ARIA Chart: Taylor Swift releases only album that’ll knock Taylor Swift off #1
Think Swiftmania is over? Think again.
Taylor Swift currently occupies seven spots in the top 20 albums chart – with the highest new release being a Linkin Park greatest hits collection — and the only album released last Friday that is likely to knock Lover off the top spot is yet another album from the pop megastar: her bloated opus, The Tortured Poets Department. Welcome to the ARIA Charts.
Given Taylor’s new album contains 31 songs, expect it to occupy — and therefore nullify — over half of next week’s Singles Chart.
Allow me to explain something about how the ARIA charts work in 2024: this recent rush of double albums (or stupidly-long single albums, like Kanye’s 32-song Donda album) isn’t an artistic trend, nor an attempt to offer more value to fan. It is because album charts are now made up of single song streams, rather than unit sales, and therefore a 31-song Taylor album will chart three-times higher than a 10-song Taylor album — assuming a neat metric where each listener gives the album one listen through.
It’s a way of gaming the charts.
Now, onto the rest of the album chart from this week. Another less cynical way of gaming the charts is to tour. SZA is in Australia this week, and therefore in the Australian albums chart this week at #2, up from last week’s #13.
The higher reaches of the charts are made up of recent album releases from big pop hitters just as Ariana Grande and Beyonce, and stayers like The Weeknd, Post Malone, Morgan Wallen, and Olivia Rodrigo.
The only other big release, outside of the Linkin Park best-of, is We Still Don’t Trust You by Future and Metro Boomin, which debuted at #15.
Singles-wise, the charts are fairly settled, with not a lot of movement. Enjoy it – everything here will be upended as Taylor punts 31 new pop singles into the charts.
Anyway, this week, Hozier’s Too Sweet has taken the top spot from last week’s #1 Benson Broone, whose Beautiful Things has slipped to #2.
Artemas has held steady at #3 with I Like The Way You Kiss Me, while Noah Kahan’s Stick Season is sticking around, sitting at #4 after half a year in the charts. Fairly impressive sticking power – and quite a romantic vibe in the singles chart.
Sabrina Carpenter enjoys the highest new entry, with Espresso debuting at #7, bumping Beyonce out of the top 10 – her Texas Hold em falling From #8 to #11, and the only shake up within the top 10.
The rest is smooth sailing. Enjoy it.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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