Sia lands her first ever No.1 on the ARIA Albums Charts this week, as her sixth studio set “1000 Forms of Fear” debuts at the top, becoming the seventh album in a row to land at No.1 first week.
“1000 Forms of Fear” becomes the 708th No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2014) and the 559th for ARIA (1983 to 2014), whilst also the 357th set to land first week at the top. It’s the first time that the record label Monkey Puzzle has been at the top, although the label and Sia did get close with her last studio album “We Are Born”, which debuted and peaked at No.2 back in late June of 2010, so this new entry becomes her second Top 10 album overall.
It’s third time we have had a ‘Thousand/1000’ at No.1, with the previous two being Natalie Bassingthwaighte with “1000 Stars” (March 2009) and Linkin Park with “A Thousand Suns” (Sept 2010), whilst it’s the first time for both ‘Form’ and ‘Fear’ to appear in a No.1 album title. The album becomes the 173rd by an Australian act to hit the top and the sixth for 2014, with Sia becoming the 92nd Australian performer to make it to No.1. The album is also the 104th by a Female singer and Sia is the thirteenth Australian Solo Female act to make it to No.1, the last new act being Dami Im back in November, the last local female singer at the top was Kylie Minogue with “Kiss Me Once” back in March.
Ed Sheeran climbs back up a place to No.2 with “x” and debuting at No.3 is another local act, Melbourne rapper Allday with his second entry “Startup Cult”, which instantly becomes his highest charting album and first Top 10 entry, surpassing the No.18 peak of his last entry “Loners are Cool” (April 2013). The top five this week contains four local Australian acts, with last weeks No.1 debut, the self-titled album for 5 Seconds of Summer dropping down to No.4 and last weeks No.2 entry of “No Other Name” by Hillsong also falling down three places to No.5 this week.
The ‘Frozen’ Soundtrack is down a place to No.6 this week, marking half a year within the Top 10 this week (26 weeks), whilst Coldplay drop three to No.7 with “Ghost Stories”. The third and final Top 10 debut is also from a local act, sister-country group The McClymonts with their fourth studio set “Here’s to You and I” which enters at No.8 and becomes the girls’ third consecutive Top 10 album. Their last set “Two Worlds Collide” debuted and peaked at No.7 in May 2012, whilst prior to that their second release “Wrapped up Good” made it to No.2 in January 2010. Rounding out the Top 10 is the sixth local act within the ten, Chet Faker and “Built on Glass” which is down two to No.9 and Lana Del Rey drops four to No.10 with “Ultraviolence”.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: Lorde’s current national tour helps her debut album “Pure Heroine” climb back up seven places to No.11 and the currently screening film ‘Jersey Boys’ sees the soundtrack leap up fourteen places to a new peak of No.13. Violent Soho leap back up fourteen places to No.28 with “Hungry Ghost” and The Vamps jump back up fifteen places to No.36 with “Meet the Vamps”. The Nickelback collection “The Best of Volume 1” is back up twenty-one spots to No.39 and after tumbling last week David Gray sees his “Mutineers” album climb back up eight to No.40 this week. Chet Faker’s recent tour also helps his previous entry “Thinking in Textures” to climb back eighteen places to No.48 and with Something for Kate reforming, tour and re-issuing their back catalogue, they score three Top 50 re-entries with “Leave Your Soul to Science” (HP-5, Oct 2012) at No.44, “Echolalia” (HP-2, July 2001) at No.45 and “Beautiful Sharks” (HP-10, June 1999) at No.50. Further down they also return with “The Official Fiction” (HP-1, Aug 2003) at No.51, “Desert Lights” (HP-1, July 2006) at No.52 and their debut set “Somewhere Else for Eight Minutes” (HP-70, peaked August 1997 and July 2001) at No.54 which means it lands a new peak this week after seventeen years.
DOWN DOWN: After three weeks within the Top 10, 360 is down four to No.12 with “Utopia” (HP-2), Sam Smith is back down four to No.14 with “In the Lonely Hour” (HP-2) and after finally climbing into the Top 10 last week, deadmau5 tumbles fourteen places this week to No.25 with “While (1<2). Linkin Park drop six to No.17 with “The Hunting Party” and Jack White is down nine places to No.22 with “Lazaretto”, whilst Passenger falls ten spots to No.24 with “Whispers”. ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ Soundtrack is down seven to No.26 and now that his tour has finished, “Fuse” for Keith Urban is down thirteen places this week to No.39. ZHU falls eight to No.33 with his “The NightDay” EP and Mastodon fall twelve to No.35 with “Once More ‘Round the Sun”. Further drops come from Rufus (31 to 59), Ellie Goulding (37 to 61), Boy & Bear (44 to 63), Bastille (46 to 64), Pharrell Williams (29 to 67), First Aid Kit (45 to 71), Pierce Brothers (38 to 83), whilst falling out from last weeks Top 50 are Seether (#43) and Beyonce (#33). The sixth studio album for R&B singer Trey Songz debuts at No.21 entitled “Trigga” becoming his second album to chart in Australia, as his fifth album “Chapter V” debuted and peaked at No.18 back in early September of 2012. The other Top 50 entry this week is from Sydney post-rock band Sleepmakeswaves with their second studio album “Love of Cartography”, which enters at No.31 this week, becoming their first ARIA Albums chart entry too.
Lower 50: Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Greatest Hits” set is back up twenty-three places to No.53 and “The Best of – All for You” by Cold Chisel is up thirty-six to No.60. The collection for Pink (71 to 62), The Eagles (75 to 65), and Michael Jackson (81 to 69) are also back up, whilst Adele’ “21” climbs up sixteen places to No.72. Albums returning to the Top 100 include collections for Blink 182 (#82), Creedence Clearwater Revival (#88), Bob Marley & the Wailers (95), Phil Collins (#97) and Johnny Cash (#100).
The only new album entry in the lower section of the chart is the debut album for Magic! entitled “Don’t Kill the Magic”, which comes in at No.66 and features the former No.2 single “Rude” (peaked here Dec 2013, TW in USA #2) and “Don’t Kill the Magic” (HP-53, April 2014).
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
