Two records released on the same day went straight to the top of the ARIA Australian artist albums chart this week, with Holly Hebe's EP Mood Ring at number one and Swapmeet's Mount Zero at number two.
Both came out on 17 July. Mood Ring is a seven-track EP from a songwriter whose singles Swimsuit and Birthmark were played on triple j this year. Mount Zero is the debut album from Swapmeet, an Adelaide four-piece who were the first act from outside the United States signed to the Los Angeles label Winspear.
Psycroptic's The Pulse of Annihilation is new at four, which gives the chart three debuts in the top four. Ninajirachi's I Love My Computer held at three and Keith Urban's Flow State at five.
Further down, Royel Otis moved from 11 to six with Hickey, Ocean Alley from 10 to seven with Love Balloon, and Vika and Linda's Where Do You Come From? climbed from 13 to 10. Tame Impala's Deadbeat slipped a place to nine.
The main albums chart for the same week has no Australian act in its top 10. Gracie Abrams entered at number one with Daughter from Hell, ahead of Olivia Rodrigo, Olivia Dean and Noah Kahan. On the singles chart, Tame Impala's Dracula at nine was the highest-placed Australian entry in the top 10.
The two charts count different things. The Australian artist chart ranks local releases against each other. The main chart ranks everything on sale in the country. An act can lead the first and be absent from the top 10 of the second in the same week, which is what happened here, and it is the ordinary condition of a market this size rather than a bad week for anyone.
ARIA compiles both from sales and streaming for the week and publishes on Fridays. The next chart lands on Friday, and it will show whether either debut holds its position once the release-week buying stops.
