One Direction debut at No.1 with their fourth album entitled “Four”, which also enters on Gold (●) sales, plus its becomes their fourth consecutive No.1 album in Australia, a first for an overseas act.
“Four” becomes the 721st No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2014) and the 572nd for ARIA (1983 to 2014), plus the 370th to debut at No.1 on the ARIA Albums chart. It’s the eighth No.1 for the record label Syco, with il Divo and Leona Lewis both having scored one apiece, Susan Boyle with two and now One Direction with four. This is also only the second No.1 album to feature ‘four’ in its title, the other being “Catch Bull at Four” for Cat Stevens for seven weeks from late October 1972 (pre-ARIA). “Four” also becomes the 138th No.1 for an English act, plus the 337th by a Group.
One Direction have released four albums, and all four have gone to No.1, making them third on a very exclusive list ‘Consecutive No.1 Albums’, as leading that list is Jimmy Barnes whose first six studio albums all went to No.1 (and his next three went to No.2), the first being ‘Bodyswerve’ in 1984 which took two weeks to climb to No.1, the next five all debuted at the top. Next up are Silverchair, who only released five studio albums, all of which debuted at No.1, so that’s put them in a unique position, as no one else has done that yet. Now One Direction climb into third place, as their previous three chart-topping albums were “Up All Night” (five weeks from 6-April-2012), which climbed to the top in its eighteenth week within the charts (it debuted the first week of December 2011), then in November 2012 they spent two weeks at the top with “Take Me Home”, followed fifty-four weeks later by their third set “Midnight Memories” which only lasted a single week (2-Dec-2013). The only other act within this feat is Delta Goodrem, who has released four albums, her first three all debuted at No.1, whilst her 2012 set “Child of the Universe” debuted and peaked at No.2.
Taylor Swift holds at No.2 with her former No.1 “1989”, with the albums new single “Blank Space” climbing to the top of the ARIA Singles chart this week. Nickelback debut at No.3 with their eighth studio album (and first on new label Universal/Republic) entitled “No Fixed Address”, which becomes their seventh entry here (six studio and one best of) and also their seventh Top 10 album and Top 10 debut, as all of their previous entries (bar one) have debuted and peaked in their first week of charting, the only exception is their first entry here “Silver Side Up” which came in at No.6 and climbed to No.5 two weeks later. Another unique fact about Nickelback album peaks is that they have peaked at No.1 (Here and Now 2011), No.2 (All the Right Reasons 2005), No.3 (Dark Horse 2008), No.4 (The Long Road 2003), No.5 (Silver Side Up 2001) and No.6 (The Best of Volume 1 2013), now they have a second No.3 to add to that list.
Foo Fighters debuted on Gold sales last week with “Sonic Highways” at No.1, which drops three places to No.4 this week and is newly certified ▲Platinum too, whilst Ed Sheeran is back down a place to No.5 with his “x” album. Pink Floyd drop three places to No.6 with their new album “The Endless River”, and it picks up Gold (●) in sales this week, whilst Human Nature drop two places to No.7 with their new covers album “Jukebox”.
Katy Perry’s current national tour pushes her album “Prism” back up three places to No.8, notching up its 24th week within the Top 10, a place that the album hasn’t been since late June. The third and final Top 10 entry is new at No.9, the fourth album for local emcee and rapper Kerser entitled “King”, which also becomes his second Top 10 album, as his early November 2013 set “S.C.O.T.” debuted and peaked at No.5, plus this also becomes his fourth chart entry overall. Finally dropping down three places to No.10 is the ‘Frozen’ Soundtrack, which is notching up its 40th week within the Top 10, the nearest amount for a soundtrack to have spent that long in the Top 10 would have to be ‘Grease’ which racked up sixty-six weeks within the Top 10 from three different chart runs (1978, 1991 and 1998).
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: The annual re-entry for Michael Buble’s “Christmas” album occurs this week at No.14, but can it return to the No.1 spot for a fourth time/consecutive year, and if it does so it will create new chart history, as this album and the ‘Grease’ Soundtrack are the only sets to have gone back to the top on three separate occasions. With Jimmy Barnes touring the country at the moment, his former No.1 album “30: 30 Hindsight” is back up twelve places to No.24, and another tourist in the form of Katy Perry sees her previous album “Teenage Dream” back up eleven spots to No.27. Chet Faker’s many ARIA Award nominations and the telecast this coming week help his multi-nominated album “Built on Glass” back up sixteen spots to No.30, whilst the Soundtrack for “Guardians of the Galaxy” is back up eighteen places to No.33 (the DVD is out next week 1-Dec), and also returning to the Top 50 are Vance Joy with “Dream Your Life Away”, up twenty places to No.39.
DOWN DOWN: The Hilltop Hoods fall four places to No.12 with “Walking Under Stars” (HP-1, WI10-10) and it’s newly certified ▲Platinum in sales, plus by staying within the Top 10 for ten weeks, it’s now their longest run within the ten, beating the nine weeks that their previous set “Drinking from the Sun” achieved back in 2012. The other three Top 10 dropouts all debuted within the ten last week, so they all notched up a single week within the ten, with the self-titled album for X-Factor 2014 winner Marlisa (HP-6) down seven to No.13 (the same place her single fell to too), “Great Women of Country” for Melinda Schneider and Beccy Cole (9 to 21) and “Bloodstones & Diamonds” for Machine Head (10 to 43). Calvin Harris is down five to No.20 with “Motion”, whilst Neil Diamond drops eight to No.25 with “Melody Road”. Flight Facilities drop twelve to No.28 with “Down to Earth”, Slipknot tumble thirteen to No.31 with “5: The Gray Chapter”, The Foo Fighters “Greatest Hits” are down eleven to No.32, and after leaping to No.22 last week, “The Story: The Best of” for Spandau Ballet is back down eighteen places to No.40. George Ezra’s “Wanted on Voyage” drops eleven to No.41, Paloma Faith and “A Perfect Contradiction” is down twenty spots to No.47, the No.20 debut last week of “Abandon Ship” for Knife Party drops twenty-eight spots to No.48 and The Script with “No Sound without Silence” is down eighteen to No.50 this week.
The ninth studio and first new album in thirteen years from US Country artist Garth Brooks enters at No.11 this week entitled “Man Against Machine”, with his last entry here being the November 2007 collection “The Ultimate Hits” climbing to No.11 too, plus this becomes Garth’s eleventh chart entry in Australia (eight studios, two best of, one live album).
The fourth studio album and second entry here for The Ghost Inside debuts at No.16 entitled “Dear Youth”, which far surpasses their previous entry “Get What You Give”, which debuted and peaked at No.63 in July 2012. And coming in at No.19 are Cold Chisel with “The Live Tapes Vol.2: Live at Bombay Rock, April 27, 1979”, whilst their first “Live Tapes” album from 2-Dec-2013 debuted and peaked at No.27.
A new tribute compilation of Paul McCartney’s songs (solo and Beatles material) entitled “The Art of McCartney” debuts at No.22 this week, containing covers by Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Heart, Steve Miller, Cat Stevens, Brian Wilson, Willie Nelson, Barry Gibb, Kiss, Roger Daltry and many more on the 42 tracks. Another compilation album of covers debuts at No.26 entitled “Punk Goes Pop Volume 6”, with songs by Paramore, Miley Cyrus, Pharrell, Lorde, Beyonce and Taylor Swift covered by such acts as We Came as Romans, August Burns Red, Youth in Revolt and many more on the thirteen track set, and this is the first in the series to chart here.
New Zealand singer/songwriter Brooke Fraser debuted in her home countries Top 10 this week with her fourth album “Brutal Romantic”, entering here at No.23, which is her fourth entry here also, her last album “Flags” (Oct 2013) being her best chart entry so far, debut and peaking at No.3. Coming in at No.35 is the Queen compilation album “Queen Forever”, which has two discs of remastered classic Queen tracks, plus a new CD of previously unreleased and newly remixed material with Freddie Mercury, including a duet with Michael Jackson.
The latest installment of the film and soundtrack for “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” debuts at No.36 this week, featuring tracks from Lorde, Ellie Goulding, Chvrches, Charli XCX, Grace Jones, The Chemical Brothers and Ariana Grande amongst its fourteen tracks, with the previous two soundtracks being “Songs from District 12” (HP-14, March 2012) and “Catching Fire” (HP-37, Nov 2013).
The sixth studio album for the group TV on the Radio is called “Seeds” and it debuts at No.42 to become the bands fourth Top 50 entry (from four entries here). They last charted back in April 2011 with their highest charting set so far “Nine Types of Light” (HP-25). The final Top 50 entry this week is in at No.44, U2 with a re-packaged edition of their recent Top 10 album, now entitled “Songs of Innocence +” with a bonus disc of material.
Lower 50: The self-titled album for Angus & Julia Stone is back up eleven places to No.52, Neil Finn & Paul Kelly are back up nine spots to No.64 with “Goin’ Your Way”, “18 Hits” for ABBA is back up fourteen spots to No.79 and returning albums this week are from Eminem with “Curtain Calls: The Hits” (#81), “Moon Landing” for James Blunt (#88), the ‘Jersey Boys’ Soundtrack (#91), “Burnt Letters” for Taylor Henderson (#94), Sia with “1000 Forms of Fear” (#98) and sneaking back in at No.100 are Nirvana with “Nevermind”.
Another compilation to chart this week is in at No.69, “We Love Disney” which has local artists performing current and classic Disney songs, with acts such as Dannii Minogue, Kimbra, Harrison Craig, David Campbell, Anja Nissen, The McClymonts and Kate Miller-Heidke amongst its twelve tracks. The soundtrack for the new Christopher Nolan film “Interstellar” as performed by Hans Zimmer debuts at No.82 this week, and the final new entry is at No.89, the fifth studio album and first entry here for California metal act In This Moment, their new set entitled “Black Widow”.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
