Bicycles At #1 For Sixth Week

On first reflection, this week's campus chart is a measure of extremes. On the one hand, there's no change in the top position and there's nothing really new since most of the albums enjoy extended stays in their top spots. On the other hand, albums usually don't reappear on the chart after a four-month absence.

The Bicycles' Oh No, It's Love remains at #1 for a sixth week running, and it seems almost endless at this time as The Bikes have been trouncing the competition. Oh No, It's Love has doubled its aggregate points over the second-place album.

B.A. Johnston's Stairway To Hamilton holds at #2, while Los Campesinos!' We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed experiences a resurgence and jumps four spots to #3.

The highly anticipated new Animal Collective full-length is the recipient of this week's Chart Sizzler Award. Merriweather Post Pavilion enters the chart at #4. Two campus stations (CKUT at McGill and CKXU at Lethbridge) placed the album at #1, and seven other stations featured it in their weekly chart, including CHUO (Ottawa) at #2 and CFRU (Guelph) at #5.

DD/MM/YYYY's 777 EP rises four spots to #5 and is followed by the album with the biggest internal chart jump in months. Ruby Jean & The Thoughtful Bees' self-titled release rises 35 spots to #6. Jenny Omnichord's Charlotte Or Otis: Duets For Children, Their Parents And Other People, Too rises improves nine places to #7 and Timber Timbre's self-titled album jumps three spots to #8. It's follwed by The Gruesomes' Gruesomania, which drops three spots to #9, and The Organ's Thieves EP, which remains at #10.

Following Animal Collective's tremendous debut, the runner-up is a distant second. Hannah Georgas' independently released The Beat Stuff enters the chart at #24, while Bruce Peninsula's A Mountain Is A Mouth arrives at #32. Deerhunter's Weird Era Cont., the bonus disc with their new Microcastle album, debuts at #38.

Eleven titles re-enter the chart after at least one week's absence. The most notable is Fleet Foxes' self-titled album, which re-enters at #30. The last time this record was on the charts, Toronto still had warm weather, the baseball playoffs hadn't started and, if you had bet a dollar that the Arizona Cardinals would have made it to Sunday's Super Bowl, you'd have made more than $50.

Fleet Foxes last appeared on the chart during the week of Sept. 27, 2008 at #43. Their re-entry gives the album 15 weeks on the chart — still four weeks' shy of the longest current chart veteran, Chad VanGaalen. His Soft Airplane, which has spent 19 weeks on the chart, drops seven spots to #15. Mother Mother's O My Heart is right behind it at #16 in its 16th week.

With little change in the top spots on the specialty charts, let's instead look at the top entries in each one. The Music Of Artisanship & War Volume II compilation enters the Metal/Punk top 10 at #6 after about three months of airplay since its early November release.

Gordon Grdina Trio's ...If Accident Will debuts at #5 on the Jazz/Blues chart. Ghettosocks' I Can Make Your Dog Famous arrives at #3 on the Hip-Hop top 10. Novalima's Coba Coba is the only new entry on the World/Folk chart at #8. Ruby Jean & The Thoughtful Bees is the highest debut on the Electronic chart at #9.