Vance Joy Scores #1 Debut On Carlton Dry Independent Music Charts

It has been a week of domination on the Carlton Dry Independent Music Charts, with Aussie man of the moment Vance Joy not only keeping two singles in the top five, but stepping out with a #1 debut for his recently released LP, Dream Your Life Away.

With Mess Is Mine (#4) and Riptide (#5) still performing admirably (plus third single Wasted Time hanging around at #18) on the singles chart, Dream Your Life Away shot straight to the top of the ladder in its first eligible week, knocking off Jimmy Barnes' 30:30 Hindsight retrospective LP and placing solidly ahead of next-highest debutant The Wolfe Brothers, whose Nothin' But Trouble LP makes its entry just inside the top five, at #4.

The self-titled EP from turn-of-the-'90s synth kings Client Liaison steps out at #14, with fellow BIGSOUND alumnus Steve Smyth not that far behind with Exits at #16, while Thirsty Merc's Acoustic Anniversary Album rounds out the full-length newcomers for the week, sliding into the top 20 at #19.

Over in the singles stakes, the beloved Missy Higgins claims top-performing newcomer with Back To The Wall earning her a top-10 debut, at #9, while ascendant hip-hopper Allday's You Always Know The DJ makes its belated entry at #19.

Otherwise, it was a fairly tepid week all up — the top eight singles are all the same tracks as last week, with the top five — Timmy Trumpet (Freaks), Sia (Chandelier), Sheppard (Geronimo) and Joy's two hits — remaining completely inert, with a slight jumbling for places 6-8 (which are now occupied respectively by Illy's One For The City, the Hilltop Hoods' Won't Let You Down and Illy again, with Tightrope). Interestingly, Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know, featuring Kimbra, made its re-entry to the charts following his return to the news recently.

It's a similar story back on the albums chart, where perhaps the most noteworthy thing to happen outside of the eagerly awaited newcomers is the fact that 13 of the 20 albums listed this week at one stage peaked at either #1 or #2. Thus, we see one of the most elite groupings of LPs we've seen in a while, with albums from Barnesy, the Hilltop Hoods (#3), Kingswood (#5), Sia (#6), Sheppard (#7), Russell Morris (#8), Adam Brand (#9), Illy (#10), Chet Faker (#11), Hillsong (#13), One Day (#17) and Sticky Fingers (#18; honourable mention to Briggs, whose Sheplife currently sits at #20 after peaking at #3) all hanging around in the limelight having once topped the charts.