Pharrell Williams climbs to No.1 on the ARIA Albums Chart this week with his second album “G I R L”, now that his album has had a full week of sales (and the price dropped in some places to under $12), and thanks to his recent appearances at The Future Music Festival.
“G I R L” becomes the 698th No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2014) and the 557th for ARIA (1983 to 2014), and the sixth album for 2014, plus the fourth this year for the Columbia/Sony label (Beyonce, Springsteen and MKTO were the other three). It’s the third album to reach No.1 with ‘Girl’ in its title, the other two being Paula Abdul’s “Forever Your Girl” (May 1990) and prior to that it was “Mystery Girl” for Roy Orbison (March 1989). Plus with Pharrell at the top of both the singles and albums chart, he becomes the 119th act to occupy both charts (1965 to 2014), and the fifth this decade, as we’ve had Eminem twice (July 2010 and Nov 2013), plus Adele (June to August 2011) and Gotye (August 2011), with “The Monster” for Eminem and Rihanna alongside its parent album “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” on 18-November-2013 as the last dual occupancy.
Pharrell Williams becomes the 140th American Artist to hit No.1 in Australia, and he’s also the 42nd US Male Solo artist to reach the top of our charts, plus “G I R L: is also the 255th album by an American Act and the 195th by a Solo Male Artist, the last one was “True” by Avicii back in early February.
After four weeks at No.1, INXS and their “Very Best of” collection drops back down a place to No.2, and the set is now certified 3x▲ Platinum in sales, whilst holding at No.3 is Katy Perry with her “Prism” album. Entering at No.4 is the debut album for Glee actress and singer Lea Michele entitled “Louder”. Lea appeared twenty charting albums with the Glee cast ten of those reached the Top 10, with two of them claimed No.1 positions.
Down a place to No.5 is the ’Frozen’ Soundtrack, which is now Gold (●) in sales, and after the FMF appearances, Rudimental are back up a place to No.6 with “Home”. Bruno Mars’ tour played further shows this past week, which keeps his current album “Unorthodox Jukebox” within the Top 10, down two to No.7, whilst Lorde’s just announced national tour in late April boosts her former No.1 set “Pure Heroine” back up four places to No.8 this week. Rounding out the Top 10 are Avicii with “True” (8 to 9) and Robbie Williams’ “Swings Both Ways”, which drops four places to No.10 this week.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: Imagine Dragons are back up five places to No.16 with “Night Visions”, and bounding back up again, this week eighteen spots to No.20, are Troy Cassar-Daly and Adam Harvey with “The Greatest Country Songbook”. Haim climb back up four spots to No.29 and Jason DeRulo’s fifth Top 20 singles this week from his current album “Tattoos” helps it back up eight places to No.33. Gabrielle Aplin also hit the Top 20 with her current single, which also helps her “English Rain” album back up twelve places to No.35; whilst the pending Rolling Stones tour of Australia (22nd March to April 5th) boosts their former No.7 collection “GRRR!” back up fifty-six places to No.40 this week. 30 Seconds of Mars will be here from March 25th, thus their recent album “Love Lust Faith + Dreams” (HP-4) returns at No.46, and Justin Timberlake tickets went on sale for his September tour here, which helps his 2013 albums “The 20/20 Experience” (TW-48) and the sequel “Part 2 of 2” (#92) to return to the charts this week.
DOWN DOWN: After his recent tour here, Eminem’s latest “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” is down a place to No.11, having spent fifteen weeks within the Top 10, and after debuting at No.9, the latest Hillsong United album “The White Album (Remix Project) falls down thirteen places to No.24 this week. Bruce Springsteen’s “High Hopes” tumbles nine places to No.31 and also down nine is “Love in the Future” for John Legend to No.36. Dolly Parton plummets twenty-two spots to No.41 with “Blue Smoke”, whilst the Australian Crawl “Greatest Hits” set is down fourteen places to No.49. Tumbling out of last weeks Top 50 are “Midnight Memories” for One Direction (53 from 20), “Curtain Calls: The Hits” by Eminem (58 from 32, plus now 5x▲ Platinum), “Live at Wembley Stadium 1991” for INXS (24 to 64), “Oxymoron” for ScHoolboy Q (11 to 68), “Common Courtesy” for A Day to Remember (37 to 69), “Yeezus” for Kanye West (42 to 70), “The Brink” for The Jezabels (45 to 74), “The Swing” for INXS (50 to 81), “The Very Best of Dolly Parton (40 to 91) and the highest dropout was from No.51, “All She Wrote” for Christie Lamb.
The sixth studio album by English group Elbow enters at No.12 entitled “The Take Off and Landing of Everything”, becoming their fifth album to chart here and now their highest peaking set too. They last charted with the compilation album “Dead in the Boot” (HP-52, Sep 2012), but prior to that they scored their previous highest effort, as album number five “Build a Rocket Boys!” debuted and peaked at No.13. They have also charted with their first album “Asleep in the Back” (HP-80, July 2001) and third set “Leaders of the Free World” (HP-90, October 2005).
The fourth album for local Sydney metalcore band Buried in Verona debuts at No.15 entitled “Faceless”, becoming the groups second chart entry and now highest charting, as their third set “Notorious” debuted and peaked at No.20 in June 2012. Another Sydney act, Lior sees his fourth studio album enter at No.23 “Scattered Reflections”. This becomes his second highest charting album being 2008’s HP-13 set “Corner of an Endless Road” (Feb 2008), and his first album to chart since his third set “Tumbling into the Dawn” (HP-27, Oct 2010). And another local act, Melbourne’s Calling All Cars see their third album “Raise the People” enter at No.26, becoming the third consecutive set for them to chart, as previously they have charted with “Hold, Hold, Fire” (HP-72, March 2010) and their second set “Dancing with a Dead Man” (HP-20, August 2011).
The third album for UK songstress Paloma Faith is new at No.22, “A Perfect Contradiction”, which is her second set to chart in Australia, as her second album “Fall to Grace” hit No.49 in July 2012, whilst she recently charted with her first single here, and from the current album “Can’t Rely on You” (HP-64, TW-73). Local church group Planetshakers (from Melbourne) see their first chart entry at No.30 this week entitled “Endless Praise”, whilst the Swedish brothers of John, Tom and Robin are now based in Australia and known as JTR, with their debut set “Touchdown” coming in at No.44 this week.
Lower 50: The Queens of the Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails recent tour helps their current sets to rise this week, with QOTSA “…Like Clockwork” back up to No.52 and NIN’s “Hesitation Marks” returning at No.100. The Wiggles are up to a new peak of No.60 with their currant (sic!) album “Apples and Banana’s”, whilst they also return at a new peak of No.63 with “Hot Potatoes: The Best of The Wiggles” (former peak #67, Sept 2011 {shown on the charts as a new entry}). Further returning albums this week include Jessica Mauboy with “Beautiful” (#78), INXS with “Shabooh Shoobah” (#85) and Illy with “Cinematic” (#95).
Bob Dylan is in at No.54 with “30th Anniversary Concert Celebration” which is stated as a new entry, but this set charted in late September 1993, hitting No.33, whilst coming in at No.59 is the debut album for Newcastle based five-piece country act The Viper Creek Band with “Kickin’ Up Dust”. Further country music comes from the eighth album for Dierks Bentley entitled “Riser” at No.62, becoming his second set to chart in Australia after “Home” (HP-52, Feb 2012).
The Eli Young Band land their second chart entry at No.67 entitled “10,000 Towns”, which surpasses their previous best effort from the fourth album “Life at Best” (HP-75, April 2012). The fourth album for UK band Metronomy becomes their first chart entry in Australia, as “Love Letters” debuts at No.71, whilst another UK band, metalcore act Architects see their sixth album “Lost Forever, Lost Together” become their first entry in Australia at No.76 this week. Local dance artist Savo enters at No.84 with his EP “Focus”, with the final new entry coming at No.97, the album “What’s Life without Losers” for Mikhael Paskalev, featuring the recent No.51 single “I Spy” (TW-74).
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
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