Cold Chisel’s ’50 Years’ Is The Only Australian Album on the ARIA Top 50 Chart

The latest ARIA Albums Chart is a disappearing double act.

On the fresh tally, for the week of Monday, January 6th, Christmas music marches off for another year, and Australian music proves especially hard to find.

Indeed, just one homegrown recording holds the flame in the ARIA Top 50: Cold Chisel’s 50 Years – The Best Of (Cold Chisel/Universal), down 13-25.

The so-called discoverability problem plaguing the Australian music community isn’t an easy fix, though no shortage of solutions have been presented by the industry. Among them, Music Australia’s funding initiative the Music Australia Record Label Development Scheme, which is designed to support homegrown labels that are “actively discovering, developing, and promoting local talent”; the AAM’s Michael’s Rule, a policy that would ensure at least one local artist would be among the support acts on every tour; and the ongoing (and contentious) discussion on content quotas. 

Since forming in Adelaide in 1973, the ARIA Hall of Fame-inducted Cold Chisel has led the national chart with six LPs: Swingshift (in 1981), Circus Animals (1982), Twentieth Century (1984), The Last Wave Of Summer (1998), Blood Moon (2019) and 50 Years – The Best Of, which opened at No. 1 last August and features a new cut, “You’ve Got To Move”.

That hot start saw frontman Jimmy Barnes extends his lead as the artist with the most No. 1s in Australia, with 21, including 15 solo records.

Cold Chisel continue their 50th anniversary trans-Tasman tour later this month with a handful of shows in New Zealand. The legendary rock band’s tour of Australia last year shifted more than 225,000 tickets. 

At the top of the tree, Sabrina Carpenter completes an eighth non-consecutive week at No. 1 with Short n’ Sweet (Island/Universal). According to ARIA, the U.S. singer and actor’s collection first reached the top in early September 2024 and has had three separate stints there.

Also notable is Ed Sheeran’s greatest hits set +–=÷× (Tour Collection) (via Atlantic/Warner) which rises 12-6 following the release of a limited-edition “Blood Records” vinyl cut. The LP peaked at No. 4 in October, for the Englishman’s eighth top 10 album here. The Mathematics effort gathers six ARIA No. 1 singles “Sing”, “Thinking Out Loud”, “Shape Of You”, “Perfect”, “I Don’t Care” (with Justin Bieber) and “Bad Habits”.

Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, Rosé returns to the top with “APT.” (via Warner), her global hit with Bruno Mars. “APT.” flies 8-1 for an eight non-consecutive week at the summit.

The New Zealand-born, Australia-raised BLACKPINK star’s pop juggernaut logged nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, confirming its lofty position as one of the biggest hits of 2024.

Completing the ARIA Chart podium is Gracie Abrams’ former leader “That’s So True” (Interscope/Universal), up 9-2, and Lady Gaga’s collaboration with Bruno Mars, “Die With A Smile” (Warner/Universal), up 16-3.

There are similar, impressive spikes for Billie Eilish’s two-time chart champion “Birds Of A Feather” (Interscope/Universal), lifting 19-4, and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (Empire), improving 18-5.

It’s a completely different picture from the previous week, when the top seven singles were Christmas-themed, led by Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You”.

Following their homecoming show at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion and a DJ spot at Beyond The Valley, Royel Otis finally enters the ARIA Top 50 with “Linger (SiriusXM Session)” (Independent), a cover of The Cranberries’ breakthrough, which peaked at No. 33 in 1994.

Led by Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic, the alternative rock act enjoyed a Billboard Hot 100 hit with their version of “Linger” (it opened and peaked at No. 94 last August). In Australia, the viral single rockets 103-46, and is one of three Australian recordings in the ARIA Top 50.

Finally, there’s a belated entry on the chart for Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” (Columbia/Sony), originally released back in October 1981. Thanks in part to Casey Donovan’s performance of the song during the ABC’s New Year’s Eve broadcast, the soft rock classic opens at No. 47 on the ARIA tally. Formed in 1973, Journey was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. In the U.S., “Don’t Stop Believin’” peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, and enjoyed a revival after its sync to the Sopranos series finale in June 2007.