Kendrick wins another battle

Kendrick Lamar goes straight to #1 with his surprise-release album, GNX, while two Aussies score top 20 debuts this week on the ARIA Albums Chart.

Coming hard on the heels of his feud with Drake this year, GNX is Kendrick’s sixth studio album and his fifth top 10 entry following To Pimp A Butterfly (#1 in 2015), the compilation album Untitled Unmastered (#3 in 2016), Damn (#2 in 2017) and Mr Morale & The Big Steppers (#1 in 2022). He also appeared on Black Panther: The Album, which reached #2 in 2018. 

Lamar is playing the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show in New Orleans in February.  

The soundtrack to Wicked the movie opens at #3, marking the first time any Wicked music has hit the Chart. The film stars Ariana Grande, who has racked up seven top 10 albums (five of which went to #1), and Cynthia Erivo, who hasn’t charted here before. The lead single, Defying Gravity by Cynthia and Ariana, debuts at #42.

The soundtrack to the animated series Arcane League of Legends: Season 2 debuts at #12. It includes tracks from Twenty One Pilots, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda and Emily Armstrong, Freya Ridings, Eason Chan, Imagine Dragons and Sheryl Lee Ralph. 

Aussie rock band RedHook are new at #15 with their second album, Mutation. It’s their first entry on the ARIA Albums Chart. Formed in Sydney in 2017, the band consists of lead vocalist Emmy Mack, guitarist Craig Wilkinson, drummer Alex Powys and bassist Ned Jankovic.

Sydney-born singer-songwriter Alex the Astronaut is new at #19 with the EP Rage And All Its Friends. It’s Alex’s first chart appearance since 2020, when The Theory Of Absolutely Nothing peaked at #22. 

After two weeks out of the top spot, Rosé and Bruno Mars’ APT. returns to #1 for a fourth non-consecutive week on the Singles Chart. Rosé’s new single, Number One Girl, debuts at #61 this week and her first solo album, Rosie, lands on 6 December. 

GNX delivers four top 20 debuts: Luther at #7, Squabble Up at #9, TV Off at #12 and Wacced Out Murals at #18. Another six tracks from GNX land in the top 50. Kendrick’s biggest hits here are Bad Blood with Taylor Swift, which spent three weeks at #1 in 2015, The Greatest with Sia (#2 in 2016), Humble (#2 in 2017), All The Stars with SZA (#2 in 2018) and N95 (#3 in 2022).