The fifteenth studio album for Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds becomes the group’s first No.1 album in Australia, as they debut at the top of the ARIA Albums Chart with “Push the Sky Away”, their first new material in almost five years (March 2008 was the last one).
Nick Cave, Photo: Ros O'Gorman
“Push the Sky Away” becomes the 663rd No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2013) and the 522nd for ARIA (1983 to 2013), plus it’s the 317th album to debut at the No.1 position, plus both the singles and album charts have No.1 debuts on independent labels this week. It’s the first time the word ‘Push’ has appeared in a No.1 album title, but the second time for both ‘Sky’ and ‘Away’, with “Blue Sky Mining” for Midnight Oil (2 weeks from 11-March-1990) and “Come Away with Me” for Norah Jones (9 weeks from 10-Feb-2003).
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds become the 82nd Australian act to reach No.1 on the album charts, plus they’re the 48th Australian Group to hit the top, and it’s the 156th Australian performed album. A list of the bands previous charting albums in Australia is listed below…
LP#|Entry Date|HP|WI|Titles
A04|15-Dec-86|98|01|Your Funeral, My Trial
A06|27-May-90|93|02|The Good Son
A07|10-May-92|41|14|Henry’s Dream
L01|19-Sep-93|47|06|Live Seeds
A08|01-May-94|08|26|Let Love in (●)
A09|11-Feb-96|03|13|Murder Ballads
A10|16-Mar-97|05|16|The Boatman’s Call
G01|31-May-98|02|24|The Best of (●)
A11|09-Apr-01|04|16|No More Shall We Part
A12|10-Feb-03|8|06|Nocturama
A13|27-Sep-04|05|20|Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus (●)
G02|04-Apr-05|36|12|B-Sides and Rarities
A14|10-Mar-08|2|18|Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (●)
T01|20-Feb-12|32|04|Straight to You – Triple J’s Tribute to Nick Cave
A15|25-Feb-13|01|1*|Push the Sky Away
Holding for a third week are Bruno Mars with “Unorthodox Jukebox” and Pink with “The Truth About Love” at No.2 and No.3 respectively, whilst Macklemore & Ryan Lewis climb back up two places to No.4 with “The Heist”. Also up two places to No.5, and scoring a new peak too are The Bee Gees with the box-set “Mythology”, whilst down a spot to No.6 are Of Monsters and Men with “My Head is an Animal” (now ▲ Platinum).
Flume and his self-titled album are back up one place to No.7, and after also winning a Brit Award; Mumford & Sons’ “Babel” album is back up to No.8. Frank Ocean jumps nine places to No.9 with his album “Channel Orange”, it’s first week inside the Top 10, whilst last weeks No.1 debut for Foals; “Holy Fire”, is down from the top to No.10 this week.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: Fun have re-packaged their album “Some Nights”, which jumps back up fourteen places to No.14 this week, and currently touring artist Sarah Blasko sees her album “I Awake” (HP-9) leap up forty-four places to No.15. Also blasting back into the Top 50 is Calvin Harris, whose “18 Months” (HP-5) album is up thirty-seven places to No.17 this week.
With a new Top 40 and a Top 5 hit currently charting, Rihanna’s “Unapologetic” (HP-8) is back up seven places to No.22, and returning to the Top 100 at No.24 this week is Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die” (HP-1×1). As Labrinth & Emeli jump to a new peak with “Beneath Your Beautiful” (TW-6), Emeli’s album “Our Version of Events” is back up twenty places to No.26 (also thanks to some Brit awards this past week), whilst Labrinth returns at No.63 with “Electronic Earth” (HP-38).
Alicia Keys is back fifty-five places to No.36 with “Girl on Fire” (HP-12), and also returning to the Top 50 is A$AP Rocky with “Long Live A$AP” (HP-7), back up thirty-one places this week. Missy Higgins returns to the Top 100 at No.44 with “The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle” (HP-1×3), and the only new peaking album of the week sees Russell Morris climb a spot to No.46 with “Sharkmouth”. Kendrick Lamar is back up twenty places to No.47 with “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” (HP-23), and The Hilltop Hoods zoom back up forty-two places to No.50 with “Drinking from the Sun” (HP-1×2).
DOWN DOWN: After a No.4 debut last week, “Temper Temper” for Bullet for My Valentine drops down nine places to No.13, with the other Top 10 dropout coming from Tim McGraw’s “Two Lanes of Freedom”, down thirteen places to No.23 this week. Josh Groban falls thirteen places to No.30 with “All That Echoes”, and Gotye’s massive return last week at No.24 for “Making Mirrors” is down thirteen places to No.37 this week.
Three weeks ago Swedish House Mafia were at No.10, this week their album “Until Now” is down eighteen places to No.39, but Tegan & Sara’s debut at No.14 for “Heartthrob” is down to No.41 this week. The Rolling Stones fall fourteen places to No.51 with “GRRR!”, and Pete Murray’s “Byron Sessions” is down thirty-one places to No.70. Bronx’s “IV” is down forty-four places to No.81, Biffy Clyro’s “Opposites” falls thirty-six places to No.98 and falling out of the Top 100 after a No.56 debut last week is “Cast Away” by local act Strange Talk.
Lower 50: O’Shea see their “One + One” album (HP-24) jump back forty-three places to No.56, whilst The Amity Affliction rise back up twenty-three places to No.60 with “Chasing Ghosts” (HP-1×1). Returning to the Top 100 at No.64 is the Led Zeppelin compilation album “Mothership” (HP-8) (Robert Plant is touring soon and he was interviewed on 60 Minutes here last week), and at No.65 Jack White returns with his “Blunderbuss” album (HP-2). Pitbull is back in at No.82 with “Global Warming” (HP-14) and Norah Jones’ “Little Broken Hearts” (HP-5) returns at No.87.
Australian hip-hop group Lowrider see their fourth album “Black Stones” debut at No.67, surpassing their previous effort by album number three, “Round the World” (HP-87, July 2010). The TV series ‘Smash’ see their new album “Bombshell” debut at No.72, and local remix wizard Nick Skitz debuts at No.73 with “Turn it Up!”, having previously charted with the album “Come Into My World” (HP-23, April 2008).
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-charts.com
The ARIA chart is updated every Sunday at 6pm
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