Charty Chart Chat: Weakerthans Celebrate Successful Reunion Tour

So much for the hinted predictions of the last Charty Chart Chat. Hindsight is always 20/20 the next day. The inference that The New Pornographers' Challengers would have a lengthy ride at #1 has already been shattered as another popular Canadian college radio stalwart, who've released their first album in four years and taken the #1 spot by 22 points.

Weakerthans' Reunion Tour jumped five spots to move into the #1 spot on the top 50 chart for the week ending Sept. 28. Reunion Tour racked up 1,499 points, dropping Challengers to #2 with 1,477. Caribou's Andorra, the chart-topper from two weeks earlier, slipped a place to #3. It was followed by We Are Wolves' Total Magique, which held at #4. Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam rose four positions to #5, which forced M.I.A.'s Kala down three notches to #6 in a week where it pulled off an unprecedented achievement among the six charts. More on that later.

DD/MM/YYYY's Are They Masks? arrived at #7 to win the Chart Sizzler Award for the week. The album appeared on 14 individual campus radio charts and placed in the top 10 in eight of them. It was #2 on CHRW (UWO), #4 on CFRU (Guelph), CKDU (Dalhousie) and CKMS (Waterloo), #5 on CFMU (McMaster) and CKXU (Lethbridge), #7 on CFRC (Queen's) and #8 on CJSW (Calgary).

The Go! Team's Proof Of Youth, the previous week's Chart Sizzler winner, dropped three spots to #8. Stars' In Our Bedroom After The War dropped a slot to #9, while Hot Springs' Volcano slipped three places to #10.

Also coming in with high debuts were a couple of solo efforts from members of college-friendly acts Broken Social Scene and Sonic Youth. Kevin Drew's Spirit If... entered at #11, followed by Thurston Moore's Trees Outside The Academy at #12. The Sadies' New Seasons debuted at #15, Les Savy Fav's Let's Stay Friends at #16 and The Acorn's Glory Hope Mountain at #18.

With six of the top 18 albums being new entries, coupled with the recent high turnover in titles over the past three weeks, it's not too surprising that there aren't very many long-serving albums on the current chart. Only two have spent 10 weeks or more in the top 50, which is the lowest number in recent memory. Leading the pack is Immaculate Machine's Fables with 18 weeks after dropping seven spots to #45. The only other double-digit album is Carolyn Mark's Nothing Is Free, which re-entered at #36.

Outside of Aesop Rock's None Shall Pass retaining the ultimate spot on the Hip-Hop top 10, the four other specialty charts have new #1s. Konono No. 1's Live At Couleur Cafe debuted at #1 on World/Folk, with Carol McCartney's A Night In Tunisia rising a space to take over top spot on the Jazz/Blues chart. High On Fire's Death Is The Communion jumped five places to grab #1 on the Metal/Punk top 10.

M.I.A.'s Kala rose a place to #1 on the Electronic chart. As hinted earlier, Kala has achieved something that no other album has ever done. Along with its appearance on the top 50 chart at #6, Kala also made the Hip-Hop top 10 at #8 and debuted at #8 on the World/Folk chart. This is the first time an album has appeared on four different charts in a single week.