Landing the 900th No.1 Album this week, plus the first act to land a No.1 Album in the past five decades is AC/DC with their 17th studio album “Power Up” (or as PWRϟUP).
“Power Up” as I mentioned becomes the 900th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2020), and the 750th for ARIA (1983 to 2020), while it also the 537th album to debut at No.1 and the 38th chart topping album for 2020, while for the record label Columbia this is their 49th No.1 Album locally, third this year and second this month after Bruce Springsteen on November 2nd. The new album also took out the top spot this week in both England (their fourth #1 there) and New Zealand (third #1).
Last week Kylie Minogue became the first female and second Aussie act to land a No.1 album in the past three decades in Australia, while for England it was her fifth consecutive decade of hitting their No.1 LP spot. Now this week AC/DC do the same here, becoming the first act to land at No.1 album in each of the five decades (1980’s to 2020’s). The band’s first No.1 album in Australia was with their post-Bon Scott debut “Back in Black” (1 week on March 9th, 1981), while their second local No.1 occurred this week in 1992 on November 22nd when their second live album simply called “Live” debuted and spent two weeks at No.1, which would become their longest running chart topper here. Three years later on October 8th, 1995 they spent one week with “Ballbreaker”, while their next No.1 album came just over thirteen years after that when “Black Ice” (27-Oct-2008) also spent one week at the top. Almost six years ago they released their last album, which was also their last No.1 in “Rock or Bust” (8-Dec-2014).
AC/DC have now racked up seven weeks at No.1 from their six chart-toppers, which moves them up on the list ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums’ from 105th to now 92nd, just ahead of The Police (7 weeks from 4 No.1’s), while they also become the second act this year to land their sixth No.1 album as Taylor Swift did so earlier in 2020, making AC/DC now the seventh act to have had six chart-topping albums locally, tying them with The Hilltop Hoods for the Australian Group with the most No.1 Albums (all of the Aussie acts with more No.1’s are all solo artists).
This is the fifth album title with the word ‘Up’, while it’s only the second with ‘Power’, the other also belonged to an Aussie act in Vanessa Amarosi and “The Power” (1 week on April 10th, 2000). Other than the aforementioned rounded numbers for the new album (like 900th #1 and 750th No.1 for ARIA) “Power Up” also becomes the 250th No.1 Album by an Australian Act (solo, duo, group, male or female) and the 14th for 2020, and for Groups (local or overseas) this is the 399th No.1 album by a Group.
There are eleven artists within the Top 10 this week, and eight of those are Australian acts, with last weeks No.1 for Kylie Minogue and “Disco” down only one spot to No.2, which is her best decline from the top spot since her 2001 set “Fever”, as most albums in their second week have dropped below No.4 or more, with her “Step Back in Time: Definitive Collection” set falling to No.11 in it’s second week in 2019. Also down one spot is Ariana Grande’s current U.S. and Canadian No.1 album for a second week “Positions” to No.3, while The Kid Laroi landed the No.3 spot in America last week with his repackaged “F*ck Love/Savage” set, which here this week is down one place to No.4.
The fourth Aussie within the ten and the second of four to debut within the Top 10 is Delta Goodrem with her sixth studio album and her first seasonal set (plus the first Xmas album to land in the T10 this season) called “Only Santa Knows”, which debuts at No.5 this week, and with her coming up with Xmas and TV specials in the next few weeks (plus the ARIA Awards this coming week), the album should be within the Top 10 for the rest of the year (five more weeks). This new entry becomes Delta’s seventh Top 10 album since she debuted in 2003, (6 studios and 1 soundtrack), with this new album containing classics like ‘The Little Drummer Boy’, ‘White Christmas’, ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’, plus duets with Olivia Newton-John and Gurrumul (which was recorded for ‘The Spirit of Christmas 2014’ album).
The last three Australian acts within the ten this week are all back-to-back, with the Guy Sebastian album “T.R.U.T.H.” down two places to No.6, after which the debut album for drill-rap Sydney act OneFour called “Against All Odds” enters at No.7, and then Teskey Brothers lead singer Josh Teskey teams with musician Ash Grunwald for the collaborative album “Push the Blues Away”, which comes in at No.8 this week and becomes the first solo release for Josh, but the tenth release for Ash, his eighth albums chart entry and now his first ever Top 10 placing.
Bruce Springsteen manages a fourth week within the Top 10 with his latest set “Letter to You”, which drops down three spots this week to No.9, while the fifth and final Top 10 debut this week comes in at No.10, “Jolly Holiday” for Andre Rieu, becoming his sixth Top 10 placing in Australia and his first since November 2013’s “Celebrates ABBA: Music of the Night” (HP-10), while the album also becomes his 65th released album.
UP:A repacked double album of Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” was issued recently, containing her original album plus the remix edition, which helps the album to leap back up eleven spots to No.20. Leaping sixteen spots to No.23 are Lime Cordiale with “14 Steps to a Better You”, with the third and final rising album this week being the Human Nature seasonal set “The Christmas Album”, which rises twenty-six spots to land at No.46 this week, one of three returned Xmas sets in the lower fifty last week, the other two were for Mariah Carey and John Farnham & Olivia-Newton-John.
DOWN:Five albums leave the Top 10 this week, none of which fall more than twenty places. Leaving the Top 10 for only the second time is the Harry Styles set “Fine Line” (HP-1×3, WI10-47) down two to No.11, followed by a four place slide to No.12 for the Sam Smith set “Love Goes” (HP-3, WI10-2). Luke Combs’ repacked “What You See is What You Get” (HP-1×1, WI10-14a) falls down four to No.14 while the recent Midnight Oil No.1 “The Makarrata Project” (HP-1×1, WI10-2) tumbles eleven spots to No.16, but the biggest departure goes to Little Mix and their entry from last week “Confetti” (HP-7, WI10-2) which tumbles down nineteen spots to No.26.Juice WRLD is down four to No.18 with “Legends Never Die” and the Taylor Swift “folklore” set drops six to No.21, it’s first week out of the Top 20, BUT it was re-issued on Friday on vinyl as an “folklore (In the Trees edition)”, which means it could rise back up next week. Fleetwood Mac drops down seven places to No.25 with “Rumours”, followed by a seven place slump for the first Luke Combs album “This One’s for You” to No.27, with the Elton John collection “Diamonds” dropping six to No.30. Also dropping down are Keith Urban with “The Speed of Now Part 1” (22 to No.31), “Tickets to My Downfall” by Machine Gun Kelly (19 to No.32), the Lewis Capaldi album (23 to No.33), and Post Malone is down to one album within the Top 50 this week as “Hollywood’s Bleeding” is down eight to No.34. Further collections falling are by Maroon 5 (29 to No.36), Eminem (28 to No.37) and INXS (41 to No.45). Bring Me the Horizon and their “Post Human: Survival Horror” album tumbles twenty-one spots this week to No.37 and Ed Sheeran’s “No.6 Collaborations Project” dips six spots to No.39. The self-titled Harry Styles debut set falls seven to No.41, Gorillaz recent entry “Song Machine, Season 1” falls eleven to No.43 and Taylor two older sets are both within the Top 50 region in “Lover” (38 to No.44) and “1989” (49 to No.50).
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:* #15 (LP#4) – Starting Over by Chris Stapleton (Mercury Nashville) is the fourth studio album for the American country singer, who on November 23rd, 2015 was spending his second and final week at No.1 in America with his first album “The Traveller”. This is Chris’ fourth albums chart entry and Top 50 placing in Australia, while the new set becomes his highest charted album locally, beating the No.20 peak of his second entry “From a Room: Volume 1” (HP-20, May 2017).
* #19 (Comp#117) – Johnny Cash & The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Legacy) is this years teaming of a past musician’s back catalogue with the RPO, after Elvis Presley (2015, 2016 & 2017×2), Roy Orbison (2017), Aretha Franklin, The Carpenters, The Beach Boys, Roy Orbison {again} (2018) and last years teaming with Rod Stewart (HP-3), with this new set now becoming the eleventh teaming for the RPO to land a Top 50 entry in Australia. This set contains his tracks like “Man in Black”, “A Thing Called Love”, “I Walk the Line”, “Ring of Fire” and “Highway Men” among its twelve recordings.
* #22 (LP#1) – Hey U X by Benee (Republic) is the debut album for the New Zealand artist, while earlier this year she bundled her two EP’s into one “Fire on Marzz”/”Stella & Steve”, which peaked at No.19 in June of 2020, while overall this is her third entry as “Fire on Marzz (EP)” formerly peaked at No.75, with this new album containing her former No.6 single “Supalonely”.
* #35 (LP#17) – Believe by Andrea Bocelli (Sugar Music/Decca) is the 17th studio album for the blind Italian opera singer and his first since his first U.S. No.1 album from early November 2018 called “Si”. This new album of tracks contains covers of such songs as “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, “Amazing Grace”, “Ave Maria” and “I Believe”, many of which he has performed this past year in locations void of people due to the current outbreak.
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
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Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
