The second studio album for local singer and percussionist G Flip called “Drummer” debuts at #1 on both the ARIA Albums and Vinyl Sales chart this week.
“Drummer” (Future Classic) becomes the 985th #1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2023), the 836th for ARIA (1983 to 2023), the 616th to debut at #1, the 23rd chart-topping album for 2023, the first for G Flip and the fourth for their record label Future Classic after two from Flume (Feb 4th, 2013, self-titled and “Skin” on June 6th, 2016) and one for Chet Faker (“Built on Glass” on April 21st and 28th, 2014). It also lands at the top of the vinyl chart and becomes the second Top 10 entry for G Flip after their debut set “About Us” debuted and peaked at #6 (Sept/ 2019).
This is the first time that the word ‘drummer’ has appeared in a #1 Album’s title, with the previous closest ‘drum’s’ to beat near the top of the Album Charts being for the Rogue Traders set “Here Come the Drums” (HP-2, late October 2005). G Flip also becomes the second non-binary person to hit the #1 Albums spot for 2023 after Sam Smith did so with “Gloria” (Feb. 6th), while G Flip’s album also becomes the 283rd by an Australian Artist to hit #1 locally and they become the 136th individual Aussie act to make it to the top of the Album Charts.
On hold at #2 is the ‘Barbie’ soundtrack album (No.6 Vinyl), which regains the #1 spot in New Zealand for a second stay this week, after which is the first of five Top 10 entries for Taylor Swift, as “Speak Now (TsV)” remains at #3, while it’s also at #3 on the Vinyl chart and the #1 Country Album again, with last week’s #1 set for Travis Scott and “Utopia” also scoring a second week at the top in both The U.S.A. and Canada this past week, here it falls to #4 (No.16 Vinyl, No.1 Hip Hop/R&B Album).
There are six more albums to mention, but only two acts have those six albums, starting with the continued onslaught within the Top 10 of Taylor Swift albums, starting with “1989” on hold at #5 (No.7 Vinyl, No.1 Catalogue Album), then “Midnights” drops down two spots to #6 (No.5 Vinyl), followed by swap-arounds for “Reputation”, up one to #7 (No.19 Vinyl) and “Lover” is down one to #8 (No.10 Vinyl), with that album logging it’s 208th week within the Top 100, equal to four years of charting.
Luke Combs started his Australiasian tour in New Zealand last week (Aug 9th) and then two days later (on the 11th) he began his Australian leg in Brisbane before heading to Sydney, while within the next sales-week he will have finished playing in Melbourne, Adelaide and then finishing up in Perth on the 26th of August. This has helped two of his albums to rebound back into the Top 10 this week, with his debut album “This One’s for You” up five spots to #9 and his fourth and latest album “Gettin’ Old” jumps seven spots to #10, both albums now notching up their eighth week within the Top 10 (‘This One’ over five+ years, ‘Old’ over the past 21 weeks).
TOP 20:
Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” leaves the Top 10 for the first time in it’s almost half-a-year upon the chart (24 weeks this week), down two spots to #11 (HP-1×2, WI10-23), with the other Top 10 dropout being “AUSTIN” for Post Malone (HP-2, WI10-2), falling ten places to #16 (No.20 Vinyl) after only two weeks within the Top 10.
Luke Combs’ second album “What You See Ain’t Always What You Get” is up seven places to #14 thanks to his current tour, while a second Top 10 debut this week for Olivia Rodrigo moves her debut set “SOUR” back up to #17. Taylor Swift and her “folklore” album are down one spot to #12 (No.9 Vinyl) after spending the past three weeks at #11, with four place drops occuring for both “Harry’s House” by Harry Styles and “Starboy” for The Weeknd to #19 and #20 respectively, while The Weeknd’s second Top 20 entry is for “The Highlights” at #13.
TOP 30:
Three Taylor Swift albums reside within the Top 30 this week, “Red (TsV)” is stable at #23, her “evermore” set is down one to #25 and moving back up four to #28 is her “Fearless (TsV)” set (No.14 Vinyl). There are also four best of/greatest hits collections here too, starting with Post Malone (19 to #21), Eminem’s “Curtain Call: The Hits” (22 to #24) and sets by Elton John (#26) and Maroon 5, the other non-mover within the Top 30, at #27.
TOP 40:
Falling to its lowest chart position for 2023, down four places to #32 is Ed Sheeran with ” ÷ (divide)”, with three place drops occurring for Billie’s ‘Sleep’ set, Eminem’s “Curtain Call 2” and Lewis Capaldi’s debut set to #36, #37 and #40 respectively, while on hold here are “Fine Line” for Mr. Styles at #35, “Future Nostalgia” by Dua Lipa at #39 and for a third week at #38 is “AM” for the Arctic Monkeys (No.17 Vinyl).
TOP 50:
The fourth and final Top 50 entry for Luke Combs this week sees his third set “Growin’ Up” rebound fourteen places to land at #44 this week, with small rises for best of sets by Green Day (#41) and Creedence Clearwater Revival (#45), while The Weeknd is on hold at #42 with “After Hours”. Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die” is back down six places to #47, with the third and fourth soundtracks within the Top 50 being ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ at #48 and ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse’ dipping five to #49, while the third and final Top 10 drop-out this week is last weeks #10 entry for Fanny Lumsden with “Hey Dawn”
Special re-entry mention to Rodriguez who passed away earlier in the month, his breakout studio album “Cold Fact” returns to the chart at #90 this week, with the 1976 set last gracing the charts on November 14th, 2016 (also #90), scoring it’s #11 peak on Sept. 1st, 2014 around the time of his last tour here.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #18 (V/A) – EGO: The Michael Gudinski Story (Music from the Feature Documentary) – Various Artists (Mushroom) is a three disc album of 44 tracks by 33 different artists (31 of them Australian) released to coincide with the MIFF (Melbourne International Film Festival) which started on August 10th, with a nationwide rollout of the film due on August 31st. The set covers the early 1970’s through to the modern releases for Mushroom Records and it’s founder Michael Gudinski, starting with Daddy Cool, Billy Thorpe and Madderlake before moving in Skyhooks, Jo Jo Sep, The Sports, The Angels, then The Models, Paul Kelly, Jimmy Barnes, into Kylie Minogue, Vance Joy, Bliss N’ Eso and Ed Sheeran.
* #22 (LP#4) – Volcano – Jungle (Caiola Records/AWAL) is the fourth album and entry for the British electronic duo, with all four of their albums now landing within the Top 30, starting with their self-titled set from July 2014 (HP-20), then “For Ever” (HP-28, Sept. 2018) and their last set was also their first Top 10 entry here; “Loving in Stereo” (HP-10, August 2021).
HP = Highest Position
LW = Last Week
WI10 – Weeks in Top 10
*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 12th to the 18th of August 2023
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
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