Doiron Racks Up Another #1 Week

The first week in April is traditionally viewed as the peak of the campus radio chart season.

There are full-time and part-time music directors at these contributing stations. While the full-time MDs' schedules tend to be undermined only by vacation time and the Christmas holidays, the part-time student MDs have school workloads to distract them from the important work of chart compiling. So with final exams looming on the horizon, many student MDs will soon be skipping this most important of duties.

There are 37 different stations from coast to coast (St. John's to Victoria, B.C.) reporting to this week's chart. This large number made for a very draining week for the Charts department, what with also having to make up for last week's absence due to vacation.

This report covers the week of April 5 to 11 and, as a special treat, I'll include the raw point totals for the first 10 albums in brackets. Due to the larger number of contributors this week and the larger concentration of airplay for these titles, the totals are higher than usual.

Julie Doiron's I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day (1,650) holds on to the #1 spot for a fourth week and is followed again by Neko Case's Middle Cyclone (1,344) at #2 and Handsome Furs' Face Control (1,077) at #3. Those last two albums have been in those places for three weeks.

Great Lake Swimmers' Lost Channels (1,008) rises three places to #4, while Bell Orchestre's As Seen Through Windows (867) holds onto its #5 position from last week. Swan Lake have the biggest jump with their Enemy Mine (831) sophomore album, which rises 19 places to #6.

Propagandhi's Supporting Caste (813) improves by two places to #7, just like DD/MM/YYYY's Black Square (769) does to reach #8. Black Lips' 200 Million Thousand (659) slips a notch to #9, with Malajube's Labyrinthes (649) dropping four places to #10.

The Chart Sizzler Award goes to Shotgun Jimmie's Still Jimmie, which enters at #21. The former Shotgun And Jaybird member beats a quartet of strong contenders, including a couple of former #1 artists. Joel Plaskett's Three debuts at #24 and is followed by MSTRKRFT's Fist Of God at #25, Tim Hecker's An Imaginary Country at #26 and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' It's Blitz! at #27.

Mother Mother's O My Heart returns at #41 after a seven-week absence. That gives the album 20 weeks on the chart, making it the 23rd record to reach this coveted position. The Bicycles' Oh No, It's Love continues its long journey as well, while dropping two spots to #20 in it 17th week.

The specialty charts also have a long-running album in their midst. Amadou & Miriam's Welcome To Mali remains #3 on the World/Folk chart in its 16th week in that top 10. It has a bit of a way to go to dethrone Dimmu Borgir's Death Cult Armageddon, which spent 21 weeks on the Metal/Punk chart in autumn 2003 and winter 2004. K-OS' Joyful Rebelion remained on the Hip Hop top ten for 20 weeks during the fall of 2004 and the winter of 2005.

There are six debuts on the Jazz/Blues top 10, with Bess Durey's self-released Arctic charting at #4 and Blue Note 7's Mosaic: A Celebration Of Blue Note Records rising nine places to #1.

There are five debuts on the Electronic chart. Junior Boys' Begone Dull Care jumps in at #2 and Shout Out Out Out Out's Reintergration Time vaults two spots to #1.

Idan Raichel Project's Within My Walls climbs a rung to capture top spot on the World/Folk top 10. The other two charts feature the same #1s as last week: Buried Inside's Spoils Of Failure on Metal/Punk, and K'Naan's Troubadour on Hip-Hop.