ARIA CHART WATCH #396

ARIA Chart Watch this week comes hot on the heels of the 2016 ARIA Awards. But what kind of impact will the awards have had on our countdown? Will some of the performers’ tracks make an impact? Will Flume’s album soar on the back of his multiple wins? And who’s at No.1 on both the singles and albums chart? Discover all you need to know with this week’s ARIA Chart Watch.

SINGLES
An Aussie promo visit during the week solidified James Arthur’s position at No.1 on the ARIA singles chart; his single ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’ notching up an impressive seventh week in the top spot. But as in the UK, his top spot tenure is starting to look a little shaky.
Not least because the combined might of Clean Bandit, Sean Paul and Anne-Marie are on the charge with their track ‘Rockabye’, which bullets from No.14 to No.2, now just one place shy of its UK result.
And Rae Sremmurd is right behind them, improving three positions to No.3 with ‘Black Beatles’.
Those big moves see The Weeknd relinquish the No.2 position (No.2 to No.4) and Calum Scott relinquish No.3 (No.3 to No.7).
Bruno Mars improves from No.9 to a new peak of No.5 with ’24K Magic’ as the halo effect of the album’s release starts to take place.
Neiked’s ‘Sexual’ is down from No.4 to No.6, but a new gold certification (for sales in excess of 35,000 copies) will help to soothe the chart position loss.
Nevada, Mark Morrison and Fetty Wap’s ‘The Mack’ also gets a gold accreditation this week (No.10 to No.12), as do Peking Duk for ‘Stranger’ (No.16 to No.13).
Drake’s ‘Fake Love’ improves to a new peak of No.18 and The Veronicas, after their controversial ARIAs performance (they’ll no doubt still be washing that red glitter from them today), improve 20 places with their latest single ‘On Your Side’, even though it wasn’t the track they performed on the night.
The Chainsmokers’ latest track ‘All We Know’ is now platinum (70,000 copies) and steady at No.20.
The team at Sony will have their work cut out over the next week to help improve the chart fortunes of young Isaiah Firebrace, whose DNA-penned ‘X Factor’ winner’s single debuts at No.26. It’s the lowest debut ever for an Aussie ‘X Factor’ winner’s single.
Guy Sebastian’s ‘Set In Stone’ sadly sinks like a stone, plunging from a No.11 peak on the back of an ‘X Factor’ performance to No.27. But Alessia Cara’s ‘Scars To Your Beautiful’ edges five places higher (No.33 to No.28).
John Legend’s ‘Love Me Now’ also drops back slightly this week (No.25 to No.34) and Niall Horan’s ‘This Town’ slides seven.
Robbie Williams’ Aussie promo visit and ‘X Factor’ performance results in his latest single ‘Love My Life’ premiering at No.36; his first top 40 chart hit here this decade.
The new tracks from The Weeknd make their presence felt in this week’s countdown; ‘I Feel It Coming’ with Daft Punk the stronger of the two, entering at No.41.
Flume and Tove Lo’s ‘Say It’ improves from No.55 to No.47, Mura Masa’s ‘Love$ick’ bounds 20 places to No.49 and despite a performance of the track on ‘The X Factor’ as part of an Australian promotional visit, Universal still can’t get Tove Lo’s ‘Cool Girl’ away. In fact, it actually drops; No.44 to No.50.
More post-ARIAs love flowing in the direction of Flume’s ‘Never Be Like You’ (No.70 to No.53) and The Veronicas’ ‘In My Blood’ (No.68 to No.54), there’s a debut at No.57 for Childish Gambino’s ‘Redbone’ and MØ scores a double platinum certification (140,000 copies sold in Australia) for ‘Final Song’ at No.59.
The xx’s ‘On Hold’ drops back 12 from last week’s No.49 debut, that other new track from The Weeknd (‘Party Monster’) is new at No.63 and there’s some chart love for the new John Mayer single ‘Love On The Weekend’, which enters the countdown at No.65.
Recent Sony signing and Triple J favourite Amy Shark reached a new peak of No.57 with her breakout hit ‘Adore’ last week, but she’s stumbled slightly this week, dropping back to No.68.
Hello Adele concerts? Hello chart rise for ‘Hello’ (No.84 to No.70).
But hello 21 place drop for Cheat Codes and Dante Klein’s ‘Let Me Hold You (Turn Me On)’ (No.52 to No.73).
Kid Cudi and Pharrell Williams’ ‘Surfin’ glides 18 places higher from last week’s No.95 debut, there’s a 12 place improvement for Lukas Graham’s former No.1 ‘7 Years’ (No.92 to No.80) and a re-entry for the latest from Charli XCX, ‘After The Afterparty’ (No.81).
Bruno Mars scores some more chart love with ‘Versace On The Floor’ (No.84 on debut) and after a staggering 31 weeks on the ARIA singles chart, never going any higher than No.55, it looks like the chart run of Joel Adams’ ‘Please Don’t Go’ is almost over; the track drops from No.66 to No.90 on this week’s countdown.
Adele’s ‘Water Under The Bridge’ is back onto the top 100 at No.92, having previously peaked ten places higher and Thundamentals are new at No.93 with ‘Think About It’.
The news, however, is not good for Samantha Jade and Cyrus. Though the duo have combined their pop powers for good, there’s no getting around the fact that their single ‘Hurt Anymore’ has tanked. It debuted last week at No.45. This week, it’s at No.98. They need that music video stat.
Boyce Avenue and ‘Modern Family star Sarah Hyland’s cover of The Chainsmokers’ ‘Closer’ scores an Aussie chart debut at No.99.

ALBUMS
There are only a couple more weeks of new album releases to go before Christmas, so who’ll be stepping up towards the pointy end of the year?
Most of the major artists now have their LPs in the stores and four of last week’s new releases occupy the top four positions on this week’s ARIA albums chart.
But it’s serial rockers Metallica who claim the No.1 mantle, with their new album ‘Hardwired… To Self-Destruct’. The band’s first album in eight years is their fifth No.1 studio album in Australia and their third in succession.
Little Mix came close, but not quite close enough, settling for a No.2 debut, equalling the peak of their previous album ‘Get Weird’ last year.
Bruno Mars can’t quite score his highest chart position with his latest album ’24K Magic’. In a hard fought week, it premieres at No.3, not quite replicating the success of his last album ‘Unorthodox Jukebox’, which made it to No.1 in January 2013.
But there’s a lot of love for Sydney MC Kerser this week, whose sixth long player premieres at No.4, resulting in his highest ever chart position – against some big chart names and at a notoriously tough time of the year to boot.
The Adele concert announcement has worked wonders for sales of her album ’25’, which jumps from No.17 to No.8. Robbie Williams’ promo visit results in a one place gain for his album ‘The Heavy Entertainment Show’.
Leonard Cohen’s ‘You Want It Darker’, which surged to No.2 last week on the back of the performer’s death, drops back eight spots, while ARIA Hall Of Fame inductees Crowded House see a nice 34 place bump for their ‘Very Very Best Of’ collection (No.48 to No.14).
James Arthur’s promotional visit sees his album ‘Back From The Edge’ rebounding back up the charts (No.36 to No.16). Coldplay’s Aussie tour repackage sees the album jump seven places to No.18 and on the back of his multiple ARIA Awards, Flume’s album ‘Skin’ re-enters the countdown in spectacular style; No.19.
Not quite so spectacular, however, is the 19 place drop for Illy’s album ‘Two Degrees’, after premiering right at the top just last week.
We’ve got a couple more new entries (Sixx AM’s ‘Prayers For The Blessed’ at No.23 and Miranda Lambert’s ‘The Weight Of These Wings’ at No.26) and a big 28 place jump for Adele’s ’21’ (No.55 to No.27).
Sting’s ’57th & 9th’ tumbles 21 from last week’s No.9 debut, DNCE’s self-titled debut LP is new at No.32 at Birds Of Tokyo ‘Brace’, with a 14 place fall to No.33.
With the movie now flying into cinemas across the country, the ‘Trolls’ soundtrack makes its chart debut at No.35. That’s just ahead of a big bullet for Tash Sultana’s ‘Notion’ EP (No.63 to No.36) and a 15 place drop for Barry Gibb’s ‘In The Now’ (No.22 to No.37).
DD Dumbo is up (‘Utopia Undefeated’ from No.71 to No.41), Delta Goodrem is down (‘Wings Of The Wild from No.27 to No.42), Disturbed is new (‘Live At Red Rocks’ at No.43) and Rüfüs are back (‘Bloom’ re-entering at No.44).
A couple of big drops follow for A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service’ (down 33 to No.46) and ‘The Essential Leonard Cohen’ (down 35 to No.47). Lady Gaga’s ‘Joanne’ also drops (down 21 to No.50) to be in amongst some festive sets on the comeback trail (Human Nature’s ‘The Christmas Album’ re-entering at No.49), Mariah Carey’s ‘Merry Christmas’ at No.51 and Pentatonix’s ‘That’s Christmas To me’ at No.52).
Though he can’t quite make it back into the top 50 on the back of his ARIA wins, Troye Sivan re-enters at No.53 with ‘Blue Neighbourhood’, just ahead of a debut for Dodie’s ‘Intertwined’ EP (No.54) and a No.55 re-entry for the ‘Dream Lover’ cast recording.
The Avalanches’ ‘Wildflower’ re-enters at No.59, Archie Roach’s ‘Let Love Rule’ drops 36 from last week’s No.24 debut and Adele’s ’19’ is back in chart action at No.64.
A mixed bag follows; The Ten Tenors dropping 30 to No.65 with ‘Our Christmas Wish’, Justice debuting at No.66 with ‘Woman’, Safia improving 19 to No.68 with ‘Internal’ and Kings Of Leon diving 35 to No.69 with ‘Walls’.
It debuted at No.7 just a few short weeks ago, but the new Empire Of The Sun album ‘Two Vines’ is tumbling quickly; this week losing another 34 positions to find itself at No.75.
Avenged Sevenfold’s ‘The Stage’ is down 20, David Bowie’s ‘Legacy’ is down 43, Korn’s ‘The Serenity Of Suffering’ loses 24 and Harrison Craig’s ‘Kings Of Vegas’ is down 32 to No.85.
The falls continue with Blink 182’s ‘California’ (down 26 to No.90), Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Chapter And Verse’ (down 25 to No.92), Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ ‘Skeleton Tree’ (down 47 to No.93) and Emeli Sandé’s ‘Long Live The Angels’ (down a disastrous 79 places to No.99).
Last week’s top 50 debuts for In Flames (No.38), Olly Murs (No.42) and Pink Floyd (No.47) are all gone from the top 100.

For a full run down of the ARIA top 50s, head over to the ARIA CHARTS WEBSITE (now with a fresh new look, with fresh new features) every Saturday from 5:00pm AEDT.

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