Gang Of Losers On A Winning Streak

There's a great expression that seems to cover all situations: The more things change, the more things stay the same. After a highly irregular period of #1 anarchy, one band has settled down in the #1 spot on the chart. Returning to the top spot for a third week is The Dears' Gang Of Losers.

There's a new challenger in the neighbourhood this week, however, as Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton's Knives Don't Have Your Back jumps 12 places to land at #2. This move, coupled with Yo La Tengo's I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass remaining at #3, pushes last week's #2, Hidden Cameras' Awoo, to #4. Chad VanGaalen's Skelliconnection drops a place to #5, while TV On The Radio's Return To Cookie Mountain stays at #6.

The Chart Sizzler Of The Week is a bit surprising. For the first time in recent memory (and possibly in the history of the top 50 chart), the highest debut belongs to a francophone band. Coming in with guns blazing at #7 is Les Georges Leningrad's Sangue Puro. The eclectic Montreal trio received charting airplay support from 13 stations across the nation, with six top 10 placements: #1 at CHOQ (Laval), #4 at CKDU (Dalhousie), #6 at CIUT (Toronto) and CFMU (McMaster), #7 at CISM (Montreal) and #10 at CIBL (unaffiliated).

The rest of the top 10 plays out with Shout Out Out Out Out's Not Saying/Just Saying dropping three spots to #8, Junior Boys' So This Is Goodbye stuck at #9, and Golden Dogs' Big Eye Little Eye dipping down three to #10.

There were other notable new entries after Les Georges Leningrad. The Rapture's Pieces Of The People We Love enters at #15. Great Aunt Ida's How They Fly debuts at #18. The Subhumans' New Dark Age Parade enters at #24 and Bonnie `Prince' Billy's The Letting Go arrives at #28.

The other notable entry is the return at #37 of Final Fantasy's He Poos Clouds after an absence of five weeks. The last time this album was on the charts, on August 18, it sat at #21. It's highly unusual for a band to return after such a long hiatus, but credit can be given to the publicity surrounding Owen Pallett's recent Polaris Music Prize win. With this return, He Poos Clouds has rung up 16 weeks on the chart, besting the 15 weeks by Hylozoists' La Fin Du Monde, which drops 11 places to #41.

The five specialty charts are experiencing some content turnover, as more stations are now contributing to them. J Dilla's The Shining remains atop the Hip-Hop countdown and Ali Farka Toure's Savane still tops the World/Folk top 10. Voivod's Katorz continues to bounce back and forth from #1 to #2 and back again on the Metal/Punk chart, and is back on top this week for the third time. Junior Boys' So This Is Goodbye moves up a place to finally grab the top spot on the Electronic chart. Coming out of left field is Gianni Lenoci's Sextant, which debuts at #1 on the Jazz/Blues chart.