Bloc Party Dances To The Top

For only the second time in almost six months, the #1 spot on the charts is occupied by a foreign artist. In fact, since the week ending November 5 when Interpol's Antics rose to the top spot, only the one week stay by Fiery Furnaces' EP during the week ending February 18 has interrupted a half year of chart dominance by Canuck artists. And so it is with a surge of support that British quartet Bloc Party and the ascendance of their debut album, Silent Alarm to the #1 spot on the Canadian campus radio top 50 chart.

Joel Plaskett's La De Da slips to #2 this week, followed by Hot Hot Heat's new album, Elevator, which jumps up 13 places to #3. Beck's Guero moves up two places to #4, while Great Lake Swimmers' Bodies And Minds drops two places to #5.

Spoon's Gimme Fiction follows Beck's example from last week of jumping directly onto the chart at #6 to easily capture the Chart Sizzler Award for the week. Spoon appeared ahead of The Kills' No Wow, which jumped 12 places to #7 and Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings' Naturally, which rose nine places to #8. Former #1 Black Mountain make a chart resurgence at #9 with their eponymous release, just ahead of Decemberists' Picaresque which tumbled down six spots to #10.

Kid Koala's Live From The Short Attention Span Audio Theatre Tour is the runner-up debut of the week, entering the charts at #13. Upstart Vancouver-based band, Cadeaux see their album, Physical City, enter at #18 beating out fellow city brethren and higher-profile P:ano, whose Brigadoon debuts in the #20 spot. Coming back from the dead are Calgary's Chixdiggit!, whose new album, Pink Razors, arrives at #22, while Of Montreal's The Sunlandic Twins gets saturation support from the three bigger Montreal campus radio stations, (CISM, CIBL and CKUT) seemingly obsessed by the American band's local moniker.

Also, for the first time in 23 weeks, Stars' Set Yourself On Fire isn't on the chart. That leaves the aforementioned Black Mountain album, which has remained on the chart for 14 weeks, as the current longevity leader.

There are three new #1s on the specialty charts. Strapping Young Lad's Alien moves up one place to #1 on the Metal/Punk chart. Tarwater's The Needle Was Travelling jumps three spots to the top of the Electronic chart. M.I.A.'s Arular took over sole ownership of the #1 selection on the Hip-Hop top 10, after tying with Grayskul's Deadlivers last week. Alpha Yaya Diallo's Djama continues to dominate the World/Folk chart for a 5th week and Dave Young Quintet's Mainly Mingus again rules the Jazz/Blues chart.