ARIA Chart Drama As Aussie Mammals Beat The Country’s Biggest Stars

Australian Mammal Calls, the new album from Songs Of Disappearance and The Bowerbird Collective has debuted at #5 on the ARIA Top 20 Australian Albums Chart, upsetting the releases of Jimmy Barnes’ Blue Christmas and Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’s live album, Australian Carnage – Live At The Sydney Opera House.

At #1 on the ARIA Top 20 Australian Albums Chart is the classic album from The Wiggles, Hot Potatoes: The Best Of The Wiggles, followed by Troye Sivan’s Something To Give Each Other, The Kid LAROI’s The First Time, Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story - Music From The Feature Documentary, and Australian Mammal Calls.

The new album of shrieks, growls and screeches from endangered Australian animals has beaten INXS’s The Very Best (#6), Jimmy Barnes (#7), Tame Impala’s Currents (#8), Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (#9), and John Farnham and Olivia Newton John’s Friends For Christmas at #10.

Unfortunately, with the domination of Taylor Swift and other international superstars such as Post Malone, Morgan Wallen, The Weeknd, Michael Bublé, Foo Fighters, and Olivia Rodrigo, Australian Mammal Calls didn’t make a dent on the ARIA Top 50 Albums Chart.

Created in partnership between The Bowerbird Collective and the Australian Conservation Foundation, the new koala-ty collection of tracks includes over 30 mammal species across the country, such as kangaroos, koalas, dingoes, possums and beyond. The native creatures’ many noises have been shared with Australian audiences in the name of charity.

Some of the species behind the mic include the critically endangered Leadbeaters, Western Ringtail Possums, the startling bellowings of Subantarctic Fur-seals, and rarely recorded Echidnas. All have been documented to raise awareness of the animals’ endangered status, with the aim to inspire conservation action.

“Australia is famous for its cute and cuddly mammals, but have you ever wondered what a snoring echidna sounds like? Well, now you can find out,” Co-founder of The Bowerbird Collective, Simone Slattery, said in a press release.

“These adorable and occasionally terrifying sounds are an integral part of our natural soundscape. It's unfathomable to imagine Australia without its mammals, and this album is an effort to inspire conservation action.”

The new release follows Australian Frog Calls: Songs Of Disappearance, which debuted at #3 on the ARIA Albums Chart last year, leapfrogging above Jimmy Barnes and Harry Styles and croaking below Paul Kelly and Taylor Swift.

In 2021, Australian Bird Calls made history when the album perched itself at #5 on the ARIA Chart, with ARIA adding that “it’s the first album of its kind to chart in the ARIA Top 10”.

You can listen to Australian Mammal Calls below.