Streisand Blocks Missy Higgins And Alt-J From Top Of Albums Chart

US heritage diva Barbra Streisand has the number one album in Australia this week, as her Partners set outcharts releases from younger acts Alt-J and Missy Higgins, who were lead chart contenders in the midweek reports.

Streisand's 34th studio album features duets with a roster of male stars including John Legend and Michael Buble as well as a posthumous collab with Elvis Presley on Love Me Tender. It's her first chart topper here since Guilty was number one in 1980.

The UK's dream pop outfit Alt-J managed the number two spot with their second album This Is All Yours (beating the number nine peak of their debut An Awesome Wave last year). They were number one on the Digital Albums though, where Striesand entered at five.

That left Missy Higgins as the week's highest debuting local artist, as her album of covers Oz landed at three — her previous three albums have all peaked at one.

With a flood of new releases on the market, the entire top five were debuts — Chris Brown's X in at four and The Script's No Sound Without Silence at five. Lady Gaga's Cheek To Cheek collab with Tony Bennett was lower down at seven while Tim McGraw's Sundown Heaven Town landed at 11.

Also making their Top 50 debuts this week were: PTX Vol lll by US a capella troupe Pentatonix (19); Syro by UK electronic legend Aphex Twin (21); Strut by Lenny Kravitz (31); Superheroes by Amber Lawrence was the week's second highest debuting local (43); and The 20/20 Experience — The Complete Experience by the touring Justin Timberlake (46).

However local sister pop duo The Veronicas saw their comeback single You Ruin Me knock aside Meghan Trainor's All About That Bass, to take the top spot on the ARIA Singles Chart. It is only the pair's second number one hit here, having last reached this lofty height in 2007 with Hook Me Up.