Lorde is on top Down Under with Melodrama (Universal).
The Kiwi singer-songwriter's sophomore album starts in the top spot on the ARIA Albums Chart to equal the effort of its predecessor Pure Heroine, which also bowed at No. 1 back in October 2013. Off the back of her new release, Lorde’s debut album returns to the top 50 this week at No. 26.
Melodrama, which also leads the Billboard 200, does enough to drop Ed Sheeran’s Divide (Warner) into second place on the Australian survey, while a pair of new releases, Nickelback’s Feed The Machine (BMG/Warner) and Royal Blood’s How Did We Get So Dark? (WEA/Warner), take positions 3 and 4, respectively. The fifth spot on the latest albums tally is occupied by London Grammar’s Truth Is A Beautiful Thing (Dew Process/Universal), down from No. 3 last week.
Also flying high on the latest chart is Fleet Foxes, the American indie-folk act whose third studio album Crack-Up (None/Warner) opens at No. 10. Crack-Up is the Seattle group’s third studio set and second to chart in the top 50, following its most recent LP Helplessness Blues which reached No. 6 in May 2011.
On the ARIA Singles Chart, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee notch six straight weeks at No. 1 with “Despacito” (Republic/Universal), featuring Justin Bieber. “Despacito” is now double-platinum certified (140,000 units).
Meanwhile, former One Direction stars Liam Payne and Niall Horan nail down Nos. 2 and 3 with “Strip That Down” and “Slow Hands,” respectively (both through Capitol/EMI), and DJ Khaled’s “Wild Thoughts” (Epic/Sony) collaboration with Rihanna and Bryson Tiller is the week’s best-performing new release, debuting at No. 4. The followup to “I'm The One” (Universal/Sony) which hit the summit last month, "Wild Thoughts" is just the second DJ Khaled track to crack the top 50 in Australia. “I’m The One” dips 4-5 this week.
