News 7 December 2019

Robbie Williams Rises To #1 With Festive Album

Fifth chart topper for UK superstar.

Robbie Williams Rises To #1 With Festive Album

Fifth chart topper for UK superstar.

Robbie Williams' The Christmas Present rises one place this week, giving the UK superstar his first #1 album since 2009’s Reality Killed The Video Star (#1 Nov. '09), and his fifth chart-topper overall as a solo artist. His other albums to reach the summit are Rudebox (#1 Oct. ‘06), Intensive Care (#1 Oct. ‘05) and Greatest Hits (#1 Dec. ‘04).
 
This week’s biggest mover, the Frozen 2 Soundtrack leaps 22 places to #2 in its third week on the ARIA Charts, after opening in cinemas nationwide. The sequel to the 2013 Disney blockbuster features seven new tracks, three of which are covered for the closing credits by Kacey Musgraves, Weezer and Panic! At The Disco, respectively. The soundtrack to the original movie peaked at #1 in May 2014, five months after its release.
 
With continuing buzz around their ARIA Hall of Fame induction and performance, Human Nature see their latest career retrospective rise to #3 after debuting at #10 last week. Still Telling Everybody features highlights from their career, right back to their first album Telling Everybody, which was released in December 1996 and peaked at #7 the following January. Since their debut, the Las Vegas stalwarts have spent 348 weeks on the Albums Chart.
 
Perennial favourite Christmas by Michael Buble leaps 13 spots to #6. The album has landed in the Top Ten each festive season since it debuted at #2 in December 2011. It reached #1 in its second week of release and has repeated that feat in five separate years since, in the process earning certification of 13x Platinum.
 
Twenty-five years after it was originally released, Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas jumps 17 places to #19 this week. The holiday staple peaked at #2 in December 1994 and has hit the Top 30 every Yuletide since, last year reaching #9.
 
Hilltop Hoods’ The Great Expanse jumps 13 places to #37 following their win for Best Australian Live Act at the 2019 ARIA Awards, where they also received nominations for Best Group, Best Hip Hop Release and Album of the Year. The album debuted at #1 in March of this year, becoming the Aussie hip hop group’s sixth chart-topper.
 
The debut album by The Teskey Brothers, Half Mile Harvest returns to the Top 50 following their successful night at the ARIA Awards, landing at #39. The Aussie soul group received trophies for Best Group, Best Blues & Roots Album and Engineer of the Year for their second album, Run Home Slow, which this week falls one place to #15.
 
Other festive albums making moves this week are Human Nature’s The Christmas Album, which jumps 15 places to #20; John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John’s Friends For Christmas, which re-enters the chart at #27; and The Seekers’ We Wish You A Merry Christmas, which re-enters at #33.
 
Debuts:
 
#45: Pink Floyd ‘The Later Years 1987-2019’ – Pink Floyd enter the Album Chart for the 12th time with this boxset covering the material the band created following the departure of founding member Roger Waters. It includes reworkings of three studio albums and previously unreleased audio from celebrated concerts in Venice and Knebworth, and follows The Early Years 1967-1972, which peaked at #47 in November 2016.
 
#47: Trippie Redd ‘A Love Letter To You 4’ – US hip hop star Trippie Redd makes his fourth appearance on the Albums Chart with his latest mixtape, which features guest appearances by Lil Mosey, Juice Wrld, YNW Melly, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and DaBaby. This is Redd's second Top 50 entry of 2019, following !, which debuted at #24 in August and spent one week on the chart.
 
#48: Jimmy Barnes ‘My Criminal Record / Modus Operandi’ – Jimmy Barnes returns to the Top 50 with live album Modus Operandi, recorded at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion in October during the Shutting Down Your Town tour, in promotion of his 17th studio album, My Criminal Record (#1 Apr. ‘19). December is shaping up to be a big month for the ARIA Hall of Famer, whose band Cold Chisel have just released Blood Moon, their first album of new material since 2014. Look for it in next week’s charts.