For the first time a ‘Taylor’s Version’ for one of her albums has held the #1 spot for a second week, as “Speak Now” remains the biggest seller locally.
“Speak Now (TsV)” also remains at #1 in New Zealand and Ireland (it drops to #2 in England), plus it debuted at the top this past week in The U.S.A. and Canada, while here we see it also gain a second stay at #1, beating the single-stay efforts her first two redone albums achieved, “Fearless (TsV)” (TW-23; April 19th, 2021) and “Red (TsV) (TW-18; Nov. 22nd, 2021) both for a single week, plus “Speak Now (TsV)” is again the top selling Vinyl Album and the #1 Country Album this week too.
Taylor’s overall ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums (1965 to 2023)’ increases to 42 weeks from her eleven #1’s appearances since November 2010, when the original “Speak Now” spent a week at the top, meaning this second week for the redone edition surpasses the originals peak-length. On that aforementioned listing she remains at No.8, only getting closer to the 44 weeks racked up by both Pink (from 7 #1’s) and Ed Sheeran (from 6 #1’s), while for this decade she has now logged half-a-year at #1, as her six #1 appearances this decade have now amassed 26 weeks at the Albums summit.
Next week’s threat to the #1 spot is the Barbie soundtrack, with the film opening this past week, it scores it’s third Top 50 and first Top 10 entry on the singles chart this week, while the competition for this week’s #1 slot goes to local singer Tina Arena who lands at #2 with her thirteenth studio album “Love Saves”, and her third successive #2 Album too, as she debuted and peaked in that position with “Eleven” (Nov. 2015) and then “Greatest Hits & Interpretations” (April 2017), while overall this is her ninth Top 10 appearance in Australia (7 studio, 2 best of) and her 15th overall Albums chart entry (9 studio, 3 best of, 3 live albums), while the “Love Saves” set also lands first week on the Vinyl Chart at No.2.
Taylor Swift again has six albums within the Top 10 this week, four of them are non-movers, as at #3 is “Midnights” (No.5 Vinyl) and at #4 is “Lover” (No.6 Vinyl, No.1 Catalogue Album) and the fourth and final is “1989” at #6, while she dips slightly with “Reputation” (5 to #7) and “folklore” (9 to #10), which scores it’s third-year chart anniversary this week (156 weeks).
The three remaining non-T.Swift entries sees Morgan Wallen with “One Thing at a Time” up two places to #5, while the set lost it’s top-spot in both Canada and The U.S.A. this week to Taylor Swift, but he did regain both of their singles charts with “Last Night”, first time at the top in Canada. The Weeknd is the fifth and final stable entry within the Top 10 as “The Highlights” remains at #8 for a third consecutive week, while up one spot to #9 is the No.1 Hip Hop/R&B Album of the week by SZA with “SOS” (No.15 Vinyl), which is now ▲Platinum in sales (it scored Gold on April 3rd).
TOP 20:
NEW PEAK: After re-peaking at #16 last week the Post Malone best of “The Diamond Collection” rises a couple of spots this week to score a new peak of #14, with the set holding at #4 in New Zealand this week, all helped by his recent tour announcement for November, with further climbing collections being Eminem first “Curtain Call” (22 to #18) and another gem-filled set in “Diamonds” for Elton John (up to #20; UK No.3).
With a current Top 3 single at the moment, the older Olivia Rodrigo album “SOUR” continues to rise back up the chart, this week it moves back to #12 (four weeks ago it was at #28), “Starboy” by the The Weeknd is back up four spots to #13, while Luke Combs has his first and fourth albums within the Top 20, his latest “Gettin’ Old” is back up five spots to #15 and his first “This One’s for You” moves back up three to #16. Dropping down are the Metro Boomin’ “Spider-verse” set (13 to #17) and declining eight places to #19 is Taylor’s “Red (TsV)”…
TOP 30:
…while Taylor’s next drops are the only two declining sets within the Top 30, her “Fearless (TsV)” is down five to #23 and “evermore” dips three to #27, while back up five spots to land at #22 is Maroon 5’s “Singles Collection”, while Foo Fighters “The Essential” moves back up to #26. Ed Sheeran’s “divide” set moves back up three to #25, with four place rises for both “When You See Ain’t Always What You Get” by Luke Combs and “Rumours” for Fleetwood Mac to #28 and #29 respectively.
TOP 40:
Eminem’s other collection “Curtain Call 2” is the only best of within the Top 40, as it rises back up four spots to #32, with further rising albums being “When We All Fall Asleep” for Billie Eilish (42 to #36; plus her follow-up “Happier Than Ever” is back up ten to #53), thanks to her new Top 10 Singles Chart debut this week from the Barbie soundtrack and album. “AM” for Arctic Monkeys is up three to #37 (No.11 Vinyl) and The Weeknd’s “After Hours” set moves back up five to land at #39.
TOP 50:
Six places moves are the biggest within this chart region, with a six places rise to #45 for Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die”, while down six to #44 is the Creedence Clearwater Revival best of set “Chronicle”. Rises also occur for XXXTentacion’s “Look at Me: The Album” (47 to #43), the Queen biopic soundtrack (49 to #46) and returning to the Top 50 are Green Day’s best of (52 to #49) and the ABBA Studio Album collection (53 to #50).
The only dropout from last week’s Top 10 was the #2 entry for King Gizzard & the Wizard Lizard with “PetroDragonic Apocalypse”, which leaves the Top 100 this week, while I must mention that the Lizzo national tour at the moment has brought her two recent studio albums back into the lower fifty, with “Special” back in at #62 (last within the chart on April 3rd, 2023) and “Cuz I Love You” (#86; last charted Feb. 8th, 2021). Another unique chart-feat which nobody else probably saw was that the recent return to the charts (on July 10th) for Pink Floyd and their classic set “Dark Side of the Moon” (TW-No.14 Vinyl), which notched up it’s 141st week within the ARIA Top 100, matching the original Kent/AMR Chart 141 weeks within their Top 100 Albums chart.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #2 (LP#13) – Love Saves – Tina Arena (Positive Dreams/Same Same)
* #24 (LP#1) – Mirror – Lauren Spencer-Smith (Island/Republic) is the debut album for the Canadian singer-songwriter who first came to attention in the 2020 (18th season) of American Idol (just missed out on the Top 20 for the show), and saw her first entry “Fingers Crossed” debut and peak at #8 in January of 2022, and followed that up with the track “Flowers” (peaked in its third week at #26; May 9th, 2022), with those two tracks appearing on this album along with her latest single “That Part”, while this set landed first week within the Top 20 in England (#11), New Zealand (#14) and Norway (#18).
* #34 (Live#3) – The Feeling of Falling Upwards (Live from The Royal Albert Hall) – 5 Seconds of Summer (BMG/Warner) is a 17 track live event recorded 22-Sep-2022 in London’s famous venue, first issued as a digital album in mid-April, the set makes its first chart appearance this week thanks to it getting a physical release and landing at #4 first week on the Vinyl Sales Chart. This is their third live album and second to chart, as their first “LiveSOS” debuted and peaked at #7 on December 22nd, 2014.
* #35 (LP#8) – Fearless in Love – Voyager (Season of Mist) is the eighth issued album and now first chart entry for the Perth progressive-metal act who saw themselves on the Eurovision stage this year representing Australia with their track “Promise”, and that momentum has helped them to land their first albums chart entry, thanks to it also entering at #7 on the Vinyl chart too.
* #41 (LP#3) – 222 – Lil’ Tjay (Columbia) is the third album and entry locally for the American rapper who saw his April 2021 release “Destined 2 Win” debuted and peak at #9, while he first charted with his debut album “True 2 Myself” (HP-59, Oct. 2019). The new set has scored its highest position of #16 in New Zealand this week, along with #26 in England, #35 in Norway and #38 in Ireland.
* #66 (LP#) – Duets – Kevin Borich (SGC Media/MGM) I don’t normally mention lower entries, but something this unique needs mentioning, as blues and rock legend Kevin Borich makes his first chart entry since 1980 with his new “Duets” album, which features guest such as Russell Morris, Leo Sayer, Joe Walsh, Ian Moss, Suze DeMarchi, Tim Rogers, Ella Hooper, Angry Anderson, Joe Camilleri, Ross Wilson and Swanee among its twelve duets. Kevin last issued an album in 2009 called “Live at the Basement” (with Lucious Borich and Harry Brus), while he last charted in early December of 1980 with “Angel’s Hand” (HP-92 upon entry), while overall this is his sixth Top 100 Albums Chart entry since his first “Celebration!” (HP-28×2, peaked early May 1977).
———————-==/\==——————–
New Certification:
SOS – SZA ▲
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 14th to the 20th of July 2023
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
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