Australian Charts: Guy Sebastian Has The Number One Album

The ninth studio album for Guy Sebastian called “T.R.U.T.H.” (Sony Australia) debuts in the top spot this week, becoming his third No.1 album in Australia since his first in 2003.

“T.R.U.T.H.” becomes the 896th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2020), the 746th for ARIA (1983 to 2020), the 34th No.1 for 2020, the 533rd album to debut at No.1 (since 1976) and the 27th for the Sony label and second this year after the March album “Artists Unite for Fire Fight”.

Guy Sebastian’s third No.1 album locally follows from his first release “Just As I Am” (4 weeks from December 15th, 2003) and his last was sixth studio set “Armageddon” (1 week on the 3rd of December, 2012). He has now amassed six weeks at No.1 in Australia, placing him equal with last weeks No.1 act Linkin Park on the list for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums’ at 108th, while another thing last weeks and this weeks No.1 album artists have in common is that they are one of five acts who have so far achieved a chart -topping album in the past three decades. Metallica (who’ve done in the past FOUR decades), The Killers, Eminem, Linkin Park and now Guy Sebastian (2000’s, 2010’s and now 2020’s).

The only other album with the word ‘Truth’ in its title to hit the top in Australia was the September 2012 set for Pink “The Truth About Love” (10 weeks). The new Guy #1 set also becomes the 247th by an Australian act to hit the top since The Seekers became the first in 1968 (their “Greatest Hits” set was sitting at No.1 this week in ’68), and the eleventh for 2020 (we’ve not had this many Aussie acts at the top during the year since 2016 landed 20). Guy’s new set is also the 255th by a Solo Male Artist (local or overseas) to make it to No.1, and the second this year for an Solo Aussie Male, as Keith Urban did so at the end of September.

Guy Sebastian is also now equal fifth on the list for “Aussie Solo Male Artists: #1 Albums’.12 – Jimmy Barnes (solo, not including Cold Chisel)10 – John Farnham 7 – The Twelfth Man 4 – Keith Urban 3 – Paul Kelly, Pete Murray, Anthony Callea and now Guy Sebastian.

There are four Australian acts within the Top 10 this week, and the former No.1 for Keith Urban and “The Speed of Now, Part 1” is back up two places to No.2, giving us an Aussie Top 2 this week, while we had an Australian Top 3 back on September 11th (Music from the Home Front #1, Powderfinger #2 and San Cisco #3, while there were two more Australian acts in the Top 10 that week in Slim Dusty and Wil Wagner). The No.1 album this week in New Zealand (10th week), Canada (returns for a ninth week) and America (returns for a second week) is the Pop Smoke set “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon”, which here is back up two places to No.3.

Australian new entry #2 is the reissued on vinyl second EP from 2015 for local surf/garage rock trio Skegss and “50 Push Ups for a Dollar”, which by debuting at No.4 this week becomes their second Top 10 entry, as their debut album “My Own Mess” from 2018 debuted and peaked at No.2, plus this reissued set lands the No.1 spot on the vinyl sales chart this week. BLACKpink’s debut set “THE ALBUM” is back up one to No.5, the 45 week running Top 10 entry for Harry Styles and “Fine Line” is back up two to No.6, while falling down five spots to No.7 is the Queen + Adam Lambert set “Live Around the World”.

Juice WRLD dips one spot to No.8 with “Legends Never Die” and rising two spots to No.9 is the 1977 Fleetwood Mac set “Rumours”, which logs it’s fourth overall week within the ARIA Top 10 Albums chart, it’s previous three were back on May 20th of 2011 thanks to the album being a spotlight episode of Glee. This time it’s due to the album’s song “Dreams” being within the Top 10 at No.5 this week. The album originally spent 59 weeks within the Top 10 in 1977 and 1978, plus eight broken weeks at No.1, so it’s new Top 10 total takes it up to 63 weeks. This is followed by another older album returning to the Top 10, one which did so five weeks ago with the 20th Anniversary Edition of Powderfinger’s “Odyssey No.5” returning to the Top 100 this week at No.10 for a 29th week within the ten. This time it’s back thanks to a limited vinyl release of the set, and it lands at No.2 on the vinyl sales chart this week, as does their older sets “Double Allergic” (1996, vinyl #3 TW) and “Internationalist” (1998, vinyl #7 TW), while they have just announced a November release of a ‘Rarities’ collection.

UP:Ed Sheeran’s 190 week running third set “÷ (Divide)” rises again this week, up five to No.14, while the older Luke Combs album “This One’s for You” is back up two to No.15, with his newer set “What You See is What You Get” is down one to No.17, but it will rebound next week thanks to an expanded edition issued on Friday. The only other rising album in the Top 20 is the last Post Malone set “Hollywood’s Bleeding”, back up four to No.19.The next rise occurs down in the Top 40, as the self-titled Harry Styles set rebounds fifteen places to No.31, after which small rises occur for ‘The Greatest Showman’ soundtrack (37 to No.35) and “1989” for Taylor Swift (43 to No.40).

DOWN:Four albums leave the Top 10 this week, first of which is “folklore” by Taylor Swift (HP-1×4, WI10-12) down two to No.11, followed by a two place slide to No.12 for Machine Gun Kelly and “Tickets to My Downfall” (HP-2, WI10-3). Last weeks highest two entries also tumble in “Full Circle” for ChillinIT (HP-3, WI10-1, 3 to No.18) and to a larger extent “Hybrid Theory” for Linkin Park (HP-1×1, WI10-24a) which plummets forty-five places to land at No.46 this week. Joji drips down six places to No.20 with his former No.1 “Nectar”, while both Dua Lipa albums drop down six spots too in “Future Nostalgia” (18 to No.24) and “Dua Lipa” (35 to No.41). “Savage Mode II” for 21 Savage and Metro Boomin’ tumbles nineteen spots to No.34, the Bon Jovi “2020” set falls twenty-four places to No.36, “After Hours” by The Weeknd drops eleven to No.38 and the Queen biopic soundtrack ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ falls eight to No.39, while the TV soundtrack for ‘Julie & The Phantoms: Season 1’ is down six to No.44 and the ‘Hamilton’ cast recording falls fourteen spots to No.48.The INXS “Very Best of” is back down twelve places to No.45, while further collections drop for both Cold Chisel (36 to No.49) and Green Day” (42 to No.50), while out of the Top 50 this week are best of sets for Fleetwood Mac, Jason DeRulo and Bon Jovi.

FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:* #22 (Live#3) – Live from the Forum MMXVIII (2018) by The Eagles (Rhino/Warner) is the third live album for the American band, and their third to chart here. This album was recorded at The Forum in Inglewood, California in September of 2018, and the two album set contains 25 tracks of the bands songs, while passed member Glenn Frey (2016) was replaced by his son Deacon. The band’s previous live entries here were “Eagles Live” (HP-3, late 1980) and “Hell Freezes Over” (HP-23, peaked November 1994).

* #23 (EP#2) – Skool Luv Affair (EP) by BTS (BigHit Entertainment/The Orchard) was first issued in 2014 in their home country of South Korea, and this past week it got a worldwide reissue, and it becomes their third entry for 2020 after “Map of the Soul: 7” (HP-1, March) and “Map of the Soul: 7 ~ The Journey” (HP-9, July).
* #28 (LP#4) – 3 Minute Movie by Angus Gill & Seasons of Change (Rivershack) is the fourth album and second chart entry for the country / folk / bluegrass singer from Wauchope on the New South Wales mid-North Coast, having previously charted with his third set “Welcome to My Heart” (HP-47, late September 2019).
* #32 (LP#1) – Serpentine Prison by Matt Beninger (Concord) is the debut solo album for the lead singer of the band The National, whose baritone voice has appeared on their eight studio albums from their self-titled 2001 set to “I Am Easy to Find” (HP-6, May 2019), with their past four albums charting here in Australia, the last three all landing within the Top 10.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.