Pink Mountaintops Climb Back To #1

06/09/09 2:21pm

by Chris Burland (CHARTattack)

When it comes to analyzing trends on the charts, there's a time to dive and make wild predictions and then there are more often times where arms-length observation is necessary.

With the current battle at the top of the charts, only time will really tell who will be the ultimate victor between Pink Mountaintops' Outside Love and Metric's Fantasies.

These two titles have been flip-flopping in the top two slots on the top 50 chart for the past two weeks. This week it's Pink Mountaintops' turn at #1, while Metric drops to #2. There's a continuous battle just below them, as Apostle Of Hustle's Eats Darkness jumps three places to #3, while the high-rising album by Grizzly Bear called Veckatimest rockets up 26 places to drop in at #4. This CD is an early favourite as the best album of 2009 amongst rock critics, including yours truly.

Think About Life's Family rises three spots and climbs to #5, followed by Joel Plaskett's Three, which experiences a resurgence with a similar three spot rise. Clues self-titled album falls three positions to #7, as does King Khan And The Shrines' What Is?!, which slips to #8. Dog Day's Concentration jumps three spots, leap-frogging over Japandroids' Post-Nothing, which holds steady at #10.

The Chart Sizzler Award goes to the odds & sods collection from Iron And Wine entitled Around The Well. This two-CD set arrives at #13.

The week's next highest debut is the newest album by Rock Plaza Central. Their album holds the dubious distinction as the longest title ever to chart on the top 50, ...At The Moment Of Our Most Needing Or If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Weren't Alone. RPC hit the chart at #23 and will be called simply At The Moment Of Our Most Needing for our bookkeeping purposes.

Phoenix's terrible titled album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, arrives at #27, Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens' What Have You Done, My Brother? enters at #31, Black Moth Super Rainbow's Eating Us bows in at #33 and is followed by Lovely Feathers' Fantasy Of The Lot at #34.

For the first time in the specialty chart history, three former #1 albums on the five specialty charts return to the top spot of their respective charts in the same week. Usually, it's rare for one title to match this feat, let alone three.

Easy Star All-Stars's Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band rises up a spot to recapture the #1 on the World/Folk chart. Mastodon's Crack The Skye makes the same move on the Metal/Punk top ten. K'Naan's Troubadour rebounds up four places and regains #1 on the Hip Hop chart.

The other two top ten charts feature the same #1 as last week, MSTRKRFT's Fist Of God holds at #1 on the Electronic list, while Medeski, Martin & Wood's Radiolarians II continues to have a firm grasp at the top of the Jazz/Blues top ten.