Belle And Sebastian No Longer In Pursuit Of #1

After a two-week absence in the land of pasta, fast sports cars and red wine, visiting a city that's sinking (Venice) and another that was the birthplace of the Renaissance (Florence), it was time to get back to work and even do a bit of backtracking. So this week there will be two charts hitting the web, beginning with a top 50 for the week ending March 17. The chart usually experiences a major turnover in new entries when a week is missed, and this edition reflects that.

Jumping all the way from #27 to take over the top spot on the chart is Belle And Sebastian's The Life Pursuit, which drops Cat Power's The Greatest down to #2. Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood enters at #3 and wins the coveted Chart Sizzler Award. Case received excellent airplay support from 17 campus radio stations across the nation, including: #2 placements at CITR (UBC) and CJSR (Alberta); #4 at CFRC (Queen's), CKMS (Waterloo) and CJLY (Kootenay Cooperative Radio); and #5 at CJSF (Simon Fraser).

Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not remains at #4, followed by Destroyer's Destroyer's Rubies dropping down two spots to #5. Magneta Lane's Dancing With Daggers rockets 14 places to #6, while Young And Sexy's Panic When You Find It slips five places to #7. Buttless Chaps' Where Night Holds Light drops one spot to #8, They Shoot Horses Don't They?'s Boo Hoo Hoo Boo rises one place to #9, and The Diableros' You Can't Break The Strings In Our Olympic Hearts rounds out the top 10.

Arriving at #12 as the runner-up highest new entry of the week is Pink Mountaintops' Axis Of Evol. Polysics' Now Is The Time! debuts at #20 and J Dilla's Donuts follows them on to the chart at #21. The bottomof the chart is dominated by new entries, as 13 of the last 24 positions are fresh meat. Here are a few notables: Maximo Park's Missing Songs at #27, Calexico's Garden Ruin at #30, Goldfrapp's Supernature at#33 and Raising The Fawn's The Maginot Line at #47.

There aren't any new specialty charts to dissect for this week. But by mid-week there will be a new top 50, and the five specialty charts will return.