Paul Kelly is in with a great chance of scoring his first ever #1

Considering Paul Kelly’s music seems as ingrained into the Australian experience as Holdens, meat pies, footy – and cliches about Holdens, meat pies, and footy, it comes as a surprise to realise he has never actually netted a number 1 album.

His recent album ‘Life Is Fine’ harks back to his ’80s/’90s sound, and would be seen as a return to form if he hadn’t spent the last decade putting out some of the most interesting music of his career.

Still, neither an album inspired by Shakespeare sonnets, nor a collection of funeral dirges were likely to trouble the top reaches of the charts, so it’s now, in 2017, with PK having delivered the most commercial collection of songs since… let’s say 1998’s Words and Music, that he looks on track to land his first ever #1 album in Australia. Unless someone ruins it for him.

His main competition for #1 comes from the ever-present Ed Sheeran and his Divide album (seriously, who is still buying this thing that doesn’t already have it?) and Ke$ha’s Rainbow (she may have dropped the dollar sign from her name, but I’m not ready to let go of it).

Jen Cloher is a hot chance of reaching the top 5 this week, too, which is good news assuming you aren’t an enemy of Milk! Records or something – which would be a very odd enemy to choose.

The ARIA charts are released on Saturday evening, unless something goes horribly wrong. Here’s the lead single from Life Is Fine. It’s great.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.