Keep Steen, Sundin, Stajan And Case

Last week, while listening to one of the local sports radio call-in shows, the conversation revolved around the fate of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The on-air host asked which three Leaf players should be kept. The first caller mentioned Alexander Steen, Mats Sundin and Matt Stajan and gave a credible reason for each choice. After that, almost every caller mentioned the same three names. This could be explained as either a good example of autosuggestion or the fact that the rest of this 20th place team isn't that good.

Looking at the top 50 chart for the week ending April 14, I wonder if a sort of autosuggestion is having an effect. Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood remains at #1. Is this based on the merits of her new album, her association with The New Pornographers or the fact that she's simply done well over the last couple of weeks? Maybe campus radio programmers live and die by this chart, and its contents form the basis of their very existence. So they see Case at #1 and say to themselves, "Hey, that must be a good album. I think I'll play it on my show." Of course, that doesn't explain how she got there in the first place. Hmmm... back to the conspiracy theory drawing board.

As has been the case for the past two weeks, Pink Mountaintops' Axis Of Evol remains stuck at #2. That's a three-week stretch with no changes in the top two entries. Catapulting up 14 spots to grab the #3 position is Islands' Return To The Sea. The crystal ball sees a #1 peak for this Montreal band. Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Show Your Bones jumps five places to #4, while Magneta Lane's Dancing With Daggers drops two places to #5. Mogwai's Mr. Beast drops down one place to #6, Belle And Sebastian's The Life Pursuit slides down three places to #7, and Calexico's Garden Ruin slips down two places to #8. They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'s Boo Hoo Hoo Boo experiences a resurgence in popularity, returning to the top 10 with a four-place jump to #9. Femme Generation's Brothers And Sisters, Alone We Explode rockets 18 places up the chart to #10.

The Chart Sizzler Award goes to the #11 entry, Run Chico Run's Slow Action. The left coast-based duo received a lot of airplay support and was #1 at CITR (UBC), #3 at CFUV (Victoria) and #5 CJSF (Simon Fraser), as well as #3 at CKLU (Laurentian), #4 at CKXU (Lethbridge) and #11 at CJLO (Concordia). The runner-up debut of the week is Loose Fur's Born Again In The USA, which hits the chart at #16. It's followed by The Flaming Lips' At War With The Mystics at #17. Other notable debuts include The Stills' Without Feathers at #22, Howe Gelb's 'Sno Angel Like You at #29, The Lovely Feathers' Hind Hind Legs at #30 and Morrissey's Ringleader Of The Tormentors at #36.

A quick look at the specialty charts shows three returning #1s: William Parker's Long Hidden: The Olmec Series on the Jazz/Blues chart; the Idol Tryouts Two compilation on the Electronic chart; and Kataklysm's In The Arms Of Devastation on the Metal/Punk chart. Dilated Peoples' 20/20 takes over the Hip-Hop chart and Cesaria Evora's Rogamar moves up to top the World/Folk chart.