Stalwart Aussie pop-rockers Thirsty Merc have defied expectation by taking out the week's highest debut on the Carlton Dry Independent Music Charts with their new album Shifting Gears, ending up inside the top five at #4.

It's a solid entry spot for the band's first album in five years, and comes in well ahead of the week's next-highest — and only other — full-length debut, The Beards' 10 Long Years, 1 Long Beard, itself no slouch on entry, stepping out just outside the top 10 at #12.

It's an unusually quiet week for debuts across the board, however, with the sole new entrant on the Singles ladder coming in the form of Brissy prodigy Sam Cromack, aka My Own Pet Radio, whose No Great Mystery makes its way into the wider world at #17.

As a result, it's all about the incumbents this week — Meg Mac's bangin' track Never Be remains atop the pile for another week, while Hermitude's The Buzz, featuring Mataya and Young Tapz, edges up a spot to take #2. In fact most of the top 10 — at least, #2 through #7 — are all up a spot, seeing slightly better results for Sia (Elastic Heart, #3), Meg Mac (again, Roll Up Your Sleeves, #4), Sia again (Chandelier, #5), Sheppard (Geronimo, still riding high at #6) and… Sia (Big Girls Cry, #7), because Australia only has like four highly bankable artists, apparently. Boo Seeka's Deception Bay is the unfortunate title taking a significant tumble, down to #8 from #2 last week, while Hermitude step up to #9 from #12 with Searchlight, featuring Yeo. The top 10 is rounded out by last week's #9-holder, Some Minds by Flume (featuring Andrew Wyatt).

Back in the full-lengths, The Waifs' Beautiful You hangs on to the top spot for another week, with Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu's The Gospel Album stepping up to #2, knocking Sia (Jesus, Australia) and 1000 Forms Of Fear down to #3. The top five are rounded out with stalwart slacker-rocker Courtney Barnett, and her acclaimed full-length Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit.