Neko Rests Her Case At #1

Here it is, folks: Double your pleasure with this week's second Charty Chart Chat column. Of course you had to go almost three weeks without one, but them's the breaks.

For a third chart in a row, there's a new #1 on the top 50. For the week ending March 24, New Pornographers member Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood jumps up two places to grab the top spot in just its second week on the chart. Last week's #1, Belle And Sebastian's The Life Pursuit, drops down to #2. Cat Power's The Greatest was also forced down by one increment to #3. So the last three #1 albums take up the top three spots in descending chronological order.

Moving up eight places to #4 is Pink Mountaintops' Axis Of Evol, followed by Magneta Lane's Dancing With Daggers at #5. Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not drops to #6, while Young And Sexy's Panic When You Find It remains at #7. Destroyer's Destroyer's Rubies drops three spots to #8, while Buttless Chaps' Where Night Holds Light slips one position to #9. Calexico's Garden Ruin jumps 20 places to slide into the #10 slot.

The Chart Sizzler Award goes to Scottish noise-generators Mogwai. Their Mr. Beast album enters at #14 with help from a #5 placing at CHSR (New Brunswick), #8 at CHYZ (Laval) and #9 at CIBL (Montreal). The runner-up debut of the week is Stereolab's Fab Four Suture, which enters at #24. It was followed by I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness' Fear Is On Our Side, which debuts at #25. White Noise Ensemble's J'ai Vu Le Long Des Routes Desolees Des Carcasses De Chameaux Blanchir premieres at #29, with Maybe Smith's Second Best Death entering at #37 and oldtimers Sparks arriving at #44 with Hello Young Lovers.

After a two-week hiatus, the specialty charts are back in full force and there are quite a few changes on them. The recently deceased J Dilla's Donuts hits #1 on the Hip-Hop chart, while the recently re-released Unity Gain from Sinewave garners the top spot on the Electronic chart. Chantal Chamberland's self-released Dripping Indigo debuts atop the Jazz/Blues chart and Kataklysm's In The Arms Of Devastation finally claims #1 on the Metal/Punk top 10. The only returning #1 is the Congotronics 2: Buzz'n'Rumble From The Urb'n'Jungle compilation, which remains the king of the castle on the World/Folk chart.