” (four weeks from 30-March) which it the #8 album for last year and the equal second longest running No.1 album of 2015 along with the ’50 Shades of Grey’ soundtrack (#13), and is Lee’s first ever EOY Top 10 placing (or even Top 50 entry). The second EOY Top 10 entry to not make it to No.1 and to not break a record was One Direction with their fifth album “Made in the A.M.” which debuted at No.2 behind Justin Bieber in late November, breaking their record of debuting at No.1 with their first four albums (but not their fifth). “Made in the A.M.” is at the #9 set for 2015, whilst their previous album “Four” comes in at #71 for the year, and finally at #10 is the third album and second No.1 set here for Florence + the Machine entitled “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” which debuted at No.1 in early June and returned to the top later that month for two broken weeks at No.1 and this becomes the bands first ever Australian EOY Top 10 spot.
Other No.1 albums to score a place in the Top 50 for 2015 are Elvis Presley with “If I Can Dream” (2 weeks in early November) at #11, The Weeknd with “Beauty Behind the Madness” (1 week 7-Sept) at #15, “Wilder Mind” by Mumford & Sons (1 week 11 May) #18, “Compton” (1 week, 17-Aug) from Dr. Dre comes in at #21, Kendrick Lamar and “To Pimp a Butterfly” (1 week, 23-March) at #23 and the “Triple J Like a Version Vol.11” compilation (1 week, 12-Oct) is at #24. Tame Impala’s “Currents” (1 week, 27-July) is at #28, John Farnham & Olivia Newton-John with “Two Strong Hearts” (3 weeks from 6-July) comes in at #31, “That’s the Spirit” by Bring Me the Horizon (1 week, 21-Sept) is #37, Hermitude and “Dark Night, Sweet Light” (1 week, 25-May) scores #43 followed at #44 by “Ire” (1 week, 5-Oct) for Parkway Drive and “Drones” (1 week, 15-June) by Muse is at #45 whilst the last within the Top 50 goes to 5 Seconds of Summer with “Sounds Good Feels Good” (1 week, 2-Nov) #46.
Further Aussie acts not mentioned above to make it include Sia at #14 with “1000 Forms of Beauty”, Vance Joy and his debut set “Dream Your Life Away” at #16, The Twelfth Man and “The Very Best of Richie” at #20, “Walking Under Stars” for The Hilltop Hoods comes in at #25, “The Very Best” for INXS is at #29, Chet Faker and “Built on Glass” at #34, “Kylie Christmas” sneaks in at #38, ARIA Award winner Courtney Barnett and “Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit” made it to #39. AC/DC and “Rock or Bust” was #40, Human Nature land two albums in the Top 50, “The Christmas Album” at #42 and “Jukebox” at #48, and Cold Chisel also score two, the one in the fifty is “The Perfect Crime” at #47 and just outside is “The Best of – All for You” at #51.
There are seven soundtrack albums (eight if you include ‘Compton’) to make this years EOY chart, with the highest being the No.1 set “50 Shades of Grey” making it to #13, followed by the “Frozen” (#3 in 2014) soundtrack at No.19. “Furious 7” comes in at #26 and straight after at #27 is the ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ set, followed by the “Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mixtape Vol.1” (#22 in 2014) at #36, the ‘Pitch Perfect’ one soundtrack sold enough on the back of number two’s release to come in at #73 for 2015 (#29 in 2013) and finally a soundtrack from a show that is yet to air (coming in February 2016) sold enough to make it into the EOY chart at #96, “Molly” for the upcoming mini-series.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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