Australian Charts: Skegss Have Australia's Number One Album

Australian trio Skegss see their second studio album “Rehearsal” debut at the top of the ARIA Albums Chart this week, becoming their third Top 10 and first No.1 set.

“Rehearsal” (Loma Vista/Concord) by Skegss becomes the 912th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2021), the 762nd for ARIA (1983 to 2021), the 548th to debut at No.1 (1976 to 2021), the twelfth No.1 album for 2021, and now the second for the record label Loma Vista after last years “We are Chaos” for Marilyn Manson (1 week on 21st of Sept, 2020).

Skegss have now landed four albums within the Top 20, three of which have made it into the Top 10, with 2020 seeing the re-issue of their older material on vinyl for the first time, resulting in “Holiday Food” (EP, issued 2017) making it to No.17 in December of 2020 and “50 Push Ups for a Dollar” (EP, issued 2015) cracking No.4 in November 2020, while their first studio album “My Own Mess” debuted and peaked at No.2 in mid-September of 2018, thus this new entry becomes their third Top 10 placement and highest charted entry.

It’s the first time that the word ‘Rehearsal’ has appeared in a No.1 album title (or even charted within the Top 50 for that matter), and as Skegss are an Australian Band (trio) they become 257th Aussie act to make it to No.1 since the first in 1968, plus the sixth for 2021, as Tash Sultana was the last local artist to hit the top back on the 1st of March. Skegss also become the 123rd Australian Act to make it to No.1 (solo, duo, group, male or female), while breaking it down further they are also the 68th Australian Band to hit the top locally and the 404th Group (local or overseas) to hit the No.1 spot, and the fifth for 2021, plus the album is also the No.1 selling vinyl set for this week.

Last week’s No.1 debut for Justin Bieber and “Justice” drops only one spot this week to No.2, while the album debuted at the top in both America and Canada this past week, while two places lower the Dua Lipa second set “Future Nostalgia” remains on hold at No.4 this week on it’s one-year chart anniversary (April 6th, 2020). Debuting either side of this weeks No.4 is the new entry at No.3 for Evanescence and their fifth studio album “The Bitter Truth”, which gives the band their fifth Top 10 entry and sixth overall albums chart entry (5 LP’s, 1 live set), while the high new entry for the album makes it the band’s highest charting album since their first two sets in 2003 and 2006 hit No.1.

The third and final Top 10 entry this week comes in at No.5, singer and rapper NF with “Clouds”, the US artist’s first ever mixtape, and now second Top 10 placement in Australia, as his fifth studio album “The Search” debuted and peaked at No.3 on August 5th, 2019, while he also charted with his fourth set “Perception” (HP-73, Oct 2016). Last weeks No.2 entry for Lana Del Rey and “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” drops four places this week to No.6, followed by further declining entries from The Kid Laroi (6 to No.7), The Weeknd (7 to No.8) and Harry Styles’ second album (8 to No.10), while Pop Smoke’s album is stable at No.9 this week.

UP:
TOP 20: Small rises this week of two places apiece for Ed Sheeran’s “÷ (Divide)” and Luke Combs’ “What You See is What You Get” to No.12 and No.14 respectively, while Fleetwood Mac’s classic set “Rumours” rises four spots to No.17. Thanks to a new four-disc vinyl reissue of the debut Tame Impala album “Innerspeaker” it returns to the chart this week at No.19, with the set being the No.2 selling vinyl album this week, and it originally hit No.4 upon debut in late May of 2010.
TOP 30: Spacey Jane sees their “Sunlight” set leap back up fifteen places to No.24, and with the opening this past week in Sydney for the stage musical ‘Hamilton’, the cast recording rebounds twenty-eight places to land at No.27 this week. Troye Sivan also returns to the chart this week with a vinyl reissue of his first album “Blue Neighbourhood” at No.28, the No.3 selling vinyl album this week, with the set first making it to No.6 in mid-December of 2015.
TOP 40: Taylor’s “1989” set rises back up four to No.32, with the only other rising album within the Top 40 being Ed Sheeran’s fourth set “No.6 Collaborations Project”, up five places to No.40.
TOP 50: Lime Cordiale’s latest album “14 Steps to a Better You” fell from No.29 to No.50 last week, and now this week it rebounds seven places to land at No.43, followed by a twenty place surge to No.44 for the Miley Cyrus album “Plastic Hearts”.

DOWN:
TOP 20: The first of three albums to leave the Top 10 this week is the Billie Eilish massive running debut set “When We All Fall Asleep…”, which dips only one spot to No.11 after it’s 82nd week within the Top 10, the set this week landing it’s two-year chart anniversary (104 weeks). Taylor’s two Top 20 entries drop differently this week, with her latest set “evermore” down one place to No.13, while her prior release “folklore” falls five to No.16.
TOP 30: Juice WRLD’s “Legends Never Die” dips four places to No.21, with a seven place slide to No.25 for Ariana’s “Positions” album, while Lewis Capaldi drops six to No.29 with his debut set, after which the second Top 10 dropout occurs for Troy Cassar-Daley with “The World Today” (HP-3, WI10-1), falling twenty-seven places to No.30.
TOP 40: The Wiggles latest best of “We’re All Fruit Salad” declines nine places to No.33, followed by an eight chart rung drop to No.34 for Post Malone with “Hollywood’s Bleeding”. “AM” for Arctic Monkeys dips three spots this week to No.35, while Sam Smith’s “Love Goes” falls six places to No.36.
TOP 50: Some of the older entries this week are dropping down, with XXXTentacion’s “?” down eleven to No.42 (195 weeks in the Top 100), “Tickets to My Downfall” by Machine Gun Kelly (34 to No.45, 27 WI), the self-titled Dua Lipa album (35 to No.46, 174 WI), ‘After Hours” by The Weeknd (28 to No.47, 53 WI) and “Lover” by Taylor Swift (40 to No.48, 83 WI). The third and final Top 10 dropout from last week was the No.5 entry for Middle Kids and “Today We’re the Greatest” (HP-5, WI10-1) which leaves the Top 50 this week, as does “Shore” for Fleet Foxes (#13), “Searching for Freedom” by Ziggy Alberts (#27) and the reissued “Swingshift” by Cold Chisel (#33).

FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #18 (LP#5) – Tonic Immobility by Tomahawk (Ipecac) is the fifth studio album and first new material in just over eight years for the supergroup led by Faith No More lead singer Mike Patton. The new entry is also their fifth albums chart entry, having first charted with their self-titled set in November of 2001 (HP-37), while they last charted in February of 2013 with their fourth set “Oddfellows” (HP-37), with this new entry now becoming their first Top 20 placing and thus their highest charted in Australia.

* #39 (LP#1.2) – Friends Keep Secrets 2 (Deluxe Edition) by Benny Blanco (Interscope) is a repackaged and expanded edition to the American record producers first album “Friends Keep Secrets” which had seven tracks on it, this new set expanding to 14, with the two current singles for him being “Lonely” (HP-11) with Justin Bieber and “You” (HP-55, peaked 8-Feb, 21) with local act Vance Joy.

* #49 (LP#3) – Livin’ on Gold Street by Ben Mastwyk (Social Family) is the third album and now first entry for the Melbourne based singer/songwriter and his band The Million$, coming three years after his last set “Winning Streak”.

*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 23rd to the 29th of March, 2021.