Boy & Bear Look To Secure First #1

Sydney indie folk outfit Boy & Bear will look to secure their first #1 album this week as midweek chart figures show that new album Harlequin Dream is in the box seat for the top spot.

On the back of strong pre-sales, the band are favourites to dethrone fellow Sydney-siders RÜFÜS, who last week pipped Dead Letter Circus to the top spot of the ARIA Album Chart with their debut Atlas. Boy & Bear's 2011 debut Moonfire debuted and peaked at number two before spending a further 39 weeks in the charts as they won five ARIAs at the 2011 awards.

Harlequin Dream, released through Universal, is the strongest of last week's releases, which also included Don Walker's Hully Gully and Ty Segall's Sleeper. Neither of those look like troubling the scorers at this stage though, with Elvis Presley's Elvis At Stax and the Melodie Francaise compilation looking like the other strong top 50 debuts.

With Pink's promotional duties winding down her titles The Truth About Love (three) and Greatest Hits… So Far!!! (six) are slowing in momentum, as is Passenger's All The Little Lights (five), which so far has had an unremarkable week. Fleetwood Mac remain an unknown quantity however, and with two titles in the top ten (25 Years – The Chain at four, Greatest Hits at eight) they could stage an upset in the last couple of days.

On the singles front, Katy Perry's Roar is looking a strong challenge to the top spot with its first full week of sales. It debuted at three last week, behind Jason Derulo featuring 2 Chainz's Talk Dirty, which shot to number one in its first week.

Another experiencing strong scans in its first full week is Lady Gaga's Applause (even if critical opinion has been lukewarm) after debuting at 19, while Lana Del Rey's Summertime Sadness is set to climb from 13 in its second week. Bag Raiders' Shooting Stars is hitting its stride after spending 12 weeks in the top 100 before making its first top 50 appearance last week.

Midweek figures show that Jessie J's It's My Party will be the top debut this week.