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A welcomw change.
Do you follow the ARIA charts? For those of us writing about the music Aussie industry and its inhabitants it can be interesting (and often painful) to see how a record is doing on the charts compared to how much you love it – kind of like a weekly Hottest 100 for music nerds. For instance, we were backing Ocean Alley to take out the #1 spot when Lonely Diamond dropped last month, only to be devo’d when it got the all-too-close third spot.
Following the charts is a little bit of fun that obviously never reflects the real quality of music. More often than not the countdown (or up) is dominated by US artists or super mainstream Australian acts which is unsurprising but, we have to say, a little disappointing. This week however, it was announced that two of our favourite acts – both guitar-wielding outfits from Sydney – have taken the top two spots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii8WPG80tts
Following their unprecedented Hottest 100 success, landing four songs in the top 40 of the countdown, Northern Beaches duo Lime Cordiale’s sophomore record seemed destined for success. 14 Steps To A Better You has taken out the top spot, achieving the highest first-week album sales for an Australian artist studio album 2020. It comes with the news that their whopping 34-show Speakeasy tour which is hitting NSW, QLD and SA has sold out as well.
“We’ve never been the band to make charts or win awards so suddenly having a number one album feels like someone’s playing a trick on us,” guitarist/singer Oliver Leimbach said to ARIA.com. “The response to this album in this first week has been crazy. We’ve built up a dedicated audience over the years and their passion is what really got us there.”
Lime Cordiale are joined by Inner West trio DMA’S, whose third album THE GLOW has taken out the #2 spot in Australia, as well as (and perhaps even more significantly) the #4 position in the UK and #1 position in Scotland. It’s their best chart performance to date and is a clear affirmation that fans are enjoying the band’s shift into more electronic territory.
“From a small recording side project based out of an apartment in Sydney to a top 5 album – we feel very privileged to call you our fans,” the group said in an Instagram post. They too have sold out a tidy run of sit down shows off the back of the record and will surely be heading over the UK as soon as it is safe to do so to capitalise on their success in the home of Britpop.
Within the top 20 artists in the album charts, Lime Cordiale and DMA’S are the only “bands”, and the only two Aussie entrants. Whether this is an anomaly, brought about by two big acts releasing their record on the same week, or signs of a larger backing of Aussie music in the broader community, who knows… We’ll definitely be checking the charts next week to see if there’s any movement.
Bravo!
