Islands Return To The Top

As with the shifting sands of time or the slowly changing colours of the trees in autumn, there's a cyclical nature to the campus radio charts that reflects the school year. Excluding those colleges affected by the recent teacher's strike in Ontario, it's "School's Out" for the majority of Canadian university and college students. This used to be a turbulent time at campus radio stations, as the majority had to move into summer schedules with reduced hours due to the loss of volunteers. But times have changed, as most stations now have permanent music directors and dedicated on-air personalities who have a greater chance of being alumni than active members of the student body. This change is reflected in the fact that more and more stations are broadcasting through the summer and continue to submit charts throughout the year. Oh how I long for the good old days when the arrival of May 1 meant that there would be 40 per cent fewer charts to input.

Islands' Return To The Sea remains at the pinnacle of the Top 50 chart for a second straight week. Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood remains at #2. The Lovely Feathers' Hind Hind Legs jumps up six places to capture #3, forcing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Show Your Bones to #4. The Flaming Lips' At War With The Mystics continues to hold down the #5 slot as Pink Mountaintops' Axis Of Evol tumbles down two spots to #6. After a couple weeks of downward movement, both Belle And Sebastian's The Life Pursuit at #7 and Calexico's Garden Ruin at #8 experience upward chart resurgence. Built To Spill's You In Reverse drops one spot to #9 while The Stills' Without Feathers ramps up eight positions to grab #10.

For the second week in a row, we have to look farther down to find the Chart Sizzler Award winner. Sitting down there at #26 is Pretty Girls Make Graves' Elan Vital. PGMG grabbed the top debut honour with some solid support from both CFRC (Queen's) and CFCR (Saskatoon), which both placed it at #7. CITR (UBC) ranked it #13, CISM (Montreal) and CKDU (Dalhousie) placed it at #16, CIUT (Toronto) slotted the album at #17 and CKXU (Lethbridge) filled its #22 spot with Elan Vital. The runner-up debut was Dagons' Reverse at #28. Coldcut's Sound Mirrors debuted at #30.

The album that jumped the farthest up the chart was the self-titled debut EP by The D'Urbervilles, which rocketed 28 places to #18 in its second week. The Black Angels' Passover jumped 18 spots to #15 and Ben Harper's Both Sides Of The Gun moved up 13 spots to #24. The biggest drop was 25 places by Morrissey's Ringleader Of The Tormentors, which now sits at #42. Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not dropped 14 positions to #33.

On the specialty charts, two of last week's #1s remain at the top of their respective genres. William Parker's Long Hidden: The Olmec Series holds down #1 on the Jazz/Blues top 10 and Cesaria Evora's Rogamar retains the #1 spot on the World/Folk chart. Things are changing on the other three charts as The Coup's Pick A Bigger Weapon jumps up four spots to grab the top honour on the Hip-Hop chart. Cannibal Corpse's Kill leads the pack on the Metal/Punk chart while Coldcut's Sound Mirrors grabs #1 on the Electronic top 10.