Midweek Chart Report: Tight Races For Singles And Albums

There are no clear trail-blazers in the ARIA Album or Singles Charts this week, with midweek tracking suggesting that both charts will go right down to the wire.

After Justin Bieber's Believe took the top spot of the albums charts last week ahead of Keith Urban's The Story So Far and Missy Higgins' The Ol' Razzle Dazzle, it looks like the teen star's in with a chance of holding the spot this week. The real challenge is coming from new releases by Maroon 5 with Overexposed, Linkin Park with Living Things (which is dominating iTunes charts around the world) and The Smashing Pumpkins with Oceania, but it's still too close to call between them. They should all poll strongly though.

You can't discount The Voice winner Karise Eden though, who dominated the singles chart last week to an extent not seen since The Beatles. Her album My Journey, which includes songs she sung during the show, was released yesterday so hasn't appeared as strong in the midweek scans as it will be the week's end. Probably your best bet, even though the show's finished.

Speaking of Eden, we're expecting her to retain a grip on the singles chart, even as some of the tracks displaced by The Voice last week look to creep back into the top ten. Given that the tiniest bit of media exposure this week will give a Voice contestant a huge sales boost, those top spots are still up in the air.