In the battle for No.1 this week between Madonna and Bruce Springsteen, The Boss beats Madame X with his new nineteenth studio album “Western Stars”, becoming the fourth chart-topping album here for Bruce Springsteen.
“Western Stars” becomes the 850th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2019), the 701st for ARIA (1983 to 2019), the 490th to debut at No.1 (since the first in 1976), the twelfth No.1 for 2019 and the 44th chart topper for the Sony record label Columbia (their last was the self-titled debut album for Harry Styles on 22nd of May, 2017). The set also landed at No.1 in New Zealand, England, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Norway (so far).
Bruce Springsteen’s monster 1984 album “Born in the U.S.A.” initially hit the top for a single week on the 22nd of October of that year, and then it spent a further two weeks at the top in the last two weeks of February, 1985, and when he toured Australia in April of 1985 the set also logged a further five weeks at the summit, giving it eight weeks at No.1. Bruce’s first collection of singles in his “Greatest Hits” album debuted and spent a single week at the top on the 12th of March, 1995, after which his third No.1 wouldn’t be for another 18 1/2 years when “High Hopes” spent a single week at the top on the 27th of January, 2014. So now his fourth No.1 here occurs with his nineteenth studio album “Western Stars”.
Bruce is now one of nineteen other artists who have also had four No.1 albums in Australia like ABBA, Dire Straits, Midnight Oil, Billy Joel, Cold Chisel, Robbie Williams, INXS, Hilltop Hoods, 1D, Lana Del Ray, Taylor Swift and John Butler Trio amongst them. His tally of weeks at No.1 now rises to eleven weeks, moving him up on the list for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums (1965 to 2019) from 71st to now 57th (11 weeks from 4 #1’s), ahead of other eleven weeks tallies by Australian Crawl, Eurythmics, Men at Work, Joe Cocker and Alanis Morissette (all 11 weeks from two #1’s). While Bruce has now landed his second No.1 for this decade, he now joins the list for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: 2010’s Albums’ and is one of 21 other acts who have notched up two No.1s and two weeks at No.1 this decade.
This is the first time that the word ‘Western’ has appeared at No.1 in an album title, while it’s the fifth ‘Stars’ at the top, the last being The Hilltop Hoods with “Drinking from the Sun, Walking Under Stars, Restrung” (1 week on 29th February, 2016). Bruce’s new No.1 album is also the 299th by an American Artist (solo, duo, group, male or female) and the first by a Solo American Artist since Eminem’s Sept. 2018 “Kamikaze”, while for Solo Male Artists (local or overseas) this is the 239th overall plus the fourth this year (the other three were by Dean Lewis, Conrad Sewell and Jimmy Barnes). This is the 31st albums chart entry for Bruce (19th studios, 4 live, 8 Best of’s) and also the 20th Top 10 album too.
Madonna’s fourteenth studio album called “Madame X” debuts at No.2 this week in Australia, becoming her first non-No.1-debut since 2003’s “American Life” debuted and peaked at No.3 (last week of April). ALL 14 of Madonna’s studio albums have now hit the Top 10 in Australia, from her first self-titled set in 1984 (HP-10) through to now, plus she has also had a further six Top 10 sets (2 soundtracks, 4 GH’s) taking her total to 20 Top 10 albums in Australia. The new album has yet to take out the No.1 spot in any country, mainly debuting at No.2 behind Bruce’s new album.
After a fifth week at No.1 last week the Billie Eilish debut album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” is down two places to No.3, while stable are “Diamonds” for Elton John and “Hurts 2B Human” for P!nk at No.4 and No.5 respectively.
Jimmy Barnes’ recent No.1 set “My Criminal Record” drops down four places to No.6, while rising back up three spots to No.7 is the second Khalid album “Free Spirit”. The two current soundtracks sitting in the Top 10 are for ‘Aladdin’ at No.8 (down one spot) and “Rocketman” at No.10 (down two places). Debuting in between those two sets at No.9 is the first album from local singer Hayden James called “Between Us” which features his three previous chart entries in “Numb” (HP-48, peaked for two weeks in late February of 2018), his highest charting single “Just Friends” (HP-26, peaked mid-June of 2018, charted for 27 weeks) and “Better Together” (HP-63 for two weeks in late Jan and early Feb of 2019).
UP:
* Ariana Grande is back up three spots to No.16 with “thank u, next” and up four to No.53 with her previous album “Sweetener”, while she also returns to the chart with “Dangerous Woman” (#94) and “My Everything” (#96).
* Both entries for Hilltop Hoods rise in their latest album “The Great Expanse” (28 to 24) and their “Drinking…Walking…Restrung” set (62 to 55).
* With three new songs for Drake on the singles chart this week, his “Scorpion” set is back up three to No.26.
* “?” for XXXTentacion jumps back up six spots to No.35.
* ONCE AGAIN with a new Taylor Swift track debuting high her older albums rebound back into the Top 50 this week, with “Reputation” up twenty-one spots to No.38 and her 243 weeks running “1989” is up eleven places to No.43.
* INXS’ “Very Best of” is up to No.39 this week, with further rising collections being for Maroon 5 (56 to 47), Queen (Platinum Collection 83 to 68), Missy Higgins (86 to 84) and Green Day (re-enters at No.86).
* Calum Scott and his debut set “Only Human” rebounds twenty-five places to No.56.
* Local rapper ChillinIt is up eight places to No.61 with “Women, Weed & Wordplay”.
* With his first singles chart entry this week for Japanese rapper and singer Joji, his debut album called “Ballads 1” (HP-17) returns to the chart at No.63.
* Imagine Dragons have no singles in the chart this week as “Bad Liar” departs after 31 weeks, and its parent album “Origins” is back up nine spots to No.73, while their older entry “Evolve” logs its second full year on the charts (104 weeks) by moving back up three places to No.69.
* Rufus du Sol climb again this week with “Solace”, this week up eleven spots to No.74.
* Further returning albums this week are “Beautiful Trauma” by Pink (#76), “Caress Your Soul” by Sticky Fingers (#92), “Dream Your Life Away” by Vance Joy (#93) and the aforementioned two Ariana sets.
* The Guns N’ Roses set “Appetite for Destruction” rebounds fourteen places to No79.
* The second Juice WRLD set “Death Race for Love” is up three to No.64, while his first set “Goodbye & Good Riddance” rises six spots to No.81.
* Special note must go to Clean Bandit who are sitting at #100 for a third straight week with “What is Love?”.
DOWN:
* All three titles leaving the Top 10 Albums chart this week are debuts from last week in the new U.S. and Canadian No.1 album for Jonas Brothers called “Happiness Begins” (HP-3, WI10-1, 3 to 11), “Tim” by Avicii (HP-6, WI10-1, 6 to 22) and “Hope” by Meg Mac (HP-9, WI10-1, 9 to 66).
* Post Malone’s “Beerbongs & Bentleys” is down four spots to No.18, while his older set “Stoney” is only down one place to No.34.
* There’s a thirteen place drop for both “LIFE” for Conrad Sewell and “Ten” by Susan Boyle to No.30 and No.31 respectively.
* The fourth surviving album from last weeks debuts is “Legendary” by Tyga, which this week drops twenty places to land at No.32.
* Amy Shark descends ten places to No.45 with her “Love Monster” set.
* Dropping best of sets this week are by Eminem (43 to 46), Queen (GH 46 to 49), The Wiggles (63 to 67) and Bon Jovi (66 to 83).
* The YG set “4Real 4Real” slides down nine spots to No.58, followed by another rapper in Skepta with “Ignorance is Bliss”, falling fifteen places to No.59.
* The Miley Cyrus EP “She is Coming” tumbles twenty-four chart-rungs to land at No.62.
* Rita Ora’s “Phoenix” drops ten places to No.75 in its 30th week within the Top 100.
* Hillsong United sees their “People” album drop fourteen spots this week to No.78.
* The self-titled Rammstein set descends a further nineteen places to No.80.
* The soundtrack for ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.1’ is down nine places to No.87.
* The fifth and final second week entry this week is “The Rolling Thunder Revue” for Bob Dylan, which drops down thirty-eight places to land at No.88.
* The ScHoolboy Q set “Crash Talk” falls twelve spots to No.91.
* While the debut Vance Joy album returns at No.93, their second set “Nation of Two” plummets down nineteen spots to No.95.
* Three albums leave the Top 100 from last weeks Top 50 in debuting sets from Polish Club (#20), Psychedelic Porn Crumpets (#31) and Motionless in White (#32), while further debuts from last week to leave were by Aurora (#52), Santana (#55) and Pipe-Eye (#80).
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #13 (LP#8) – Spark by Amber Lawrence is the eighth studio album for the local country singer, who last charted in August of 2017 alongside Travis Collins for “Our Backyard” (HP-40), which at the time was her highest charted and fourth Top 50 album, but this new set becomes her highest charted album by coming in at No.13, plus overall this is her fifth Top 50 and Top 100 entry.
* #21 (LP#3) – Doom Days by Bastille is the UK bands third album and entry here, and continues their double-letter album titles after “Bad Blood” (HP-10, peaked late August 2013) and “Wild World” (HP-7, debuted and peaked 19th-Sept, 2016). The album has so far landed in the Top 10 in England (#4), Belgium (#5), Scotland (#6), The Netherlands (#8) and Germany (#9).
* #52 (LP#5) – Gold and Grey by Baroness is the fifth album for the Georgia (U.S.A.) heavy metal band and continues their colour-themed album titles, as they previously charted with their fourth album “Purple” (HP-64, December 2015), which was their only other chart entry here, while they have also had “Red” (LP#1, 2007), “Blue” (LP#2, 2009) and “Yellow & Green” (LP#3, 2012). This second entry is now their highest charted too.
* #70 (LP#2) – Diaspora by GoldLink is the second album and first entry here for the U.S. rapper born D’Anthony Carlos, in Washington D.C. in 1993. His first set “At What Cost” was issued in March of 2017, prior to which he issued two mixtape in 2014 and 2015.
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Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
