Caribou Hold Steady

Things on the tops of all of the charts have fallen in a predictable rut this week — there were no changes in the top three on main chart. Caribou's The Milk Of Human Kindness is locked into #1 spot for the third week, followed by Spoon's Gimme Fiction at #2 and Hot Hot Heat's Elevator at #3. Of Montreal's The Sunlandic Twins moves up one spot to #4 followed by Russian Futurists' Our Thickness at #5 and Bloc Party's Silent Alarm at #6. Slipping down three places to #7 this week is P:ano's Brigadoon while Architecture In Helsinki's In Case We Die also slides up one spot to #8. Oneida's The Wedding jumps up five places to #9 while SS Cardiacs' Fear The Love catapults an impressive 37 places to round out the top 10.
A couple of weeks ago, there was a sort of Super Tuesday, as a number of key new releases finally hit the CD shelves across the nation. Well the ripple effect has hit the top 50 chart as an impressive number of high-profile acts debuted this week. The Chart Sizzler award goes to the long-awaited new album by Sleater-Kinney. After a three year wait since 2002's One Beat, Canadian campus radio hosts have been gnawing at the bit for the trio's follow-up. The Woods garnered charting attention at nine campus stations including top ten support from CFRC (Queen's) and CKXU (Lethbridge) both at #2, CFRU (Guelph) at #5 and CKUT (McGill) at #9.

Electrelane's Axes surprises all by capturing the runner-up spot amongst the new entry also-rans hitting the charts at #13. Axes bested Stephen Malkmus' Face The Truth which arrives this week at #17 and Weezer's Make Believe at #19. Other notable chart debuts include Belle And Sebastian's Push Barman To Open Old Wounds at #24, Novillero's Aim Right For The Holes In Their Lives at #26 and Nine Inch Nails' With Teeth arriving at #29.

There is little movement at the top of the five specialty charts, though a glance at the World chart shows a large flux of new and returning albums. World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love's A Real Thing Compilation remains at #1 on the World/Folk chart for a third straight week while Cephalic Carnage's Anomalies returns as the top dog on the Metal/Punk top ten. For the last four weeks Caribou's The Milk Of Human Kindness holds down the #1 spot on the Electronic chart. William Parker Quartet's Sound Unity has dominated the Jazz/Blues chart for five weeks. The only change among the #1s on the Specialty charts is with Roots Manuva's Awfully Deep which returns to the top of the Hip-Hop chart after falling to #7 last week.