Chart Analysis December 21, 2017

ARIA Chart Predictions: Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile ready themselves for a Top 5 debut

Charts & New Music Editor

THE HOME FRONT

It will be tough to stop P!NK’s seventh studio album Beautiful Trauma from hitting #1 on the ARIA Albums Chart this week. She’s ahead at the halfway mark of the charts cycle with no real threat in sight.

The singer is set to continue her remarkable streak in the country – notching three consecutive chart-topping debuts with previous studio albums The Truth About Love (2012), Funhouse (2008) and I’m Not Dead (2006).

P!NK’s Greatest Hits…So Far!!!, which also went to #1 in 2010, is making a move up the chart this week, as is Eminem’s Curtain Call: The Hits. It coincides with his feature on P!NK’s new track ‘Revenge’.

Other debuts on the Albums Chart this week come from Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile’s collaborative record Lotta Sea Lice,which is likely to land in the Top 5,Beck’s latest effort Colors, as well as St. Vincent’s Masseduction.

The Singles Chart will see Peking Duk and Kygo debut in the top half of the chart with ‘Let You down’ ft. Icona Pop and ‘Stargazing’ ft. Justin Jesso respectively. P!NK’s ‘What About Us’ is destined to crack the Top 5 fuelled by the momentum of her album release.

OVERSEAS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

As expected, P!NK is out ahead in the UK and US with Beautiful Trauma. It’s accumulated just under 50,000 sales in the UK at the time of reporting, well ahead of contenders Robert Plant (Carry Fire) and last week’s #1 album As You Were by Liam Gallagher.

Billboard reports that the album could be 2017’s biggest debut by a female artist in the US, with a predicted 300,000 equivalent album units generated by the end of this week.

Rapper NF cruised to the top of the Billboard 200 chart last week with Perception. It’s his first time Top 10 with sales aided heavily by NF’s direct-to-consumer sales via the rapper’s official website.

Country artist Kane Brown exploded in popularity this week, according to Billboard’s The Artist 100 chart. Taking sales, radio airplay, streams and social media interaction into consideration, the singer shoots up from #57 to #5 this week. Brown also became the first artist to rule all five of Billboard’s country charts at the same time.