Australian Charts: Amy Shark 'Cry Forever' Is The Number One Album

The second album for local singer Amy Shark called “Cry Forever” becomes her second No.1 Album in Australia this week.

“Cry Forever” (Wonderlick/Sony) becomes the 915th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2021), the 765th for ARIA (1983 to 2021), the 15th No.1 set for 2021, the 551st to debut at the top and also the second for the record label Wonderlick, as Amy’s debut album “Love Monster” spent a week at No.1 on July 23rd, 2018.

The new No.1 album is the first to feature the word ‘Cry’ in its title (the previous highest was Carrie Underwood with “Cry Pretty” HP-4, Sept 2018), while the word ‘Forever’ has appeared once before at the top, Paula Abdul’s first album “Forever Your Girl”, which spent a single week at the top during this week in 1990, (May 13th, 1990, 31 years ago).

Amy Shark becomes the seventh Australian based artist to score a No.1 album in 2021, and the second for a Solo Female Artist after Tash Sultana on March 1st with “Terra Firma”. For Solo Female Artists (local or overseas) the new album becomes the 141st to hit the top and the fifth for this year after Taylor Swift (Jan and April), Tash and Dua Lipa (both March). And with Amy now logging her second No.1 album she joins other local Female Artists with two chart-topping albums in Tina Arena, Sia and Jessica Mauboy, while above them are Missy Higgins (3 #1’s), Delta Goodrem (4 #1’s, but she just issued a new album on Friday so that might rise next week), Olivia Newton-John and Kasey Chambers (5 #1’s) and the highest is Kylie Minogue (7 #1’s).

On the singles chart local rapper The Kid Laroi climbs to No.1 with his new dueted version of “Without You” alongside Miley Cyrus, which means that Aussie acts have the No.1 spot on both the singles and album charts this week. The last time this chart feat happened was in late 2019 three times, with Cold Chisel’s “Blood Moon” (Dec 16th), Paul Kelly and “Songs from the South: Greatest Hits 1985-2019” (Nov 25th) and “Hilda” for Jessica Mauboy (Oct 28th), matching at the top alongside “Dance Monkey” for Tones and I, so this makes it a first for this decade.

Half of the Top 10 are new entries this week, with the remaining non-debuts being “Justice” for Justin Bieber back down one spot to No.2 after a third non-consecutive week at No.1, after which Dua Lipa dips two places to No.4 with “Future Nostalgia”, the newly redone “Fearless” for Taylor Swift halves its position from last week and drops three places to No.6. Harry Styles’ “Fine Line” album falls three places to No.8 and logs a 69th week within the Top 10, and on hold at No.9 is Billie Eilish with “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go” for an 85th Top 10 week, helped also by her new single “Your Power” also appearing at No.9 over on the singles chart this week.

New at No.3 is the seventh studio album, third Top 100 entry and now first Top 10 placement for French metal band Gojira and “Fortitude”, which enters almost five years after their sixth album “Magma” debuted and peaked at No.11 (late June 2016). Coming in at No.5 is the new No.1 album in England for their native act Royal Blood called “Typhoons”, which is their third Top 5 entry here after “Royal Blood” (LP#1, HP-3, Sept 2014) and “How Did We Get So Dark?” (LP#2, HP-4, late June 2017).

The twelfth studio album and now fourth Top 10, plus third consecutive No.7 entry for U.S. DJ and producer DJ Khaled called “Khaled Khaled” is new at No.7, with the album having previously seen the entries of the songs “Popstar” (HP-10) and “Greece” (HP-35) both peaking upon debut July 27th, 2020. The fifth and final new entry to the Top 10 this week comes in at No.10, the debut album for Norwegian singer/songwriter Marie Ulven under her moniker ‘girl in red’ and her album is called “if i could make it go quiet”, which has also entered the Top 10 this week in England (#7) and her homeland at No.2.

UP:
There are only three albums climbing within the Top 50 this week as so many new albums enter the chart. Thanks to their current national tour, Spacey Jane are back up two places to No.24 with “Sunlight”, after which the debut EP for Billie Eilish and “Don’t Smile at Me” rebounds this week twenty-five spots to land at No.38, while making its return to the Top 100 this week is the debut Amy Shark album “Love Monster” at No.47, logging an 84th week on the chart.

DOWN:
TOP 20: All five of the Top 10 dropouts land within the Top 20 this week, “The Highlights” by The Weeknd (HP-2, WI10-12), The Kid Laroi’s “F**k Love (mixtape)”/”Savage EP” (HP-1×1, WI10-27) and Pop Smoke with “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon” (HP-1×1, WI10-34) all fall five places each to No.11, No.12 and No.13 respectively. London Grammar’s recent No.1 “Californian Soil” (HP-1×1, WI10-2) falls eleven places to No.15 and Luke Combs and “What You See is What You Get” (HP-1×1, WI10-19) drops eight spots to No.18, after which are also eight-place slides for “÷ (Divide)” by Ed Sheeran and “Rumours” for Fleetwood Mac to No.19 and No.20.
TOP 30: Ariana Grande marks her half-year of charting (26 weeks) with “Positions” by dropping seven places to No.21, with last week’s re-peaking “Singles Collection” by Maroon 5 falling from No.17 to No.23 this week. Eminem’s “Curtain Call: The Hits” drops six to No.25, Taylor Swift’s “folklore” falls seven to No.27, while her “evermore” album is on hold at No.30, and lastly Juice WRLD and “Legends Never Die” falls eight places to No.29.
TOP 40: Lewis Capaldi falls seven places to No.31, Morgan Wallen drops ten to No.32 with “Dangerous” and Taylor’s older entry “1989” this week tumbles seventeen spots to No.33, with the recent Top 30 returned Bruno Mars album “Doo-Wops & Hooligans” back down eight places to No.34. Further eight spot declines occur for Lime Cordiale and “14 Steps to a Better You” and The Wiggles “We’re All Fruit Salad: Greatest Hits” to No.37 and No.40 respectively.
TOP 50: For the first time this year the Post Malone album “Hollywood’s Bleeding” is outside of the Top 40, down eight places this week to No.41, followed by a massive drop of twenty-seven spots to No.42 for the latest Offspring album “Let the Bad Times Roll”. Sam Smith’s “Love Goes” down six to No.43 while the self-titled Dua Lipa album falls back nine spots to No.45. Also declining within the Top 50 are older entries for INXS (31 to No.48), XXXTentacion (39 to No.49) and Arctic Monkeys (40 to No.50).

FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #14 (LP#7) – First Time Really Feeling by Liz Stringer (Milk! Records) is the seventh album and now first chart entry for the Melbourne, Australia based female singer/songwriter, with her last release being 2019’s “Dyson, Stringer, Cloher” with fellow female musicians Mia Dyson and Jen Cloher.

* #16 (LP#3) – Sixty Summers by Julia Stone (BMG/Warner) is the third solo album for the female half of the duo Angus & Julia Stone, with this third set coming nine years and eleven months since her second album “By the Horns” debuted and peaked at No.11 (early June 2012), while previously her first solo album “The Memory Machine” (2010) peaked at No.73.

* #35 (Comp) – Celebrate the Music of Peter Green and the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac by Mick Fleetwood and Friends (BMG/Warner) is a live recording from a one-off event organised by Mick Fleetwood at the London Palladium on February 25th, 2020 to pay tribute to Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green, with artists such as Billy Gibbons, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, John Mayall, Christine McVie, Zak Starkey, Steven Tyler, Bill Wyman, Noel Gallagher and Neil Finn among the artists appearing.

* #36 (Live#4) – Live at Knebworth 1990 by Pink Floyd (Pink Floyd Inc./Sony) was recorded at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire, England on June 30th, 1990, and it has been issued for the first time on both CD and vinyl and features seven of their bands songs. It follows on from their re-issued 1988 live set “Delicate Sound of Thunder (Live)” (HP-35, Nov. 30th, 2020, initial HP-4, Dec 1988).

* #46 (LP#4) – Daisy by Big Scary (Pieater) is the fourth studio album for the Melbourne duo and their fourth to chart after “Vacation” (LP#1, HP-37, Oct 2011), “Not Art” (LP#2, HP-32, July 2013) and their last set “Animal” (LP#3, HP-5, Sept 2016).

*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 30th to the 6th of May, 2021.