Islands Still On Top In A Light Week

Music directors across the country seem to all be going on vacation at the same time and are dropping out of sight as we head into summer. There's normally a decline in the number of stations reporting during the summer, but this drop is bigger than usual. The effect has left the top albums in relative stasis, while the rest of the top 50 chart for the week of June 13 is as volatile as a sixth grade science experiment.

Islands' Arm's Way holds on to the top spot for a third week and is followed again by Portishead's Third at #2 and the Teenage Head With Marky Ramone collaboration at #3. A former chart-topper, Constantines' Kensington Heights, shows some resurgence and rises two spots to #4. The Wet Secrets' Rock Fantasy climbs three places to #5 and Tokyo Police Club's Elephant Shell drops two spots to #6. No Age's Nouns remains at #7 for the third straight week. Young And Sexy's The Arc moves up two positions to #8 and is followed by Hey Rosetta!'s Into Your Lungs (And Around Your Heart And On Through Your Blood) at #9 and Eric Chenaux's Sloppy Ground at #10 after making a 17-slot jump.

Hey Rosetta! receive the Chart Sizzler Award for the highest debut. Into Your Lungs… was included on seven radio station charts. It was #1 on CFBU (Brock), #2 on CIUT (Toronto), #4 on CHMA (Mount Allison) and #6 on both CKDU (Dalhousie) and CKMS (Waterloo). The runner-up new entry belongs to Dragon Fli Empire's Intermission EP, which arrives at #20. It's closely followed by The Futureheads' This Is Not The World at #22. Other notable new entries of 12 debuts (and three re-entries) include Spiritualized's Songs In A&E at #27, Mates Of State's Re-Arrange Us at #33, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's Lie Down In The Light at #36 and Ladytron's Velocifero at #40.

Matmos' Supreme Balloon holds on to the top spot on the Electronic chart, Orchestra Baobab's Made In Dakar continues to have a stranglehold on the World/Folk top 10 and Atmosphere's When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold has dug in at #1 on Hip-Hop again. Rabnett 5's Leopardism returns to #1 on the Jazz/Blues top 10 after a week's absence. Kataklysm's Prevail moves up one spot to top the Metal/Punk chart. The album hadn't been given Cancon status on the chart until a frequent visitor to Chartland emailed me to point out the omission. Thanks for catching that error, Neil Barker. Another shout-out should go to Stephanie Wadley — general manager of the new Calgary-based jazz label, Chronograph Records — for her keen observations.