Hip hop heavyweight Kanye West’s highly anticipated album Yeezus has been beaten to the top spot of the Australian ARIA Charts by a team of country musicians.
The Great Country Songbook, from bona fide Australian country music stars Troy Cassar-Daley & Adam Harvey, debuted at #1 on the album charts, beating West to the top spot by just over 100 copies.
News Limited reports that West’s Australian label Universal Music had demanded a recount of the sales figures, but that Cassar-Daley and Harvey still managed to pip the hip hop superstar.
The Great Country Songbook, a collection of country music covers, marks the first number one albums for both musicians. Cassar-Daley’s previous best was with Home (#9 Mar 2012), while Harvey hit #10 with ‘Falling Into Place’ in July 2011.
Yeezus is Kanye West’s first official solo release since 2010′s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and his 2011 team-up with Jay-Z, Watch The Throne as well as his 2012 GOOD Music release Cruel Summer.
At this point, Yeezus is the third album of West’s to peak at #2, although to be fair West only had three days of sales as he released his record on Tuesday.
Originally set to drop on June 18th, somebody managed to get their hands of a copy of Yeezus and leaked it a few days early. It isn’t immediately clear who leaked the album online yet, but Def Jam – Kanye West’s record label – are said to be furious. The label even have an entire division for leaks management and they’ve whipped into overdrive with damage control.
Empire Of the Sun and their sophomore album Ice On the Dune debuted at #3. The album features single ‘Alive’, which hit a new peak of #22 this week.
Albums:
Top 5:
1. Troy Cassar-Daley & Adam Harvey ‘The Great Country Songbook’ (debut)
2. Kanye West ‘Yeezus’ (debut)
3. Empire Of The Sun ‘Ice On The Dune’ (debut)
4. Bernard Fanning ‘Departures’
5. Original Soundtrack ‘The Great Gatsby’
UPDATE: ARIA have retracted the charts following a recalculation. They released the following statement to the media.
“ARIA would like to inform Australian music fans that, due to a data error discovered after initial publication, this week’s ARIA Albums chart has been recalculated. This has resulted in a change to the top of the chart, with Kanye West moving to the #1 spot with the album “Yeezus”, and ‘The Great Country Songbook’ (Troy Cassar-Daly and Adam Harvey) to #2.”
“ARIA takes the calculation of the weekly Charts very seriously, and aims to provide the most accurate information to both industry and fans alike. On the rare occasion an error is made, we move as quickly as possible to have it rectified. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. The ARIA Albums Chart will be re-published shortly.”
