The soundtrack for the newly opened film ‘Barbie’ sees its set ‘The Album’ enter at #1 this week.
‘Barbie: The Album’ soundtrack (Atlantic) becomes the 983rd #1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2023), the 834th for ARIA (1983 to 2023), the 21st #1 for 2023, the 614th to debut at #1, the 29th chart-topping album for Atlantic Records (fourth for 2023 after Ed Sheeran, Melanie Martinez and Paramore), plus the third soundtrack at #1 for this decade after ‘Encanto’ (1 week on March 14th, 2022) and ‘Bluey The Album’ (1 week on Feb. 1st, 2021).
With the new soundtrack from the ‘Barbie’ film entering at #1 this week, it becomes only the seventh album from a movie to debut at the top, with the aforementioned ‘Bluey’ set the last to do so. The film set has also taken out the top spot this week in New Zealand, England’s compilation chart, and our Vinyl Sales Chart, while the album has landed three singles within the Top 10 this week, a first since ‘Dirty Dancing’ did so in April 1988 and ‘Grease’ in October 1978. Billie Eilish rises to #2 with “What Was I Made for?”, Nicki Minaj jumps twenty places to #3 with “Barbie World” and the album’s first issued track from Dua Lipa and “Dance the Night” rises twenty-one spots to #6.
The first #1 Album in Australia back in January of 1965 was not only a studio album but also a soundtrack, The Beatles ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, while the next in April of ’65 was for ‘The Sound of Music’ (76 overall weeks at #1), and now this week’s new #1 soundtrack becomes the 56th film recording to make it to the top of the Australian Album Charts. While there have been no previous ‘Barbie’ titled albums to hit #1, ‘The Album’ has been to the top before, five previous times, four of which were soundtracks, two features in ‘Suicide Squad’ and now ‘Barbie’, one from a TV series ‘Bluey’ and the other a cast recording for ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ (1992 Aust. Cast Recording).
Down to only half of the Top 10 this week (as opposed to six within the ten for the past three weeks) is Taylor Swift, who leaves the top spot with “Speak Now (TsV”), down one spot to #2 (No.4 Vinyl, No.1 Country), while that set remains for a second week at the top in The U.S.A., after which she has “Midnights” (on hold at #3 for a third week; No.7 Vinyl), “1989” up two spots to #4 (No.8 Vinyl, No.1 Catalogue Album), which swaps places with “Lover”, down two places to #6 (No.12 Vinyl; marking half-a-year within the Top 10 overall), while her fifth and final Top 10 entry is “Reputation”, dipping one spot to #8.
Morgan Wallen is on hold at #5 with his twenty-one-week running Top 10 entry “One Thing at a Time”, which retook the top spot in Canada this week (18th week), while his song “Last Night” is also at #5 on the singles chart and at #1 in Canada (2nd week). The Weeknd collection “The Highlights” rises back up one place to #7 and logs its 102nd week within the Top 10.
A new peak occurs at #9 as the John Farnham “Greatest Hits” collection re-enters the Top 100 at #9 (LW-169; No.5 Vinyl) after Channel 7 screened his doco ‘Finding the Voice’ last Monday night, which has also brought that show’s soundtrack back into the chart along with his 1987 comeback set “Whispering Jack”. John’s GH’s set previously peaked at #48 on March 2nd, 2020 (having first charted from January 21st, 2019) and was last within the Top 100 for five weeks from May 22nd of this year after the doco’s initial cinema screenings.
The second and final Top 10 debut this week is the ninth studio album from British act Blur with “The Ballad of Darren” at #10 (No.3 Vinyl), which has debuted at the top of the LP charts this week in England (7th consecutive #1 Album), Ireland, Scotland and Belgium, while locally this becomes only the third Top 10 album for Blur after “The Great Escape” (HP-10, Oct. 1995) and their last studio release “The Magic Whip” (HP-5, May 2015), in fact Damon Albarn’s side project Gorillaz have had twice as many Top 10 Albums as Blur (six in total).
TOP 20:
Two of the three Top 10 dropouts land just outside of the ten this week, with Taylor Swift and her “folklore” (HP-1×4, WI10-25; No.11 Vinyl) set down one spot to #11 and “SOS” (HP-1, WI10-30; No.1 Hip Hop/R&B Album) by SZA dips three to #12. Everything else within the Top 20 drops down too, “SOUR” for Olivia Rodrigo falls four places to #16, last week’s peak for the Post Malone “Diamond Collection” is back down three to #17, while his new album “AUSTIN” was issued on Friday (July 28th), plus Luke Combs has two Top 20 entries in “This One’s for You” (16 to #19) and “Gettin’ Old” (15 to #20).
TOP 30:
The soundtrack to the documentary ‘John Farnham: Finding the Voice’ (HP-2, May 29th 2023) jumps back into the Top 100 this week at #21 (LW-113) after the commercial television screening of the doco last Monday night, with the other album to leap into the Top 30 this week being a twelve place rise to #28 for Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”. Declining collections are for Eminem (18 to #22), Elton John (20 to #24), Maroon 5 (22 to #26) and Foo Fighters (26 to #29), while Taylor Swift sees a six place slide to #25 for “Red (TsV)” (No.19 Vinyl), while Metro Boomin’ sees his ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse’ soundtrack fall down ten place to spin a web at #27 this week.
TOP 40:
Thanks to a No.2 Vinyl position this week the debut album for local act Short Stack called “Stack is the New Black” returns to the Top 100 at #37, originally it debuted and peaked at #1 in late August of 2009. Everything else within the Top 40 is moving downwards this week, with Ed’s “divide” set down six to #31, and Taylor Swift seeing two albums here; “evermore” (27 to #33) and “Fearless (TsV)” (23 to #35, cracking 78 weeks within the chart, equal to one-and-a-half years). Eminem’s “Curtain Call 2” falls seven places to #39 and down nine to #40 is the debut Lewis Capaldi set.
TOP 50:
The final return to the chart this week is at #41, “Whispering Jack” for John Farnham returns for a 115th week within the Top 50, with this album being part of the main focus of his ‘Finding the Voice’ doco. Down five places each are “AM” for Arctic Monkeys (37 to #42; No.18 Vinyl), “Graduation” by Kanye West (38 to #43) and “Look at Me: The Album” for XXXTentaction (43 to #48), while Lana Del Rey holds at #45 with “Born to Die” (No.14 Vinyl) and The Weeknd drops seven places to #46 with “After Hours” and the No.2 entry from last week for Tina Arena with “Loves Saves” departs the Top 50 this week.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #14 (LP#5) – Blood Red – Busby Marou (Sony Australia) is the fifth studio album and first new material this decade for the Rockhampton, QLD blues and roots act who have seen all five of their studio albums now land within the Top 30, after their debut self-titled set peaked at #24, they landed a #1 set with “Postcards from the Shell House” (Feb. 27th, 2017) and last charted with “The Great Divide” (HP-5, October 2019).
* #18 (LP#8) – Rivers Run Dry – Ian Moss (Mosstrooper) is the eighth studio album for the Cold Chisel lead guitarist and solo act since August 1989’s “Matchbook” hit No.1 (3 weeks on AMR, 2 weeks on ARIA), while overall this is his sixth solo albums chart entry and first since his self-titled seventh album made it to No.11 in March of 2018.
HP = Highest Position
LW = Last Week
WI10 – Weeks in Top 10
(TsV) = Taylor’s Version
*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 21st to the 27th of July 2023
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
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