Australia Albums: Ruby Fields 'Been Doin It For A Bit' Debuts At No 1

For the fifth time in 2021, a debut studio album has entered in the top spot of the ARIA Albums Chart, this week local artist Ruby Fields enters at No.1 with “Been Doin’ it for a Bit”.

“Been Doin’ it for a Bit” (Flightless/Inertia) is the 927th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2021), the 777th for ARIA (1983 to 2021), the 563th to debut at No.1 (since 1976), the 27th No.1 Album for 2021 and now the first for the record label ‘Flightless’ and the seventh for the distributor Inertia, their last being the April 2020 entry for The Smith Street Band and “Don’t Waste Your Anger”.

So far for 2021 we have seen five debut albums enter at No.1, last week’s chart-topper for Lil’ Nas X (Sept 27th), as well as Luke Hemmings (Aug 23rd), Tones and I (July 26th) and the first was Olivia Rodrigo (May 31st), of note also was Kid Laroi’s mixtape which did make it to No.1 for a week in February and it was his first release, but it did not debut at No.1. This new entry for Ruby becomes her second overall albums chart entry, as she took her EP’s “Permanent Hermit”/”Your Dad’s Opinions for Dinner” to No.26 in mid-May of 2019, so this new entry also becomes her first Top 10 and highest charted entry too.

For the words ‘Been’, ‘Doin” and ‘Bit’ this is the first time that the words have appeared in a No.1 Album title, but ‘for’ has now logged 18 different occasions at the Albums summit, while we’ve also previously had a ‘Fields’ at No.1, also an Australian, in Billy Fields on July 6th, 1981 with his debut set “Bad Habits” (120th #1 LP in Oz, pre-ARIA) which held for two weeks. Ruby’s debut at the top becomes the 264th #1 LP by an Australian Act (solo male or female, duo or group) to make it to No.1 (and the 13th for 2021), while she also becomes the 127th Aussie Artist (male, female, duo or group) to hit the top of the Australian Albums Chart. The new No.1 album is also the 147th by a Solo Female Artist (local or overseas) {10th for 2021}, and Ruby is now the eighteen Solo Aussie Female singer to achieve a No.1 Album locally.

Rising back up one spot to No.2 is the latest Drake set “Certified Lover Boy”, which is holding for a third consecutive week at the top in America and Canada and returns for third week at the No.1 in New Zealand this weekend, followed by another former No.1 album in “SOUR” for Olivia Rodrigo, also up one spot, to land at No.3, while the set is newly certified ▲Platinum in sales (it went Gold on June 28th), after which is the fourth of eight No.1 Albums within the Top 10, last weeks chart-topping set for Lil’ Nas X and “Montero”, which drops three spots this week to land at No.4.

The two non-moving albums within the Top 10 are “Planet Her” for Doja Cat at No.5 and Kid Laroi’s “F**k Love” collections at No.7, and in between those two stable entries is a four place rebound to No.6 for the Doja Cat second album “Future Nostalgia”, which is logging it’s 49th week within the Top 10 (and 79th week on the chart). Dropping down are “Donda” for Kanye West (6 to No.8) and “Happier Than Ever” for Billie Eilish (9 to No.10, the title track is sitting at No.11 on the singles chart this week), while debuting in-between those two at No.9 is the first studio album for Melbourne country act Darlinghurst (which is also a Sydney suburb), the set being self-titled and featuring a guest appearance by Shannon Noll.

UP:
TOP 20: Seven albums rise within the Top 20 this week, with Elton John’s collection “Diamonds” rising four to No.14 thanks to his new No.2 single “Cold Heart”, followed by another four spot move for Ed Sheeran’s “÷ (Divide)” set to No.15, while moving back up into the Top 20 are standards “What You See is What You Get” for Luke Combs (21 to No.15), “Singles Collection” for Maroon 5 (HP-16×2, 23 to No.17), “1989” by Taylor Swift (25 to No.18, her first of four climbers this week) and “Rumours” for Fleetwood Mac (22 to No.19).
TOP 30: After falling to it’s lowest chart position of No.29 three weeks ago, the Billie Eilish debut set “When We All Fall Asleep…” rebounds this week seven places to land at No.21, followed by Taylor’s second climbing set (and lowest mover) “folklore”, up two to No.22, while Luke Combs’ first set “This One’s for You” rebounds six to No.23. Rebounding back into the Top 30 this week are the Eminem best of (31 to No.27), the Lewis Capaldi album (32 to No.28) and Pop Smoke’s “Shoot for the Stars…” (33 to No.29).
TOP 40: The self-titled Dua Lipa set leaps back up seven places to No.31, followed by an eight place rising INXS “Very Best of” to No.32. Ed’s “No.6 Collaborations Project” and Katy Perry’ s”Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection” both move back up seven places each to No.34 and No.36 respectively (Katy’s album was last within the Top 40 in February of 2015), while Taylor’s third climbing set sees “Lover” leap back up eighteen spots to land this week at No.38.
TOP 50: The Green Day GH’s and Bruno’s “Doo-Wops” set both rise back up six to No.41 and No.42 respectively, with Taylor Swift’s fourth and final climbing Top 50 entry in “evermore” and the third rising album for Ed Sheeran and his “x (Multiply)” set also both climb six spots to No.44 and No.45. Also returning to the Top 50 is the Pitbull “Greatest Hits” (HP-40) set, up eighteen places to No.48 and a two place rise to No.50 for ‘The Greatest Showman’ soundtrack.

DOWN:
TOP 20: There is one stable entry at No.11 for Justin Bieber’s “Justice”, while the first of two falling Top 20 entries is The Weeknd with his “Highlights” collection, down one to No.13 and last weeks second highest entry for Vika & Linda with “The Wait” (HP-2, WI10-1) plummets eighteens spots to land at No.20, similar to last years fall for “Sunday” which went 2-18 in it’s second week.
TOP 30: The only declining album within the Top 30 is the repackaged “Metallica” album, which drops back down seven places to land at No.24.
TOP 40: Iron Maiden’s “Senjutsu” set tumbles twenty places this week to land at No.35, with the only other dropping album within the forty being the Cold Chisel “Best of – All for You”, down three to No.39.
TOP 50: After peaking at No.37 last week “The Gurrumul Story” is this week down six spots to No.43, while the recent Lorde No.1 “Solar Power” reducing it’s chart yield by twenty-two points this week to sink down to No.49. The second and final Top 10 dropout was last week’s No.8 debut for Spiritbox called “Eternal Blue” (#8), with other new entries from last week to leave the Top 50 this week from Lachy Doley (#13), NCT-127 (#16), Bob Dylan (#20), Lachlan Bryan & The Wilde (#30) and Natalie Henry (#34).

FURTHER TOP 50 ENTRIES.
* #25 (LP#2.2) – Falling & Flying (10th Anniversary Edition) by 360 (Forthwrite/EMI Australia) sees the Aussie rappers second album which originally debuted and peaked at No.4 on October 10th, 2011 and later repeaking at No.4 in early February of 2012, re-issued for it’s tenth anniversary, along with a limited edition double blue vinyl of the album also issued last week. This was originally the first albums chart entry for the Melbourne based rapper, and it would also become his first of three consecutive Top 4 albums in Australia.

* #30 (LP#6) – Firebird by Natalie Imbruglia (BMG/Warner) is the sixth studio album and first new material in over six years for the Australian singer and songwriter, with her last set “Male” (LP#5) hitting No.25 on September 21st, 2015, while overall this is her seventh Albums Chart entry (all six studios and 1 best of in 2007), plus here sixth Top 50 appearance too (her fourth set “Come to Life” peaked at No.67), while this new album debuted at No.10 in England this week (her fourth T10 set there).

*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 24th to 30th of September, 2021.