• With the London 2012 Olympic Games now officially underway and the Opening Ceremony now behind us, organisers have today released the official Games album – ‘Isles Of Wonder’. ‘Isles Of Wonder’ is a 37 track release featuring songs performed as part of the Opening Ceremony, with heavy involvement from Underworld, along with Emeli Sande’s performance of ‘Abide With Me’ and the Arctic Monkeys’ cover of ‘Come Together’. Dizzee Rascal’s ‘Bonkers’ and Pet Shop Boys’ ‘West End Girls’ also feature. It’s available digitally now.
• Today marks 25 years since Kylie Minogue released her debut single ‘Locomotion’ here in Australia. It hit the No.1 spot here in Australia, but narrowly missed achieving the same in the UK and the US on its later releases there. As part of the 25th anniversary celebrations, Warner Music yesterday announced the upcoming release of an exclusive new singles boxset. The Time Capsule (more details HERE) is due for release in late October.
• Warner Music has announced the forthcoming local release of ‘Come Home To Mama’ – the new album for Canadian songstress Martha Wainwright. The LP is set to contain ten new recordings and includes collaborations with the likes of Nels Cline from Wilco and Sean Lennon. Recorded earlier this year at Sean’s studios in New York, ‘Come Home To Mama’ will be released locally on Friday October 12.
• The Sex Pistols will release a 35th Anniversary Edition of their debut album ‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols’. The deluxe box set will include remasters of their original demo tapes including a newly unearthed version of ‘Belsen Was A Gas’ – long thought lost to history. The box set will contain three CDs, a DVD, a 7″ single, a 1977 diary and much more. It’s due in stores on Friday September 28.
• Shock Records has announced the upcoming release of a new album by Canadian indie-poppers Stars. The band’s sixth studio album is called ‘The North’ and follows up their 2010 release ‘The Five Ghosts’. ‘The North’ will pop locally on Friday September 07.
• There’s seemingly no budging Carly Rae Jepsen from the No.1 spot on the US singles chart. ‘Call Me Maybe’ continues to find fans there as it notches up a seventh week on top. Ellie Goulding’s ‘Lights’, however, improves again, moving up to No.4. Highest debut of the week comes from Jason Aldean and his new single ‘Take A Little Ride’ (No.12), while Aussie songstress Havana Brown’s ‘We Run The Night’ is up further again – now top 30 at No.27.
• The new Nas album ‘Life Is Good’ has premiered atop the Billboard 200 albums chart, relegating last week’s No.1 (Zac Brown Band’s ‘Uncaged’) to the No.2 spot. A new ‘Kidz Bop’ compile debuts at No.3, Phil Collins’ ‘Hits’ re-enters the countdown and smashes the top ten and the soundtrack to new Batman film ‘Dark Knight Rises’ premieres at No.8.
• And as always, we’ll have a wrap of the ARIA singles and albums charts tomorrow morning with our weekly Chart Watch, live at 9am AEST.