Mother Mother Remain #1

11/25/08 3:58pm

by Chris Burland (CHARTattack)

The introduction of this week's column is a parody of the beginning of Charles Dickens' A Tale Of Two Cities. There was a lot of movement and there was no movement at all on this week's campus chart. While there was no change in the top four albums, there were some massive jumps farther down.

Mother Mother's O My Heart remains at #1 for a second week (and third overall). It's followed by Chad VanGaalen's Soft Airplane at #2, The Dears' Missiles at #3 and Of Montreal's Skeletal Lamping at #4. The Souljazz Orchestra's Manifesto moves up six places to #5, while TV On The Radio's Dear Science remains at #6. Love Is All's A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night jumps 19 positions to #7, while last week's Chart Sizzler, DD/MM/YYYY's 777, moves up a more moderate eight places to #8. Deerhoof's Offend Maggie climbs a notch to #9, and Land Of Talk's Some Are Lakes drops a deuce to #10.

This week's Chart Sizzler Award goes to School Of Seven Bells' Alpinisms, which enters at #20. Alpinisms garnered support from a number of key radio stations, including being ranked #2 at CILU (Lakehead), #7 at CJLO (Concordia) and #8 at CHUO (Ottawa).

A trio of Canadian albums battled for the runner-up position for the week's second highest new entry. Jill Barber's Chances arrived at #24, followed by The Maynards' Date And Destroy at #25 and B.A. Johnston's Stairway To Hamilton at #26. The Waking Eyes' Holding On To Whatever It Is debuted at #38, followed by Growing's All The Way at #39.

With the loss of Elliott Brood's Mountain Meadows from this week's chart, the longest surviving album is now the self-titled release by Women. It drops 17 positions to #41 in its 15th week. The Pack A.D.'s Funeral Mixtape rises 25 places to #15 in its 14th week in the top 50. Soft Airplane has logged 13 weeks on the chart, while Okkervil River's The Stand Ins survives for a 12th week while dropping 15 positions to #47. The Stolen Minks' High Kicks has remained on the chart for 11 weeks and rose seven positions to #27.

There have been almost wholesale changes at the top of the five specialty charts for a third week in a row. Only one title survives this uncharacteristic purge of #1s: Moka Only's Carrots And Eggs remains at the top of the Hip-Hop chart for a second week.

Two other charts saw last week's #3 album rise to the top position: Squarepusher's Just A Souvenir on Electronic; and Enslaved's Vertebrae on Metal/Punk.

The Souljazz Orchestra's Manifesto moves up three places to grab top spot on the World/folk chart. Bob Brough Quartet's Time Away jumps six spots to take over #1 on the Jazz/Blues chart, which is almost completely new since eight of the remaining nine places are held by albums that weren't present last week.