CHART WATCH

It seems as though Australia is still going Psy-cho for a certain Korean novelty hit, while the albums chart this week turns just a few shades darker than P!nk. Ooh! A cryptic clue. Best you read then!

SINGLES
Australia’s still going ‘Gangnam Style’ for South Korean star Psy, with the track holding steady in the No.1 position for a fifth consecutive week. And it’s seemingly still selling too – this week notching up an impressive five times platinum (350,000 copies) in just seven weeks.
Holding steady in the No.2 position are Calvin Harris and Florence Welch with ‘Sweet Nothing’. They must be doing something right too, because the track is now gold after just two weeks.
Moving from No.11 to No.3 this week is the goodbye single for superstar DJ trio Swedish House Mafia. Featuring the vocals of John Martin, the track recently hit gold, but looks like heading further along the sales status slate.
Delta’s up to No.5, Bruno Mars’ new single ‘Locked Out Of Heaven’ finds favour with the Australian public, up eleven places with a bullet to No.10.
Ne-Yo’s ‘Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself)’ rebounds five spots and top 20 Australian success for British girlband Little Mix, who place at No.20 (up 14). No doubt ‘Wings’ will fly a little higher next week on the back of their appearance on ‘The X Factor’ this week.
Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj bullet 19 places to No.21 with ‘Beauty And A Beat’, Of Monsters And Men’s ‘Little Talks’ is up eight spots, but with the album now in the stores, Taylor Swift’s singles slide, with ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ down from No.15 to No.26 and ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ down from No.10 to No.27.
Mumford & Sons are headed in the other direction – up eight places with ‘I Will Wait’ (now at No.29), Matchbox Twenty hit the top 50 with ‘She’s So Mean’ (up from No.52 to No.37), Usher’s ‘Numb’ climbs from No.50 to No.39 and the week’s highest debut comes courtesy of Kelly Clarkson, whose new single ‘Catch My Breath’ debuts at No.40.
Cher Lloyd’s visit pays dividends, with ‘Want U Back’ rebounding from No.74 to No.41, Lil Jon and LMFAO’s ‘Drink’ spikes (see what we did there?) from No.67 to No.42 and Jay Sean’s new single is flying ‘So High’ – up from a No.95 debut last week to No.47 this week.
Outside the 50, Rudimental’s new single ‘Not Giving In’ premieres at No.54, Maroon 5’s new single ‘Daylight’ improves from No.70 on debut to No.55 and Christina’s ‘Your Body’ edges slightly higher to No.59.
Ed Sheeran’s in at No.60 with ‘Give Me Love’ ahead of a deluxe repackaging of his hit album ‘+’, Matchbox Twenty’s new single ‘Put Your Hands Up’ premieres at No.65 and The Collective’s version of Ed’s ‘Lego House’ debuts at No.70.
Speaking of Ed, Taylor Swift’s track with the British star ‘Everything Has Changed’ debuts at No.75, while the original ‘Lego House’ re-enters the countdown at No.76.
Elen Levon’s ‘Dancing To The Same Song’ rises from No.96 to No.81 in its second week, One Direction’s ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ celebrates 52 weeks on the chart at No.83 (6 times platinum) and there are debuts for Alt-J (‘Breezeblocks’ at No.93) and ShockOne (‘Chaos Theory’ at No.96).
As mentioned before, Taylor Swift’s album in the shops means that the tracks prematurely released from it are dropping like flies. ‘State Of Grace’ and title track ‘Red’, which were sitting in positions 44 and 58 respectively last week, are now gone from the top 100. Also gone is Lana Del Rey’s ‘Ride’.

ALBUMS
The darker share of P!nk we spoke about, of course, is actually ‘Red’ – the new album for country starlet Taylor Swift, which debuts at No.1 on this week’s ARIA albums chart. It follows on from the No.1 debut of her previous album ‘Speak Now’ back in 2010 and sees her bump P!nk from her No.1 pedestal after five weeks.
Lil’ rocker Reece Mastin’s album ‘Beautiful Nightmare’ premieres at a respectable No.3, Guy Sebastian’s album ‘Armageddon’ falls from No.2 to No.7 (but is now certified gold) and there are two other top ten debuts – from Paul Kelly and Lee Kernaghan (‘Spring & Fall’ and ‘Beautiful Noise’ debuting at Nos.8 and 9 respectively).
The Swedish House Mafia album ‘Until Now’ debuts at No.12, the Stone Sour album ‘House Of Gold & Bones’ debuts at No.13 and Angus Stone’s ‘Broken Brights’ bullets from No.75 to No.18.
Ed Sheeran’s ‘+’ also does the business, bounding from No.27 to No.19.
Muse’s ‘The 2nd Law’ drops ten spots to No.20, Gypsy & The Cat just miss a top 20 berth with their new album ‘The Late Blue’, which premieres at No.23 and Lisa Mitchell’s ‘Bless This Mess’ drops from No.7 to No.24 in just its second week in what was a week of rather hefty chart falls (more about that later).
Florence & The Machine get more chart love for ‘Ceremonials’, which moves from No.39 to No.26. It also celebrates its one year anniversary in the chart this week.
The ‘Rock Of Ages’ soundtrack bounces from No.80 to No.32, Of Monsters And Men’s ‘My Head Is An Animal’ is up from No.43 to No.33 and there are debuts for Gary Clark Jr and Thy Art Is Murder with ‘Blak And Blu’ and ‘Hate’ respectively premiering at Nos.34 and 35. Frank Orange’s ‘Channel Orange’ is up from No.70 to No.37.
Bad news for Urthboy’s LP ‘Smokey’s Haunt’, which plunges from No.14 to No.48, but better news for Archie Roach, whose new long player ‘Into The Bloodstream’ is in the charts at No.49.
Below the magical ’50’ mark, Cher Lloyd’s ‘Sticks And Stones’ rises from No.73 to No.51, Placido Domingo’s ‘Songs’ is in at No.54, albums by Something For Kate and Bat For Lashes drop (No.29 to No.55 and No.21 to No.56 respectively), while Taylor Swift’s ‘Fearless’ re-enters the countdown at No.59.
New at No.68 is The Redcoats’ eponymously-titled LP, but not good news for Ellie Goulding, with her album ‘Halcyon’ plummeting from No.16 on debut to No.73 this week.
If you think that’s bad, however, spare a thought for All Time Low, with their album in freefall from its debut of No.13 last week to No.86 this week.
New at No.92 is Andre Rieu’s ‘December Lights’ and dropping out of the charts entirely after premiering in the top 50 last week were the latest projects for both Evermore and Anberlin.

For a full run down of the ARIA top 50s, head over to www.ariacharts.com.au each and every Sunday from 6:30pm AEST.

 Australia's first stop for pop!