Charty Chart Chat: Immaculate Machine Return To #1

Unlike politicians or businessmen who would never admit that their statements have misled their constituency, I'm willing to recant former statements of speculation. Last week, I remarked in this column that there was a noticeable drop in the amount of contributing charts for the week. Well, things are back to normal as the usual chart suspects have returned with explanations for their absence last week.

It seemed that the National Campus And Community Radio Association held its annual conference. This explains the lack of charts last week, as many music directors attended the event, which was hosted by the University Of British Columbia's CITR. Now that everybody's back to work, there's a returning #1 and the surprising resurgence of two recent #1s.

Immaculate Machine's Fables returns as #1 on the top 50 chart for the week ending June 22. Jumping back up four places is Feist's The Reminder, which pushes Stars' Do You Trust Your Friends? remix record down a spot to #3. Joel Plaskett Emergency's former chart-topper, Ashtray Rock, climbs back up a surprising seven spots to #4, while Miracle Fortress' Five Roses drops a deuce to #5. Montag's Going Places rises two positions to #6, staying just ahead of Battles' Mirrored, which also improves by two spots to come in at #7. The National's Boxer slips three places to #8, while Wilco's Sky Blue Sky re-enters the top 10 at #9 after jumping six positions.

The Chart Sizzler award goes to the #10 album, Metric's Grow Up & Blow Away, which received charting airplay on 11 campus stations, including #3 on CJAM (Windsor), #4 on CKXU (Lethbridge), #7 on CHLY (Nanaimo community station), #8 on both CJLO (Concordia) and CILU (Lakehead), and a trio of #10 finishes on CAPR (Sydney), CFOU (UQTR) and CFRE (UTM). The runner-up debut is They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'s Pick Up Sticks at #12.

The self-titled Lightning Dust album enters at #16. Other notable new entries include Architecture In Helsinki's Heart It Races at #29, Boris with Michio Kurihara's Rainbow at #34 and Watermelon Slim And The Workers' The Wheel Man at #39. Re-entering after a five-week absence is Jenn Grant's Orchestra For The Moon at #31. Code Pie's The Most Trusted Name In Yous also returns and lands at #17. This CD entered the chart at #47 two weeks ago.

Two specialty charts have the same #1 as last week, Montag's Going Places on Electronic and Moka Only's Vermillion on Hip-Hop. Two charts feature former #1 albums returning to that spot: Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake's From The River To The Ocean on Jazz/Blues and Spanish Harlem Orchestra's United We Swing on World/Folk. The only true new #1 is 3 Inches Of Blood's Fire Up The Blades, which rises two spots to capture the #1 spot on Metal/Punk.