Julie Doiron Rockets to #1

03/18/09 11:38am

by Chris Burland (CHARTattack)

When it comes to predicting the final score of the Super Bowl or even winning my hockey pool, I'm always a bit off the mark.

But I'm usually quite good at predicting future trends on the charts. Last week I dropped a big hint regarding a couple of the high priestesses of the Canadian campus charts, Julie Doiron and Neko Case. Well, both of their new albums are all over the campus top 50 chart this week.

Julie Doiron's I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day rockets up the charts to #1. It was way down at #40 last week, and that 39 place jump is one of the highest rises to the top spot.

Doiron's album appeared on 17 individual campus radio charts including three #1s (CIUT, CJSW and CHUO), two #2s (CFRU, CJSR) and one #3 (CKLU). Doiron is no stranger to chart success as her album Loneliest In The Morning lasted on this chart for 20 week in late 1997 and early 1998.

DD/MM/YYYY's Black Square rises three places to grab the #2 spot on the chart, and pushes last week's chart champ, Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion to #3.

Now we can talk about Case, the second half of that query from last week. Case's new album, Middle Cyclone, is this week's Chart Sizzler. It enters the chart at #4 on the strength of airplay from four stations, including a top finish at CKXU, #2 at CITR and CJSW and #3 at CFRU.

The rest of the top ten rolls out like this: Bell Orchestre's As Seen Through Windows rises five spots to #5, A.C. Newman's Get Guilty drops four positions to #6, Gentleman Reg's Jet Black remains steady at #7 and is followed by Malajube's Labyrinthes, which drops five spots to #8. The Hylozoists' L'Ile De Sept Villes falls three spots to #9 and M. Ward's Hold Time tumbles six places to #10.

There are quite a number of impressive new entries that follow Case's lead. Winnipeg punk band Propagandhi successfully return after a long hiatus. Supporting Caste, their first album since 2005's Potemkin City Limits, enters the chart at #11.

Handsome Furs, who performed admirably during the CHARTattack/Horseshoe Tavern/Canadian Music Week showcase this past weekend, see their Face Control debut at #14, while Abe Vigoda's Reviver enters at #18. In fact, there are 12 more debuts this week, and only one album has more than nine weeks on the chart. The Bicycles' Oh No, It's Love is at #20 in its 14th week.

There's some impressive upheaval on the specialty charts. Two charts have #1 albums debuting in that position: Idan Raichel Project's Within My Walls on the World/Folk top 10 and Indiogone Trio & String's Cycles on the Jazz/Blues chart.

A third chart features a new #1 as N.A.S.A.'s The Spirit Of Apollo rises two places on the Hip Hop top ten.

The other two charts have the same #1 as last week. Mr. Scruff's Ninja Tuna holds on to top spot on the Electronic top ten and Tombs' Winter Hours remains at #1 on the Metal/Punk chart.