ARIA Album Chart: Taylor Swift 'Midnights' Is Back At No 1

Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” regains its No.1 spot in Australia for a sixth overall week.

“Midnights” has spent the past two weeks at No.2, prior to which it logged five straight weeks at No.1 from October 31st, now it’s sixth accumulated week at the top is also joined by a fourth overall stay at No.1 on the ARIA Vinyl Sales Chart, as it holds that position this week too. It’s also now the seventh time during 2022 that an album has regained the Albums throne, with Harry Styles’ “Harry’s House” doing it twice (July 11th and August 22nd).

Taylor’s tenth No.1 Album in Australia increases her tally of weeks at the top here to now 32 in total, placing her equal 12th on the listing for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums (1965 to 2022)’ with Eminem (32 weeks from 11 #1’s) and one week shy of the 33 racked up by both Delta Goodrem and Michael Buble (both with five #1’s), so if “Midnights” holds again next week it’ll move Taylor above those three acts, while for this decade Ms. Swift’s tally rises to sixteen weeks at the Albums summit (still the most for this decade too).

Debuting at No.2 is the second studio album for the female American singer and rapper SZA (scissor) called “SOS”, which has landed sixteen of it’s 23 tracks within the Top 100 Singles chart this week, the highest of which is “Kill Bill” at No.5, while that track and the album have both debuted at the top in New Zealand, with “SOS” also entering at No.1 in The Netherlands, at No.2 in both England and Ireland, No.3 in Norway and Lithuania and No.4 in Sweden so far. Her debut album “Ctrl” (TW-62) only peaked at No.30 on June 20th of this year after an expanded version was issued with seven extra tracks, having first started its chart life here on June 19th, 2017, meaning this album appears five-and-a-half years after her debut set.

The only two Australian performed albums within the Top 10 are on hold at No.3 and No.4 this week, with last week’s entry at No.3 for “Australian Frog Calls” for the Songs of Disappearance awareness album followed by Jimmy Barnes with “Blue Christmas” at No.4 (No.19 vinyl). The No.2 vinyl set this week is the aforementioned “Harry’s House” for Harry Styles, which rises one spot to No.5 nationally, followed by the second of three seasonal-sets within the Top 10, up two places to No.6 is “Christmas” for Michael Bublé, scoring it’s 67th overall week within the ten.

While the longest running current Top 10 entry is the 71 weeks racked by “The Highlights” for The Weeknd, which remains at No.7 this week, followed by the new U.S. and Canadian No.1 album “Heroes & Villains” for Metro Boomin’, which entered here last week at No.5 and is down to No.8 this week, while scoring a third week at No.9 is the Bocelli clan with “A Family Christmas” and returning to the Top 10 at No.10 (up three places) is “The Essential” (No.16 vinyl) for Foo Fighters, scoring a fifth week and third appearance/run within the Top 10 too.

XMAS ALBUMS:
There are four further seasonal sets within the Top 100 this week, with last week’s No.1 for “Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train” (HP-1×1, WI10-7a) dropping down eleven places this week to No.12, while the album could rise back up as Xmas gets closer, with Paul also playing at the Archie Roach memorial this past weekend and also doing shows around this album too. Mariah Carey’s “Merry Christmas” jumps up eleven places to No.25, while in the lower fifty the Andre Rieu four week old entry “Silver Bells” (HP-78) is back up fifteen places to No.82, and after re-entering the chart last week at No.74 the John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John album “Friends for Christmas” drops down to No.95 this week.

UP:
The Arctic Monkeys 2013 set “AM” jumps back up fifteen places to No.18 this week thanks to it being the No.3 selling vinyl album, while their latest album “The Car” (TW-68) is the No.15 selling vinyl set too. Kendrick Lamar also moves back into the Top 20 with his latest set “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers”, up three to No.19 (No.7 vinyl), while he has two further Top 50 albums this week in “Damn.” (63 to No.49) and “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” (51 to No.50), plus he also has a second Top 20 vinyl album in “To Pimp a Butterfly” (No.18 vinyl).

Another act with three Top 50 entries this week is Harry Styles, who sees his second album “Fine Line” jump up ten places to No.22 (No.17 vinyl), while his self-titled debut set rises thirty places to land at No.48, thanks to it being the No.9 vinyl this week (LW-31). Taylor Swift also rises back up with three further albums; “Lover” (34 to No.26; No.14 vinyl), and a single place move for both “folklore” (37 to No.36) and “Red (TsV)” (38 to No.37).

Nirvanas’ “Nevermind” takes a thirteen place jump to No.34 thanks to a No.6 spot on the vinyl sales chart, while the INXS collection “The Very Best” leaps fourteen places to No.38, followed by another Aussie act in Spacey Jane with “Here Comes Everybody”, flying up thirteen chart rungs to land at No.40 (No.11 vinyl), while their older set “Sunlight” is back up ten to No.80.

DOWN:
The two Top 10 dropouts only land outside of the Top 10 this week, with Paul Kelly already mentioned in the Xmas section, the other is Elton John’s “Diamonds” collection (HP-3×3, WI10-35), dipping one spot to No.11. Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” is back down three places to No.14 (No.4 vinyl), while the Drake and 21 Savage collaboration “Her Loss” falls five places to No.17.

Luke Combs sees all three of his albums decline this week (after all of them rising last week), with “This One…” down three to No.20, “Growin’ Up” down five to No.21 and “What You See…” falling eight places to No.27. Ed Sheeran’s “= (equals)” dips three spots to No.23, while his “÷ (divide)” set remains on hold at its lowest position of No.43 for a second week.

Bruce Springsteen’s covers album “Only the Strong Survive” falls six to No.29, while the Dua Lipa set “Future Nostalgia” plummets thirteen places to No.31, which is the album’s equal lowest chart position in it’s 142 week run (last this low on October 31st, 2022). After leaping last week to No.25 the Morgan Wallen album “Dangerous: The Double Album” is back down seven places to No.32, while further down Guns N’ Roses “Appetite for Destruction” drops seven to No.42 and The Seekers “Carry Me” collection falls fifteen to No.45.

FURTHER NEW ENTRY:
* #13 (LP#1) – self-titled by COTERIE (Massive Records) is the debut album for the New Zealand brothers raised in Perth, Australia, made up of Tyler, Joshua, Brandford and Conrad Fisher originally from Tauranga and Northland in NZ and are of Ta Aupouri, Ngapuhi and Ngai Te Rangi descent. The band saw their first chart action with the single “Cool it Down” hitting No.30 in New Zealand, while this album has also landed first week at No.6 across the ditch.

HP = Highest Position
LW = Last Week
WI10 – Weeks in Top 10

*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 9th to the 15th of December 2022.

Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.

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