The top three albums in the country are all new entries this week, with Keith Urban taking out the top spot with his ninth studio album entitled “Fuse”.
This becomes his second No.1 album here (and in the USA) after his May 2012 collection “The Story So Far” (one week), and “Fuse” is the 682nd No.1 album in Australia (1965 to 2013) and the 541st for ARIA (1983 to 2013). It’s the twelfth chart topping album for Capitol Records, and the first time that the word ‘Fuse’ has featured in a No.1 album here, with the previous highest fuse coming from an AC/DC tribute album “Fuse Box” (HP-35, June 1995) or just behind “The Fuse” (HP-36, Aug 2005) for Pennywise.
“Fuse” becomes the 165th album for an Australian act to reach No.1, and the eleventh for the year, beating the previous best effort in 2004 which had nine No.1 albums by Australian acts. Plus the new No.1 album becomes the 190th by a Male Solo Artist to reach the top, with John Mayer being the last at the start of September.
Tom Bergling, better known as Avicii sees his debut album “True” enters at No.2, featuring the former No.1 song “Wake Me Up” (TW-7) and the recent entry “You Make Me” (HP-12, TW-20), plus debuting at No.60 is the new track from the album “Hey Brother”.
Jack Johnson enters at No.3 with his sixth studio album “From Here to Now to You”, with along with his other entries becomes his eleventh entry overall (six studio, two soundtracks, two live and one EP), plus it becomes his sixth Top 3 (and Top 10) album too, as he’s had four No.1 albums here previously, “In Between Dreams” (March 2005), “Sing-a-Longs & Lullabies” (Feb 2006), “Sleep Through the Static” (Feb 2008) and “To the Sea” (June 2010).
With three big new entries, it pushes last weeks top four albums down three places each, with “AM” for The Arctic Monkeys down to No.4, “If You Wait” by London Grammar at No.5, “The Truth About Love” for Pink at No.6 and Fleetwood Mac’s “25 Years – The Chain” at No.7, whilst Passenger is back up one place to No.8 with “All the Little Lights” and Bruno Mars returns to the Top 10 at No.10 with “Unorthodox Jukebox”, now that “Gorilla” is just outside the Top 40.
The fourth and final Top 10 entry is new at No.9, the seventh studio album for Placebo entitled “Loud Like Love”, which becomes their seventh entry here (six studio and one best of; their self-titled first album did not chart here), plus its their third consecutive Top 10 placing after “Meds” (HP-4, March 2006) and “Battle for the Sun” (HP-8, June 2009).
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: With Rudimental performing on X-Factor last week, their album “Home” (HP-2) is back up thirteen places to No.14, and another X-F appearance has helped Kodaline to return their album “In a Perfect World” back into the Top 100 at a new peak of No.24 (previous peak #67). And with the One Direction movie and tour about to start, their albums are back up this week, with “Up All Night” jumping seventeen to No.35 and their “Take Me Home” set back up forty-three places to No.55.
DOWN DOWN: It took fourteen broken weeks on the albums chart to climb into the Top 10, but after a single week “Native” by OneRepublic drops back down three places to No.11, whilst former No.1’s “Harlequin Dream” for Boy & Bear (7 to 13) and “Paradise Valley” for John Mayer (10 to 18) leave after four and three weeks inside the Top 10 respectively. Last weeks Top 10 debuts of “The Other Side” for Tonight Alive (5 to 33) and “Hungry Ghost” for Violent Soho (6 to 44) both fall dramatically this week. Also falling hard are Nine Inch Nails (14 to 27), Rise Against (16 to 41), Ariana Grande (26 to 46), Goldfrapp (15 to 49), Charley Pride (35 to 53), Paramore’s self-titled album (41 to 63), Alicia Keys (38 to 68), John Legend (22 to 74), The Jungle Giants (34 to 85), Dead Letter Circus (43 to 91), Justin Timberlake (44 to 96) and The Paper Kites (39 to 100), whilst last weeks return to the Top 100 at No.32 for “March Fires” by Birds of Tokyo falls out of the Top 100 this week.
The second album for New Zealand act The Naked & Famous debuts at No.12 entitled “In Rolling Waves”, beating the No.25 peak their first set “Passive Me, Aggressive You” climbed to in late February 2011. A few places lower at No.17 is the third album for Mantra entitled “Telling Scenes”, becoming his second album to chart here, his first was with “Speaking Volumes” (HP-72, Sept 2011).
Entering at No.22 is the second album for US Rn’B artist Janelle Monae entitled “The Electric Lady”, which is her first chart entry here in Australia. New at No.26 is Elton John with his 31st studio album “The Diving Board”, becoming his sixth studio album this century to crack the Top 50, with his last being the Pnau collaboration “Good Morning to the Night” (HP-40, Aug 2012).
Canadian artist The Weeknd sees his debut studio album “Kiss Land” enters at No.30 this week, becoming his second chart entry here, as the mix-tape compilation album “The Trilogy” made it to No.93 in November 2012. And one place lower at No.31 is the self-titled third studio album for MGMT, with their previous two entries both landing Top 10 placements, “Oracular Spectacular” (HP-6, entered May 2008) and “Congratulations” (HP-9, April 2010).
Elvis Costello teams up with The Roots on his new album “Wise Up Ghost”, which enters at No.40 this week to become his 23rd album to chart here, and his first since “Secret, Profane and Sugarcane” made it to No.73 in June 2009, and this is his first Top 50 placing since May 2002’s “When I Was Cruel” (HP-34). English band The 1975 enter at No.43 with their self-titled debut album, which was a recent English and Scottish No.1 album, with the final top fifty entry coming in at No.50, “My Escape” by Perth hip hop artist Mr. Grevis, his second album and first to chart.
Lower 50: Rodriguez is back up twelve places to No.51 with his 1971 album “Cold Fact”, and Taylor Swift’s “Red” jumps back up to No.58 (from #70). Adele sees her “21” album in its 139th week on the charts back up to No.67 and there are no returning albums to the Top 100 this week.
British extreme metal band Carcass initially stayed together for ten years from 1985 to 1995, and then in 2007 they reformed. And while none of their first five albums ever charted here in Australia, their new album “Surgical Steel” becomes their first charting album here, entering at No.59 this week. A few places lower Christian melodic metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada see their fifth album “8:18” enter at No.62 becoming their second entry here after the fourth set “Dead Throne” made it to No.44 in September 2011.
German singer Ute Lemper sees her fortieth album become her first chart entry in Australia, as she debuts at No.70 with “Forever – The Love Poems of Pablo Neruda”, whilst nine places lower at No.79 is the album “Live in San Francisco” for Ry Cooder and Corridos Famosos. And lastly new at No.93 is “Dream River” for Bill Callahan, his first chart entry in Australia, as he has been recording and releasing material since 1988, under his name and his moniker Smog. This is his fifth album under his name, as Smog released eleven albums from 1990 to 2005.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
