The sixth studio album for US singer/songwriter Taylor Swift titled “Reputation” debuts at No.1 on the ARIA Albums Chart this week, becoming her fourth chart-topping album here.
“Reputation” becomes the 814th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2017) and the 665th for ARIA (1983 to 2017), plus the 458th to debut in the top spot, and the fourth for the record label Big Machine, with all previous No.1’s for them being Taylor albums in “Speak Now” (1 wk, 8-Nov, 2010), “Red” (3 wks from 29-Oct, 2012) and then “1989” (9 broken weeks from 3-Nov, 2014), in fact it was 95 number one albumss ago that “1989” hot the top and then 94 #1’s prior to that “Speak Now” was at the top, whilst “Red” spent its last week at No,1 this week in 2012.
Taylor’s tally of weeks at No.1 now moves to fourteen in total, moving her from equal 46th to now equal 43rd on the list for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums’ alongside Crowded House (5 #1’s), Bee Gees (3 #1’s) and Whitney Houston (2 #1’s). This is the first time that the word “Reputation” has appeared in a No.1 album title, the previous highest charted ‘reputation’ set being the Joan Jett album “Bad Reputation” (HP-45, peaked Jan 1983), and this becomes the 286th No.1 album by an American Act (duo, solo or group) and the 123rd by a Female Artist (local or overseas). Taylor also becomes the now-equal-third listed American Female artist on the tally for ‘Most No.1 Albums: US Female Artists’, with Madonna in first place (11 #1’s), followed by Pink (5 #1’s) and tied with Taylor is Lana Del Rey (also 4 #1’s), in fourth place with three each are Barbra Streisand and Mariah Carey.
So after four weeks at No.1 the Pink album “Beautiful Trauma” is down one spot to No.2, followed by another former No.1 in Ed Sheeran with his third album “÷ (Divide)”, which in its 37th week in the Top 5 is now certified 6x▲Platinum (the only new LP cert this week too), and last weeks No.2 entry for Sam Smith and “The Thrill of it All” slips down two places to No.4. For the seventh consecutive year the Michael Buble seasonal set “Christmas” returns to the Top 10, up seventeen places this week to land at No.7, scoring its 41st week within the Top 10 (out of 58 overall Top 100 weeks). Retaining their Top 10 status this week are the Jessica Mauboy Season 2 soundtrack to “The Secret Daughter” on hold at No.8 and the new Roy Orbison and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra album “A Love So Beautiful”, down one spot to No.10.
There are three more new entries to the Top 10 this week, and coming in at No.5 is the seventh studio album and now fifth Top 10 album for local rapper Kerser entitled “Engraved in the Game”, which also becomes his third album to enter at that position after “S.C.O.T.” (Nov 2013) and “Next Step” (late Nov 2015), whilst his highest charted album was last years “Tradition” (HP-4, late Nov 2016) and his first Top 10 was with “King” (HP-9, Nov 2014), and to keep his November entries consistent, his first chart entry was with “No Rest for the Sickest” (HP-15, Nov 2012).
New at No.6 is the fourth studio album for Evanescence called “Synthesis”, which becomes their fourth successive Top 10 album here, with their first two both hitting No.1 “Fallen” (peaked Feb. 2004 for three weeks) and then “The Open Door” (debuted at the top for two weeks in Nov 2006), whilst they last charted with their self-titled third album (HP-5) in November 2011. The last new entry at No.9 is the seventh live album for local rock act Cold Chisel “The Live Tapes Vol.4: The Last Stand at Sydney Entertainment Centre, 17th & 18th Dec, 2015”, which by entering within the Top 10 becomes the bands third Top 10 live album and their first since the 1992 re-issue of “The Last Stand” (HP-8, late Oct, 1992) and overall this is the bands fourteenth Top 10 album (4 GH’s, 3 Live and seven studio albums).
UP:
* With Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hydne still touring the country, the Fleetwood Mac “Very Best of” (still the longest charted at 447 weeks) rises a couple of places and back into the Top 20 to No.19, with the bands “Greatest Hits” up eleven spots to No.47.
* The new Taylor Swift entry at No.1 pulls her last album “1989” back up to No.20 this week (at 160 weeks).
* The recent re-screening of the Paul Kelly doco “Stories of Me” on the ABC this past week helps his latest album “Life is Fine” to climb back up eight places to No.24, whilst his collection “Songs from the South Vol.1 & 2” returns at No.70 this week.
* With a new Eminem singles chart entry, his collection “Curtain Call: The Hits” is back up six places to No.30, whilst his older album “The Eminem Show” rises sixteen spots to No.69.
* With Drake starting his tour here this coming week, his albums rise a little this week (more next week), with “More Life” up five to No.32 and his “Views” rising three to No.56.
* After dropping quite a bit last week, this week the “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.1” soundtrack is back up seven places to No.37, with other rising soundtracks being “Stranger Things” (to a new peak of No.62) and “Sing” (88 to 84).
* The new Cold Chisel debut also pulls up their collection “The Best of-All for You”, rising twenty-seven places to No.39, with other rising GH’s being for Nickelback (returns at No.72) and The Wiggles (98 to 87).
* “The Secret Daughter” Season 1 soundtrack for Jess Mauboy is back up fourteen to No.40.
* Like Drake, Lorde starts her national tour this weekend, and her “Melodrama” album is back up four to No.53.
* The self-titled Harry Styles album is back up nine to No.71 ahead of his visit here in a few weeks.
* London Grammar are back up eighteen places to No.73 with “Truth is a Beautiful Thing”.
* The fifth re-entry for the week is the Rag’N’Bone Man album “Human” at No.98.
DOWN:
* Three of last weeks Top 10 debuts leave the ten this week, with Guy Sebastian’s set “Conscious” (HP-4, WI10-1) dropping eight to No.12, “Red Pill Blues” (HP-7, WI10-1) by Maroon 5 descends fourteen places to No.21 and falling a massive fifty-eight spots to No.64 is the debut album for local act Polaris and “The Mortal Coil” (HP-6, WI10-2). Also dropping out of the Top 10 is “Flicker” (HP-2, WI10-3) for Niall Horan (10 to 13) and the Chris Brown set “Heartbreak on a Full Moon” (HP-5×2, WI10-2), which is down twelve places to No.17.
* Dropping collections start with the INXS “Very Best of”, down ten to No.25, after which there are falls for The Eagles (35 to 41), RHCP (46 to 50), Crowded House (53 to 63), The Killers (56 to 68), Guns N’ Roses (67 to 78), Tom Petty (73 to 83), Elvis Presley (76 to 85), Prince (65 to 88), Tina Arena (72 to 91), Maroon 5 (71 to 93) and The Foo Fighters (83 to 96).
* The Triple J compilation “Like a Version Vol.13” is down nine spots to No.26.
* Shania Twain’s “Now” is down eleven places to No.36.
* Gang of Youths first No.1 album in “Go Farther in Lightness” drops thirteen spots to No.44.
* The recent No.3 album for 360 in “Vintage Modern” plummets twenty-six places to No.45.
* Ed Sheeran’s “+ (Positive)” album drops down seventeen places to land at No.51.
* George Michael’s repacked second album “Listen without Prejudice Vol.1” drops twenty-seven spots to No.55 this week.
* Hillsong Worship and their set “The Peace Project” is back down nineteen spots to No.57.
* The DVD/BR resurge last week for the “Baby Driver” soundtrack is over, as the set is back down eighteen places this week to No.61.
* Kelly Clarkson was on the Graham Norton show (screened here 17-Nov), so she might back up next week, but for this week her set “Meaning of Life” is down twenty-four spots to No.65.
* Jimmy Barnes’ 30th Ann. edition of “Working Class Man” drops down twenty-five to No.74.
* The Dua Lipa self-titled album is down fourteen places to No.76.
* Last weeks second album entry for Kygo and “Kids in Love” drops back down thirtty-five spots to No.77.
* After scoring a new peak last week, the mixtape “Without Warning” for 21 Savage, Offset and Metro Boomin’ drops back a massive fifty-three places to land at No.92 this week.
* Demi Lovato is down seventeen places to No.94 with her “Tell Me You Love Me” album.
* The biggest drop this week is for the second set by Kelsea Ballerini with “Unapologetically”, which is down a huge eighty-five spots to No.97.
* And two albums leave the Top 100 from last weeks Top 50 in the new set by Blake Shelton (#23) and the compilation “Thirty Days of Yes” (#40).
CHRISTMAS TITLES:
* With Michael Buble returning to the Top 10 at No.7, the next seasonal set is by Elvis Presley with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, up eight places to a new peak of No.42 (former peak was #45) for “Christmas With…”.
* Chris Isaak’s 2004 seasonal set “Christmas” (former peak #58) has been re-issued and with him in the country this past week promoting the album, it returns at a new peak of No.46 this week.
* The Wiggles fifth festive-set in “Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas” rises nine spots to a new peak of No.59.
* The fifth and final seasonal set is the Hanson album “Finally it’s Christmas”, down two spots to No.89.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #11 (LP#6) – Changa by Pnau becomes the local trios highest charted album in Australia, beating the No.13 peak of their fourth album “Soft Universe” (Aug 2011), and their first new entry since they teamed with Elton John for the set “Good Morning to the Light” (HP-40, Aug 2012) and overall this becomes their fifth albums chart entry.
* #27 (LP#7) – Jupiter Calling by The Corrs is the Irish family-band’s ninth albums chart entry (seven albums, 1 Best of and 1 Live set), and first since “White Light” (HP-18, late Feb 2016).
* #33 (GH#17) – Diamonds by Elton John is a 3CD set of remastered Elton John singles, and includes a lot of obscure and teamed singles that haven’t been on previous compilations. This is his eighth collection to chart here, his last being “Rocket Man: The Definitive Hits” (HP-10, April 2007).
* #38 (LP#6.3) – Kick 30 by INXS has been repacked into a 4 disc set (Kick 25 was a 2CD set) and has bonus discs including a set of Demos and outtakes, a disc of remixes and a DVD of clips for the albums songs.
* #46 (LP#10) – Standards by Seal is the eleventh albums chart entry for the UK singer and Oz Voice judge (nine studio albums and two GH’s), and features Seal covering such songs as “I Put a Spell on You”, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “Luck Be a Lady” and the Charlie Chaplin song “Smile”.
* #66 (LP#42) – A Brand New Me by Aretha Franklin with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra gives the RPO their third Top 100 album this week, with them also performing alongside Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison this week, but this is their first teaming with a living legend. Like previous albums this is a collection of Aretha songs with overlaid RPO orchestrations, with such songs covered as “Think”, “I Say a Little Prayer”, “A Natural Woman”, “Until You Come back to Me” and “Respect”.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
