Tame Impala’s ‘The Slow Rush’ bags No. 1 in Australia, career-best in U.S., U.K.
Tame Impala’s The Slow Rush is off to a flyer, giving Kevin Parker’s cosmic-pop outfit a second No. 1 in Australia and a top three berth in the U.S. and U.K.
The Slow Rush goes straight to the top of the ARIA Albums Chart, beating Justin Bieber’s newbie Changes in first week activity.
On the back of their #1 album, check out @tameimpala's career so far! #ARIAs #ARIACharts #TheSlowRush pic.twitter.com/erhKCK4FCs
— ARIA (@ARIA_Official) February 22, 2020
It’s Parker’s second consecutive ARIA chart leader after Currents fired to the summit on its release in 2015, the same year it collected album of the year glory at the ARIA Awards.
In the United States, Tame Impala score a highest-ever chart appearance with a No. 3 slot on the Billboard 200, going one better than their previous best with Currents.
Congratulations @tameimpala ♥️ The Slow Rush is the #1 album in Australia pic.twitter.com/lcOIUVe9M9
— Spinning Top (@Spinning_Top) February 22, 2020
According to Billboard, The Slow Rush starts at No. 3 with 110,000 equivalent album units, some 80,000 of that figure coming in album sales, easily beating the 45,000 first-week sales of Currents.
Sales there were fueled by a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer tied into their upcoming North America tour, plus merch and album bundles sold via the band’s official website.
Tame Impala fans apparently dig vinyl. Almost one third of first week sales of The Slow Rush were vinyl, or under 26,000 pressings. That’s the seventh-biggest sales week for an album in the vinyl format since Nielsen Music/MRC Data began tracking music data in 1991 (top dog is Jack White’s Lazaretto in 2014, which shifted 40,000 units in a single week).
Over on the Official U.K. Albums Chart, The Slow Rush starts at No. 3, equaling their best position with Currents, which went on to win Parker and Co. the Brit Award for best international group, nudging out U2 for the title.
The Slow Rush, which had led the race at the halfway point of the chart cycle, is the week’s bestselling vinyl album in the U.K. In what the Official Charts Company is describing as an “incredibly close race” for this week’s top position, Bieber’s Changes takes the title, narrowly ahead of Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent.
Less than 1,200 chart sales separate Bieber’s latest and Tame Impala’s fourth LP.
In a snapshot of its performance around the globe, The Slow Rush starts at No. 2 in Belgium and Netherlands, No. 3 in Ireland, Switzerland, New Zealand and Canada, No. 5 in Norway, No. 7 in Germany and Japan, No. 8 in Sweden, No. 9 in Austria, No. 11 in France and No. 12 in Finland.
Parker and his bandmates will lap Australia this April for their biggest arena tour yet, produced by Chugg Entertainment.
Watch Tame Impala’s ‘Lost In Yesterday’:
This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.