The first act from Iceland to top the ARIA Albums Chart occurs this week, as Of Monsters & Men take their album “My Head is an Animal” up four places to land the No.1 album in Australia.
Of Monsters And Men, Photo Ros O'Gorman
Helped by their current visit to our shores, and their massive placing in the recent Triple J Hottest 100 for 2012, the album has spawned two Top 40 hits so far, with “Little Talks” (HP-7, TW-11) and “Mountain Sound” (TW-39). And now they surpass the No.2 peak achieved by fellow Icelander Bjork, who in July of 1995 debuted and peaked at No.2 with her second album “Post”.
“My Head is an Animal” becomes the 661st No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2013) and the 520th for ARIA (1983 to 2013), plus it gives Universal (direct) their first new No.1 album since “Intriguer” by Crowded House (June 2010). It’s the fourth album with a ‘Head’ in its title, the others being “Machine Head” for Deep Purple (June 1972), “Goats Head Soup” for The Rolling Stones (Nov 1973), and the last one being “A Rush of Blood to the Head” for Coldplay (Sept 2002). Plus it’s also the fourth ‘Animal’ at the top, previously there were “Circus Animals” for Cold Chisel (May 1982), “Baby Animals” for the Baby Animals (Feb 1992) and “Mechanical Animals” for Marilyn Manson (Sept 1998).
Bruno Mars climbs back up to No.2 with “Unorthodox Jukebox” (HP-1×3), and thanks to a new Top 10 debuting single, P!nk sees her album “The Truth About Love” rise back up three places to No.3, whilst her “Greatest Hits… So Far” rebound’s nineteen places to No.24 this week. Dropping from his No.1 spot from last week to No.4 this week is the self titled album for Flume.
After debuting at No.2 last week, Justin Bieber’s “Believe Acoustic” falls four places to No.6, but returning to the Top 10 at No.7 is the “Mythology” box-set for The Bee Gees, which is boosted by the start of Barry Gibb’s national tour. Also a current tourist who returns to the Top 10 this week is Keith Urban, who’s “The Story So Far” (HP-1×1) jumps up eleven places to No.8, spending its twelfth overall week inside the Top 10.
Scoring their first weeks inside the ARIA Top 10 are Alt-J with “An Awesome Wave”, up three places to a new peak of No.9, and after debuting and peaking at No.12 in late October of 2012, the Swedish House Mafia spend their first week inside the Top 10 at No.10, as “Until Now” jumps up ten places thanks to their recent tour of the country and current TV ads for the album.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: “The Sapphires” Soundtrack is back up three places to No.13, whilst current visitor to our shores Bat for Lashes see their album “The Haunted Man” return to it’s October 2012 entry position of No.21, up forty-two places this week. “Thinking in Textures” for Chet Faker lands it’s first week inside the ARIA Top 50 by climbing sixteen places to No.44, and Coldplay’s “Mylo Xyloto” jumps back up thirty-four places to No.46. Also taking a big leap back into the Top 50 is The Foo Fighters who’s “Greatest Hits” set is back up forty-five places to No.50.
DOWN DOWN: After a single week at No.10, The Lumineers self-titled album is down two places to No.12, with other top ten exits from “Les Miserables” Soundtrack (HP-2, 5 weeks inside Top 10) down six places to No.14; “Babel” for Mumford & Sons (HP-2, 12 weeks inside Top 10) also down six places to No.15, and Ed Sheeran’s “+” (HP-1×1, 27 weeks inside Top 10) falling nine spots to No.16.
The “Pitch Perfect” Soundtrack drops nine chart-octaves to No.23, whilst Frank Ocean’s “Channel Orange” is down twelve places to No.29. The “Greatest Hits” for Red Hot Chili Peppers is down eleven places to No.39, and Calvin Harris’ “18 Months” drops fourteen places to No.40 this week. The self-titled album for Birdy falls thirteen places to No.42, and leaving the Top 50 for the first time are One Direction, who fall fourteen places to No.51 after 62 weeks inside the Top 50.
A$AP Rocky falls eighteen places to No.57 with “Long Live A$AP”, and Gary Clark Jr. sees his “Blak & Blu” album tumble sixteen places to No.61. Alabama Shakes hit a new peak of No.36 last week with their “Boys and Girls” album, but this week it falls thirty places to No.66. “Passione” for Andrea Bocelli is down forty places to No.73 after it’s No.33 entry last week, and although The Temper Trap’s self-titled album is down thirty-five places to No.77 it is now certified ● Gold in sales. Ben Harper’s “Get Up” is down fifty four places to No.98 from last weeks debut of No.44, and a couple of beautiful albums tumble too, with Lee Kernaghan’s “Beautiful Noise” dropping eighteen places to No.67 and Reece Mastin’s “Beautiful Nightmare” down fifty-four places to No.100.
NEW – #11 – All That Echoes – JOSH GROBAN
The sixth studio album for Josh Groban is the highest new entry to the ARIA Albums chart this week at No.11, becoming his second highest charting album in Australia and his eighth overall chart entry (6 Studio, 1 Live, 1 Best of). His list of albums that have charted in this country is below…
LP|Entry Date|HP|WI|Titles
A1|15-Apr-02|28|25|Josh Groban
A2|01-Dec-03|25|48|Closer
L1|25-Apr-05|16|05|Live at the Greek
A3|20-Nov-06|05|32|Awake
X1|29-Oct-07|33|11|Noel (Christmas Album/4th studio album)
G1|24-Nov-08|23|11|A Collection (Greatest Hits)
A5|22-Nov-10|21|11|Illuminations
A6|11-Feb-13|11|1*|All That Echoes
Pete Murray’s “Blue Sky Blue” (HP-6, Sept 2011) album has been stripped to become a laid back summery sounding album and re-titled “Blue Sky Blue – The Byron Sessions”, with the new edition debuting at No.17 this week, ahead of his national tour in support of the album. Another re-packaged album debuting this week comes in at No.18, “Rumours” for Fleetwood Mac, which now has bonus tracks, extra songs and studio cuts and this week in 1978 (6-Feb) it was spending it’s eighth and final week at No.1 in Australia.
The sixth studio album for Scottish rock band Biffy Clyro becomes their first ever to chart here in Australia, as “Opposites” debuts at No.22, it also became the bands first UK No.1 album recently. Alternately US band Tomahawk debut at No.37 with their fourth album “Oddfellows”, also becoming their fourth Top 40 album here. Previously they have charted with “Tomahawk” (HP-37, Nov 2001), “Mit Gas” (HP-28, May 2003) and their last entry was “Anonymous” (HP-32, June 2007). The last Top 50 entry of the week is in at No.45, the soundtrack to the new Quentin Tarantino film “Django Unchained”.
Lower 50: “The Very Best of” for INXS jumps up twenty-six places to No.52, with “This is Tomorrow” for Seth Sentry back up nine places to No.56. “Broken Brights” by Angus Stone is back up twenty-five spots to No.59, and returning albums are from Alicia Keys at No.63 with “Girl on Fire” (HP-12) and “Chasing Ghosts” for Amity Affliction (HP-1) back in at No.72. After one week out of the Top 100, “One + One” for O’Shea (HP-24) returns at No.75, and Sarah Blasko’s “I Awake” (HP-9) is back in at No.79. Also back in is “Electronic Earth” for Labrinth at No.89, “A Foot in the Door: The Best of” for Pink Floyd at No.94, helped by the recently screened documentary about their album “Wish You Were Here”, with the final returning album back in at No.97, “A is for Alpine” (HP-11)
Another Scottish band making their first ARIA Albums chart entry, are Frightened Rabbit who debut at No.55 with their fourth album “Pedestrian Verse”. Destiny’s Child debut at No.69 with the compilation album “Love Songs”, helped possibly by their appearance at the Super Bowl last weekend alongside Beyonce.
The final new entry of the week comes in at No.81, and is the first new material from Russell Morris in almost six years “Sharkmouth”. It’s also the first time in over twenty-one years that Russell has placed an album on the ARIA Charts, his last being November 1991’s “A Thousand Suns” (HP-98). Russell’s previous charting albums in Australia are listed below…
Entry Date|HP|WI|Titles
23-Aug-71|12|10|Bloodstone
08-Oct-79|38|10|Foot in the Door (Russell Morris Band)
26-Jan-81|28|13|Almost Frantic (with The Rubes)
24-Nov-91|98|01|A Thousand Suns
11-Feb-13|81|1*|Sharkmouth
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-charts.com
The ARIA chart is updated every Sunday at 6pm
