Blonde Redhead Knock Plaskett Off Ashtray Rock To Claim #1

It's been a rough ride for the lead combatants on the top 50 chart. This week features another change at #1, as Blonde Redhead's 23 moves up a place to take over the top spot. Frog Eyes' Tears Of The Valedictorian jumps three spots to #2 and Feist's The Reminder vaults eight places to #3. Last week's #1, Joel Plaskett Emergency's Ashtray Rock, tumbles to #4. Another former #1, Arcade Fire's Neon Bible, slips a spot to #5, while past chart-topper You Say Party! We Say Die!'s Lose All Time drops three places to #6. Dog Day's Night Group rises five places to #7. A Northern Chorus' The Millions Too Many jumps nine spots to #8, Wooden Stars' People Are Different remains at #9 and Lesbians On Ecstasy's We Know You Know drops two notches to #10.

The Chart Sizzler Award goes to Kids On TV's Mixing Business With Pleasure, which debuts at #11. Arctic Monkeys' Favourite Worst Nightmare enters at #14, while CKDU music director Laura Peek (of Laura Peek And The Winning Hearts) sees her From The Photographs album come in at #16. Other notable new entries include Phonemes' There's Something We've Been Meaning To Do at #25, Elliott Smith's New Moon at #32 and Black Rebel Motorcycle's Baby 81 at #39.

A little while back, Charty Chart Chat focused on the World/Folk top 10, leading off the column with an in-depth analysis of that chart. Over the past five weeks there have been three changes at #1, yet the #7 album through that same time period has remained the self-titled debut release by Vieux Farka Toure. That raises the question of the statistical probability of a release remaining in the same spot for five straight weeks. I'm giving a shout-out to my favourite television mathematician, Numb3r's Charlie Eppes, to whip up a convergence theory or a conditional probability function to answer this question.

Speaking of the World/Folk chart, the new #1 is Bebel Gilberto's Momento, which moves up from #2. The other four specialty charts also have new #1s. Junior Boys' The Dead Horse EP moves up a spot to grab the top position on the Electronic chart. Mike Allen Quartet's Vancouver re-enters the Jazz/Blues chart at #1, while Phat Kat's Carte Blanche debuts at #1 on the Hip-Hop top 10. Dimmu Borgir's In Sorte Diaboli debuts at the top of the Metal/Punk chart.