Chart Analysis December 21, 2017

Chart Predictions: The National to Sleep their way to ARIA #1

Charts & New Music Editor

THE HOME FRONT

It’s an exciting week on the ARIA Charts with four artists vying for the Top 5 spots on the Albums Chart. In fact, three of those four artists are tipped to occupy all spots in the Top 3, according to early data.

They are The National’s Sleep Well Beast, compilation album ARIA Number 1 Hits In Symphony by Anthony Callea, Jack Johnson’s All The Light Above It Too, while Kip Moore’s Slowheart is likely to fall a few spots lower. These acts have five previous ARIA #1 albums between them, with Callea boasting two along with Jack Johnson’s three.

That means there’s only one frame left for an album currently occupying a spot in the Top 5. While Paul Kelly’s Life Is Fine has notched four weeks in the Top 5, including one week at #1, it’s too hard to look past Ed Sheeran at this point. ÷ (Divide)is certified 4x Platinum in Australia and is well on track to reach Diamond status achieved by previous effort X.

The Singles Chart is far less hectic this week with English golden boy Sam Smith looking likely to debut in the Top 3 with comeback single ‘Too Good At Goodbyes’. Meanwhile, ZAYN & Sia’s team-up on ‘Dusk Till Dawn’ is expected to secure a spot in the Top 10.

OVERSEAS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

Sam Smith looks likely to debut at #1 on the UK Singles Chart with ‘Too Good At Goodbyes’. If Smith manages to hold off Dua Lipa’s ‘New Rules’, it will be his fourth #1 on the chart, the most recent being ‘Writing’s On The Wall’.

It’s good news for country music fans in the US as Thomas Rhett is on course to hit the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart with third album Life Changes, making him the first country act to achieve the feat in 2017.

The last country effort to do so was Jason Aldean’s They Don’t Know which made it to #1 in October last year. Rhett will be pressured by new releases from The National, Jack Johnson, Justin Lynch, the lateGregg Allman and Kip Moore.

As seminal rockers U2 prepare to release their new album Songs Of Experience later this year, the group has entered Billboard’s Top Facebook Live Videos chart for the month of August.

The chart records the most reacted-to videos posted by artists on Facebook Live, with U2’s live performance of ‘The Blackout’ on the service landing the most views. U2 takes the crown from John Mayer.