Russell Morris Scores First Ever Top Ten Album

Russell Morris has this week cracked the top ten of the ARIA Albums Chart for the first time, with his latest album Sharkmouth rising to ten this week.

Remarkably Morris, active since the '60s and a member of the ARIA Hall Of Fame, has only ever reached 12 on the chart. Bloodstone achieved that feat in 1971.

The album – a semi-concept record based on Australian characters and villains from the '20s and '30s – was released in October last year and has spent 12 weeks in the chart, eight of which have been in the top 50. Last week it ranked at 16 and its rise to ten this week has made it the top album from a local artist this week.

Today Morris told theMusic.com.au that, initially at least, his career had held the album back.

“People get pigeonholed after a while, you carry your past around with you like baggage,” he said. “What happened, when it was released people were expecting more of the same… but there were a few believers running around yelling, 'Go and listen to this album, it's really different'… A lot of people hadn't listened to it because they had pre-conceived ideas – and I don't blame them!”

Morris said the record first gained traction through ABC radio channels initially before being picked up by the independent retails (particularly in Tuggeranong, ACT and Sale, Victoria) and finally JB Hi-Fi who have pushed it this year.

He said he not only enjoyed researching and recording the album but he's still enjoying playing the songs.

“When I saw the photo of Thomas Archer [the eventual cover of the album] in the paper it was almost like he spoke to me. It was almost like he said, 'You've been writing about fantasy all the time, why don't you write about me and tell my story.'

“Once I wrote the song about him [Sharkmouth] he opened up a door for me. It was almost like he opened up a metaphorical door for me and all of sudden Phar Lap and Squizzy Taylor were in the room with me… And I'm from the inner-city suburb of Richmond and my grandmother used to go and see Squizzy, so I was reliving those memories of my grandmother living through the depression.”

Robert Rigby, head of Fanfare Recrods, said, “This album is a phenomenon starting out gradually on release last October and has grown into an amazing storm. It's a unique Australian album from a true iconic talent with one of the most amazing voices in the land.”

Morris' bassist and producer Mitch Cairns added of the record, “To our knowledge, most 'Australiana' characters have been portrayed in a traditional colonial folk sense, so we wanted to find a way to deliver the stories in a more mainstream vein whilst still placing them in a 'vintage era'… But above all, it had to be simple and spacious.”

Editor's note: Story updated with quotes from Russell Morris 3.55pm