Jay Reatard Hold Onto #1 Again This Week

09/29/09 3:21pm

by Chris Burland (CHARTattack)

Over the past decade, the period of greatest chart activity usually corresponds with the beginning of autumn.

In the past, many of the indie power houses like The New Pornographers have released albums during this time and have dominated the charts, too. In 2005, that band's Twin Cinema set records for total points accumulated through one month by putting together weekly numbers nearing 2,000 points. There were many charts being contributed and a great deal of consistency among programmers at different stations.

That's not the case in 2009, where this week's #1 album, Jay Reatard's Watch Me Fall, didn't even reach 1,000 points this week. The album did repeat at #1, though, beating off all its competition.

Two Hours Traffic's Territory shows the most promise this week, rising 21 spots to land at #2. Black Mold's Snow Blindness Is Crystal Antz remains at #3, while Ohbijou's Beacons moves up a spot to #4. Vic Chesnutt's At The Cut rises nine places to sit at #6, followed by Lightning Dust's Infinite Light dropping a place to #7 and the Friends Of Bellwoods Volume II tumbling six spots to #8. Polvo's In Prism rises to #9 and HEALTH's Get Color jumps to #10, each moving up three positions to remain in tandem again this week.

The Chart Sizzler Award goes to Why?'s Eskimo Snow, which arrives at #11 and is the top debut of the week. Why?'s latest album, which was recorded during the same sessions as the band's previous record, last year's Alopecia received strong airplay from seven contributing campus radio stations including #1 at CFUV (Victoria), #6 at CKXU (Lethbridge), #7 at CHYZ (Laval) and #8 at CFRE (Erindale).

The Mountain Goats' The Life Of The World To Come arrives at #18, making it the second-highest new entry, while Reigning Sound's Love & Curses debuts at #21.

When Joel Plaskett's Three disappeared from the campus chart at the beginning of August after 18 weeks it seemed like it wasn't destined to join the elite titles that have logged 20+ weeks on the top 50. But funnier things have happened.

Due in part to Plaskett's 2009 Polaris Music Prize nomination and his many summer festival performances, Three returned to a number of smaller charts, especially in his home region, the Maritimes. Then, last week, Plaskett resurfaced after an almost two month absence to record 19 weeks, and this week Three drops nine spots to #37 to hit 20 weeks.

It's the first album by Plaskett — including his Thrush Hermit titles — to break this barrier. The closest he came in the past was 17 weeks for Joel Plaskett Emergency's Truthfully, Truthfully in 2003. La De Da charted for 15 weeks in 2005. Three becomes the 24th album to reach 20 weeks, and the first since Julie Doiron's I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day a month ago.

Three of the four specialty charts have the same #1s from last week: Augury's Fragmentary Evidence is at the top of the Metal/Punk chart, Solillaquists Of Sound's No More Heroes is #1 on the Hip Hop chart and Black Mold's Snow Blindness Is Crystal Antz holds the top spot on the Electronic chart.

There was a tie at the top of the World/Folk chart, involving last week's top album, Tinariwen's Imidiwan: Companions and The Very Best's Warm Heart Of Africa. Another #1 debut has occurred on the Jazz/Blues top 10. Jerry Granelli V16's Vancouver '08 tops this top 10 in its first week on the chart.