Michael Buble's Christmas Album Usurps AC/DC On ARIA Charts

The annual festive-season dominance of Canadian crooner Michael Buble is on us for another year, with the besuited singer's Christmas LP rocketing to the top of the ARIA Albums Chart this week as previous top-spot holders AC/DC and 15th full-length Rock Or Bust take a tumble to number four.

Buble jumped up two spots from three last week, possibly on the strength of all those extra copies of Christmas you all bought your mothers, falling ahead of Taylor Swift's steady 1989 (two), while Ed Sheeran's X makes the step up from four last week to three. Human Nature's Jukebox rounds out the top five in the full-length stakes.

Further down the list, it was a relatively sedate week as far as newcomers were concerned; old mate Will Sparks boasts the highest debut album this time around, with Another Land stepping out at #35. Rising rapper J. Cole also makes a debut appearance this week with 2014 Forest Hills Drive, at #40, while violin-slinging virtuoso Andre Rieu is also aboard the Christmas sales rush — his Yuletide effort Best Of Christmas makes its entry at #46.

Despite the quietude on the debut front, we did see some decent leaps across the ladder this week — Hilltop Hoods are up five spots to #11 with Walking Under Stars; Human Nature's The Christmas Album is up seven, sitting pretty at #20; and The Very Best by INXS made an impressive 13-spot leap to settle in at #22.

As far as the singles rankings are concerned, it's a similarly strained picture for debutants making an impact, though the highest placers do enter in a stronger position than their album counterparts — Ed Sheeran's Make It Rain takes #26, while Bring Me The Horizon's Drown nets the hard-rockin' mainstays #27. The Avener are the next-highest-placing act, solidly down the line with Fade Outlines at #61.

Way down at the pointy end, Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk has made the leap up to #1 from #2 last week, trading places with fresh silver medallist Taylor Swift and Blank Space. Aron Chupa's I'm An Albatroz is up three spots to #3, while Mr Sheeran's previous cut Thinking Out Loud continues to perform strongly, still in the top five at #4. The upper bracket is rounded out by the resilient Hilltop Hoods and Cosby Sweater.