Wilco Album Matches Ghost & Yankee At #1

07/28/09 11:52am

by Chris Burland (CHARTattack)

Big news Charty Chart land, there's a new album at #1 this week and it's a popular American band who've been at this lofty place before.

Wilco's Wilco (The Album) rises three places to grab the #1 place on the top 50 chart for this week.

Wilco's chart success has been growing since their mid-'90s genesis. While Being There peaked at #8 in February 1997 and Summerteeth only made it to #9 in April 1999, their "comeback/coming out" album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot stayed at #1 for five weeks during 2002.

Its 2004 follow-up did YHF one better. A Ghost Is Born hit #1 in July 2004 and spent six weeks in the top spot, while Wilco's last studio album, Sky Blue Sky, only reached #5 in July 2007.

Like deja vu all over again, Wilco skipped over a veteran college rock band on the way to the top as Ghost did five years ago.

Sonic Youth's latest album holds steady at #2. The Eternal doesn't look like it's going to hit #1 like the band's 2006 album Rather Ripped and 2002's Murray Street both did. Oddly enough, A Ghost Is Born kept Sonic Youth's Sonic Nurse out of the #1 spot in 2004, too.

Ohbijou's Beacons rockets up the chart 21 places to #3 in its second week. Sunset Rubdown's Dragonslayer falls three spot to #4, while the self-titled release by Reverie Sound Revue rises a place to #5.

Clues' eponymous release moves up five places to #6, followed by two albums returning to a simlar place on the chart. Five weeks ago, The Lovely Feathers' Fantasy Of The Lot held the #7 position while Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix sat at #8. This week they again hold the same spots, moving up nine and five places respectively from last week.

Dinosaur Jr.'s Farm falls six spots to #9 while former #1, Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest falls three places to #10.

The Chart Sizzler award goes to a world music compilation for the first time in the history of weekly charts. It's probably the longest-titled album to arrive as the highest debut, too. Panama! 2: Latin Sounds, Cumbia Tropical And Calypso Funk On The Isthmus 1967-77 checks in at #19.

Four important stations charted the Panama 2 compilation, including #1 on CHUO (Ottawa); #5 on both CJAM (Windsor) and CFUV (Victoria) and #16 on CIUT (Toronto).

The next two highest debuts are Gregory Pepper & His Problems' With Trumpets Flaring at #22 and Discovery's LP at #30. Another wordly-titled retro compilation debuts this week, as Well Hung: 20 Funk-Rock Eruptions From Beneath Communist Hungary - Volume 1 arrives at #32. Yet another retro comp, Black Rio 2: Original Samba Soul 1968-1981, is in its second week on the chart and rises three places to #43.

It should be noted Julie Doiron's I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day has charted for 20 weeks, becoming only the 23rd album to reach this illustrious mark. This is now Doiron's second album to last 20 weeks on the chart.

Over a decade ago, her sophomore solo album, Loneliest In The Morning, remained on chart from September 1997 to February 1998. The only other band to have two albums on this list is New Pornographers, whose first two albums, Mass Romantic and Electric Version, have bested the 20 week mark.

The eleven year difference between albums topping 20 weeks kind of makes Julie Doiron the Katherine Hepburn of the Charts.

There were some significant changes at the top of four of five of the specialty charts.

Vieux Farka Toure's Fondo recaptures the #1 spot on the World/Folk chart, flipping places with Oumou Sangare's Seya.

Biblio's Ambivalence Avenue reaches #1 on the Electronic chart for the first time, swapping spots with last week's #1, Tiga's Ciao!.

Mos Def's The Ecstatic rises two positions to become #1 on the Hip Hop top 10, while Gypsophilia's Sa-Ba-Da-Ow! revisits #1 on the Jazz/Blues chart with a similar two place rise.

Only Coalesce's Ox on the Metal/Punk chart repeats as chart champ from last week.