Sonic Youth Start A Streak

With Major League Baseball's annual all-star game taking place at PNC Park (the most beautiful place to see a major league ball game) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Tuesday night, it's time to reflect on the all-stars of Canadian campus radio.

The year started off unusually with five different albums sitting at #1 during the first five weeks of 2006. Caribou's Marinoaudio sampler was followed by Broken Social Scene's eponymous album, Bell Orchestre's Recording A Tape The Colour Of Light, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!'s self-titled release and Cat Power's The Greatest.

Then there was a big shift, as just four different albums held the top spot over the next 14 weeks. The Greatest topped the chart for four weeks. Belle And Sebastian's The Life Pursuit hit #1 for a week. Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood remained at #1 for four weeks and Islands' Return To The Sea ruled for six weeks. Tokyo Police Club's A Lesson In Crime took over #1 for three of the next four weeks, with Return To The Sea interrupting TPC's run for a week. Now Sonic Youth's Rather Ripped has topped the top 50 chart for a second consecutive week. The aforementioned A Lesson In Crime remains at #2, giving it three weeks at #1 and four weeks at #2 in the last seven weeks. Ladyhawk's self-titled album jumps up four places to #3, dropping Hylozoists' La Fin Du Monde to #4. Vancougar's Losin' It! at #5 and Camera Obscura's Let's Get Out Of This Country remain at #5 and #6 respectively, while the Jamaica To Toronto compilation drops three spots to #7. Leather Uppers' Bright Lights jumps four spots to #8. Sunset Rubdown's Shut Up I Am Dreaming moves back into the top 10 at #9, a jump of 15 spots from last week. Rounding out the top 10 is Mission Of Burma's The Obliterati.

The Chart Sizzler Award goes to Phoenix's It's Never Been Like That, which debuts at #34. There were only four new entries in a very slow week for individual campus chart contributions. The Dudes' Brain Heart Guitar debuts at #44, Nouvelle Vague's Bande A Part arrives at #47 and Four Tet's DJ-Kicks compilation enters at #49.

There were almost wholesale changes atop the specialty charts, with four out of five of them having new #1s. The only chart featuring the same #1 as last week is Metal/Punk, where Celtic Frost's Monotheist remains the leader. Four Tet's DJ-Kicks jumps five spots to grab top spot on the Electronic chart. The remaining three charts feature #1 albums that return there from two weeks ago. Cassandra Wilson's Thunderbird heads the Jazz/Blues chart, Mr. Lif's Mo'Mega returns to the peak of the Hip-Hop chart, and Extra Golden's OK-Oyot System gets a second kick at the can atop the World/Folk top 10.