Meghan and John, John and Olivia are still reigning in the No.1 spots on their respective ARIA charts this week, but in the 99 spaces below, there are plenty of new entries, big moves up and down and even a sprinkling of new accreditations. So let’s not muck about. Let’s crack on with this week’s Chart Watch.
SINGLES
It’s now four weeks on the trot for Meghan Trainor and John Legend in the No.1 position on the ARIA singles chart. ‘Like I’m Gonna Lose You’ no doubt has benefited from the release of the music video, cementing its place at the summit.
The Weeknd makes two gains this week with ‘Can’t Feel My Face’. Gain one is a positional one – from three to two – and gain two is of the certification variety; a gold one for sales of more than 35,000 copies.
After slamming the British number one spot a couple of weeks back, Lost Frequencies look like they’re hoping for the same kind of result here in Australia. ‘Are You With Me’ bullets impressively from No.19 to No.3 in just its fourth week of local chart love.
Robin Schulz’s ‘Headlights’ may have dimmed a little this week, dropping from two to four, but it does pick up a gold accreditation.
Major Lazer is back in the top ten with ‘Powerful’. The track, which is already gold, dropped from No.10 to No.15 last week, but rebounds seven places to be just one spot off its chart peak thus far.
Travie McCoy and Sia’s ‘Golden’ drops five, but Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Bad Blood’ drops seven places and out of the top ten (No.6 to No.13).
Another artist rebounding this week is Selena Gomez. Her track ‘Good For You’ dropped eight places to No.24 last week, but regains six of them to be back up to No.18.
Adam Lambert is back in the top 20, Grace’s ‘You Don’t Own Me’ loses eight places (No.13 to No.21), Pia Mia’s ‘Do It Again’ continues its chart climb (No.33 to No.22) and Peking Duk score the week’s highest debut at No.29 with their newbie ‘Say My Name’.
19 years after its release, US R&B star Ginuwine gets a little more chart love with his platinum selling, former top five Aussie hit ‘Pony’, which gallops back into the countdown at No.31.
The Weeknd’s other new song, ‘The Hills’, bullets from No.59 to No.39, Years & Years’ top ten hit ‘King’ leaps from No.58 to No.40 and life just got a little sweeter for Maroon 5, whose single ‘Sugar’ notches a third platinum certification at No.43.
Lakyn belatedly debuts at No.44 with his 2014 ‘Not Original Material’ EP.
Aston Merrygold achieves something that he and his former JLS bandmembers never did – achieve a top 50 hit in Australia. His debut solo effort, ‘Get Stupid’, is finding favour down under, picking up 13 spots from last week’s No.63 debut.
Fetty Wap’s ‘Trap Queen’ is up ten (No.61 to No.51), Rihanna’s ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’ is down ten (No.46 to No.56), while post the performance on ‘The Voice’, the Jessie J/Nicki Minaj/Ariana Grande single ‘Bang Bang’ is down 15 to No.58.
Jessie J’s ‘Masterpiece’ cracks the platinum mark at No.63 and there’s a trio of debuts; Rudimental’s ‘Rumour Mill’ (No.68), Safia’s ‘Embracing Me’ (No.69) and Bring Me The Horizon’s ‘Happy Song’ (No.70).
Kendrick Lamar’s ‘King Kunta’ is now gold (No.78), the Lana Del Rey/Cedric Gervais version of ‘Young And Beautiful’ re-enters at No.83 (perhaps as a result of ‘The Great Gatsby’ debuting on free-to-air TV during the week), The Amity Affliction debuts at No.87 with ‘Skeletons’ and, after a massive 82 weeks on the ARIA singles chart, Pharrell Williams’ international megahit ‘Happy’ hits the double figures in the accreditation department… ten times platinum for sales in excess of 700,000 copies.
Eminem wraps the debuts at No.94 with ‘Kings Never Die’.
ALBUMS
There’s clearly a lot of love in this country for icons John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John. Their ‘Two Strong Hearts’ live album debuted in the No.1 position a couple of weeks back and remains there for a third successive week. Not only that, but Sony has shipped enough copies into stores for it to be certified gold after just three weeks (35,000 copies).
The rest of the top four remains blissfully stagnant (Meghan, Ed and Taylor), before the week’s highest debut, which would be Years & Years’ debut album ‘Communion’, new at No.5.
Tuka’s ‘Life Death Time Eternal’ debuts at No.6, which will no doubt have plenty within the halls of EMI smiling, while ‘The Very Best’ of INXS jumps an impressive 15 places to No.10.
Discounting on a range of best-ofs (INXS included) and slow-sellers have many of them re-entering the countdown. With the band’s Aussie tour coming up later this year, ‘The Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac’ is back into the countdown, re-entering at No.11 which, impressively, is also its highest ever chart position.
‘Nothing Has Changed’, the best of David Bowie, reaches a new peak of No.14 no doubt thanks to a) the aforementioned cut-pricing, as well as b) a new exhibition which has just opened in Melbourne.
R5’s debut LP ‘Sometime Last Night’ is new at No.19, Hillsong United’s ‘Empires’ slides from No.6 to No.22, Bon Jovi’s best-of is up from No.71 to No.25 and Cradle Of Filth’s LP ‘Hammer Of The Witches’ premieres at No.28.
Albums from James Taylor and Jessie J are up (No.43 to No.29 and No.46 to No.31 respectively), the new Owl City album ‘Mobile Orchestra’ is new at No.33 and the best-of from Notorious B.I.G re-enters at a new peak of No.36.
Miguel’s ‘Wildheart’ suffers a second week chart wound, plunging 31 places to No.39, while the ‘Home’ soundtrack and Lorde’s ‘Pure Heroine’ re-enter (Nos.40 and 41 respectively).
Beyond the 50, Thy Art Is Murder’s album ‘Holy War’ drops 24 (No.30 to No.54), AC/DC’s ‘Rock Or Bust’ is more bust than rock, in freefall from No.24 to No.65 and Neil Young + Promise Of The Real’s ‘The Monsanto Years’ slumps 48 places from a No.23 debut to No.71.
Tori Kelly’s ‘Unbreakable Smile’ is down 28 (No.44 to No.72), Cody Simpson’s ‘Free’ is new at No.74, London Grammar’s ‘If You Wait’ drops 43 places to No.76 and Breaking Benjamin’s ‘Dark Before Dawn’ is down 39 from No.39.
Meek Mill is another suffering a huge fall; Dreams Worth More Than Money’ is also down 39 places.
Hilary Duff’s ‘Breathe In. Breathe Out.’ drops 34 to No.90 and Wolf Alice’s ‘My Love Is Cool’ is down 43 to No.93.
But we don’t think we’ve seen a drop quite as big as the one for The Getaway Plan’s new album ‘Dark Horses’ – at least for a while. The album debuted on last week’s ARIA albums chart at No.10. This week, however, it’s a staggering 85 places lower.
The ‘Paper Towns’ soundtrack debuts at No.97 and Alabama Shakes’ album ‘Sound & Color’, which was No.32 last week, is gone entirely from the top 100.
For a full run down of the ARIA top 50s, head over to the ARIA CHARTS WEBSITE every Saturday from 6:00pm AEST.