Will Aussie Rock Royalty Replace The Reigning Charts Queen This Week?

Jimmy Barnes; a name synonymous with the very fabric of Australian music, and a man armed with a searing and enduring legacy that spans over four decades.

While Barnsey's achievements as the frontman for legendary rockers Cold Chisel alongside a solo career would make rightly make anyone's jaw drop, there's so much more to the Jimmy Barnes musical bow than just a voice that can strip you to your core and rattle your senses ever-so-slightly. But it's on his 20th studio (solo) album that we peer deeper into the soul of this iconic artist more than ever before, with Barnsey's brand new album Flesh and Blood presenting a powerful ode to family, love and truth; and also, if the ARIA Charts chatter is to be believed, a significant chance for some Aussie rock royalty to finally topple the stronghold Olivia Rodrigo's album Sour has had at the #1 spot on the Album charts now for six weeks. 

With a Top 3 debut in his sights for Flesh and Blood, this certainly won't be Barnsey's first taste of a high-ranking debut on the Aussie charts, with previous solo studio releases including:

• 1984's Bodyswerve at #1
• 1985's For the Working Class Man at #1
• 1987's Freight Train Heart at #1
• 1990's Two Fires at #1
• 1991's Soul Deep at #1
• 1993's Heat at #2
• 1993's Flesh and Wood at #2
• 1995's Psyclone at #2
• 2000's Soul Deeper...Songs from the Deep South at #3
• 2005's Double Happiness at #1
• 2007's Out in the Blue at #3
• 2009's The Rhythm and the Blues at #1
• 2010's Rage and Ruin at #3
• 2014's 30:30 Hindsight at #1
• 2016's Soul Searchin' at #1
• 2019's My Criminal Record at #1

With his most recent solo release My Criminal Record in 2019, Barnes secured a sixteenth #1 album (inclusive of his work with Cold Chisel), resulting in him earning the title as having had more number ones in Australia than any other artist in ARIA Chart history. If he pulls off yet another chart-topper this week, it will certainly be yet another one for the history books - and we certainly think if anyone can pull off such a feat, it's undeniably Jimmy Barnes.

Elsewhere in ARIA Chart rumblings this week, it's looking likely that fellow Aussies The Seekers will hit the Top 50 with their historic Live in The UK release that was unveiled last week. And as for the movers and shakers on the Albums Charts, Pitbull's Greatest Hits albums is tipped to hit the Top 40, while the Barnes charm looks set to continue, with Cold Chisel's The Best of Cold Chisel: All For You set to also leap into the Top 40.

Over on the ARIA Singles Charts, newbies from Megan Thee Stallion (Thot S**t) and Big Red Machine's collab with Taylor Swift (Renegade) are both set to crack the Top 50 later this week, as well as some predicted movement from Maneskin courtesy of Beggin and I Wanna Be Your Slave, and once again from the Marshmello and Jonas Brothers sombre pop rocker Leave Before You Love Me.