Hilltop Hoods Reclaim Top Position On Carlton Dry Indie Singles Chart

Stalwart hip-hop outfit the Hilltop Hoods have knocked Will Sparks off his brief perch atop the Carlton Dry Independent Music Charts, with the revered rappers seeing tour namesake track Cosby Sweater back at #1, sending Sparks' Ah Yeah down a peg, to #2.

It was a particularly sedate seven days across both albums and singles ladders as far as new faces go — Melburnian muso Ben Abraham was the only debutant for the week, with his new album Sirens grabbing #16 on the full-length chart — though not totally without action; ARIA winner Chet Faker, whose Built On Glass LP remains at #1, saw his single Talk Is Cheap rise four spots to #8 following a sublime rendition at last week's prizegiving ceremony, while West Australian pop kids San Cisco saw a resurgence for recent cut RUN, which makes its way back inside the top 10, jumping up from #14 to #9. 

There were also some big moves from Faker (Gold, #13), Vance Joy (Mess Is Mine, #17), Sheppard (Sheppard, #18), and Emma Louise (Full Hearts And Empty Rooms, #20), whose singles all made return appearances to the top 20 after some time away. It was a similar story on the full-length ladder, where Kingswood (Microscopic Wars, #14), Faker (Thinking In Textures, #15) and Illy (Cinematic, #17) all materialised on the charts once more.

Hilltop Hoods were strong performers on the album chart, too, with Walking Under Stars nabbing them the second-highest position, below Faker, but still in above both the Countdown retrospective (#3) and Jimmy Barnes (30:30 Hindsight, #4). There were massive jumps as well for Sheppard (Bombs Away, up nine places to #5), Sia (1000 Forms Of Fear, up nine places to #6) and Dan Sultan (Blackbird, up six places to #7), all of whom have now seen their respective albums spend 20 weeks inside the top 20 (Sultan hit that milestone a while ago — he's sitting at week 25 now).