Islands Are On Their Own At The Top

With Islands' debut album continuing to rule the chart, questions about the origins of its Return To The Sea title churn around in my head.

Six years ago I had a chance, thanks to my buddies in Wayne Omaha, to ring in the new millennium at a fabulous cottage. The festivities included watching the NFB documentary, Paddle To The Sea, which features a young boy who fashions a canoe out of a tree branch, places a note with a return address in it and launches it in a Northern Ontario river. The film follows the canoe's journey down through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River into the Gulf Of St. Lawrence, where it returns to the sea.

There's a new runner-up on the chart, as Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Show Your Bones continues its upward movement to #2, pushing The Flaming Lips' At War With The Mystics down to #3. The Lovely Feathers' Hind Hind Legs remains at #4. Final Fantasy's He Poos Clouds thunders up nine places to grab #5. Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, a former chart-topper, sits at #6 again. Tokyo Police Club's A Lesson In Crime rockets up 30 spots to #7. Last week's #7 album, Run Chico Run's Slow Action, drops to #8. Pink Mountaintops' Axis Of Evol slips four places to #9 and The Stills' Without Feathers drops a single spot to #10.

The Chart Sizzler Award goes to one of the bands that played the recent Over The Top Festival in Toronto. The self-titled debut by Think About Life enters the chart at #17, with a #3 placing at CFBU (Brock), #5 at CISM (Montreal), #9 at CFRC (Queen's) and #10 at CIBL (Montreal), plus significant airplay at CHSR (UNB), CHYZ (Laval), and CKMS (Waterloo). The Sizzler runner-ups are Creeping Nobodies' Sound Of Joy at #31 and NOFX's Wolves In Wolves' Clothing at #32. The three other new entries (way below the average number of debuts on a top 50 chart) are Sue Foley's New Used Cars at #38, Feist's Open Season at #40 and Mr. Pine's The Gift Of Wolves at #42.

Like last week, there was almost wholesale change on the specialty charts, with only one top 10 list returning the same #1 album. The single reigning champ is on the Metal/Punk chart, as Cannibal Corpse's Kill holds on to the top spot for a third straight week. The Coup's Pick A Bigger Weapon moves up one place to grab top honours on the Hip-Hop chart. William Parker's Long Hidden: The Olmec Series regains its #1 spot on the Jazz/Blues top 10. Tiga's Sexor rises to the top of the Electronic chart. Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq, who's probably best known for her vocal collaborations with Bjork, sees her Sinaa climb three positions to #1 on the World/Jazz chart.