Constantines' Charge Isn't Enough To Overtake Crystal Castles

04/22/08 5:00pm

by Chris Burland (CHARTattack)

As Bette Davis' character Margo Channing stated in All About Eve, "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride." This week's chart has experienced an unusual amount of movement, especially in light of the recent stasis that has especially gripped the top 10.

For the first time in almost three months, Black Mountain's In The Future doesn't occupy one of the top three slots. Crystal Castles' self-titled album still holds on to #1, but that shouldn't last much longer as the long-awaited Kensington Heights from the Constantines rockets up 18 positions to #2 and seems poised to send Crystal Castles packing. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds' Dig, Lazarus Dig!!! moves up four spots to #3. It's followed by Plants And Animals' Parc Avenue, which drops a deuce to #4. The Breeders' Mountain Battles climbs seven places to #5, while The Kills' Midnight Boom jumps 20 spots to #6. But that wasn't the biggest mover of the week, as The Black Keys' Attack & Release blasts up 30 places to #7. In The Future falls by five spots to #8 and is followed by Destroyer's Trouble In Dreams' four-place drop to #9. Woodhands' Heart Attack improves by eight slots to round out the top 10.

The Chart Sizzler Award goes to a bit of a dark horse, as Old Man Luedecke's Proof Of Love enters at #17 to make the highest debut on the top 50 chart. This folkie gem has been kicking around on a couple of individual charts over the past month, and received substantial chart support from eight stations this week, including these top five honours: #1 at CFUV (Victoria); #2 at CFRC (Queens); #3 at both CHMA (Mount Allison) and CKDU (Dalhousie); and #5 at CKUA in Alberta. Proof Of Love easily out distanced most of the other new entries, and was only challenged by Billy Bragg's Mr. Love & Justice at #20. Other new entries include Cursed's III: Architects Of Troubled Sleep at #27, Clinic's Do It! at #28, R.E.M.'s Accelerate at #31, The Dodos' Visiter at #32, Gnarls Barkley's The Odd Couple at #43 and The Raconteurs' Consolers Of The Lonely at #50.

Buck 65's Situation returns to #6 on the Hip-Hop top 10 after a week's absence and now holds the record of 21 weeks on a specialty chart, surpassing Dimmu Borgir's Death Cult Armageddon 20-week run on Metal/Punk. Three other current albums have lasted on the Hip-Hop chart for more than 12 weeks: Shad K's The Old Prince at #9 has logged 17 weeks; Lupe Fiasco's The Cool at #5 has lasted 14 weeks; and the Brockway 2008 Canadian Rap Future Stars compilation at #4 has been around for 13 weeks. Sitting at #1 on the Hip-Hop chart for an eighth consecutive week is Cadence Weapon's Afterparty Babies, which is in its ninth week on the chart.

The only returning #1 from last week's four other specialty charts is the Crystal Castles album on Electronic. Toumani Diabate's The Mande Variations rises three places to land at #1 on the World/Folk chart, Cursed's III: Architects Of Troubled Sleep jumps six spots to take over the top spot on Metal/Punk, and Roy Mitchell Ensemble's Akhenaten Suite rises eight places to sit at #1 on Jazz/Blues.