The Temper Trap’s self-titled sophomore album has debuted at the top of the Aria Albums Chart this morning, beating out some high-profile competition to the #1 slot.
Released the same week as the latest efforts from comedy duo Tenacious D, and pipping Slash’s latest solo album to the post, the Australian quintet have delivered strong first week sales on the long-awaited follow-up to their debut album, 2009’s Conditions. A debut that may have catapulted them into the global music stage, but one that despite achieving Platinum status, only just scraped ARIA’s top ten, peaking at #9.
Similarly, The Temper Trap’s singles have never made it into the coveted top ten either. Their current single, “Need Your Love” which preceded the album’s release, stalled at #39 and has currently dropped off the singles chart. Only just managing to beat out the position of previous single “Fader” which peaked at #47, and just behind “Love Lost” at #32.
Meanwhile “Sweet Disposition”, the song that launched the band’s career and their biggest-selling to date, still only achieved #14 at the height of its success in Australia, despite cracking the top ten singles charts in both the US and the UK
In fact, England became the band’s de-facto home while they were touring Europe and simultaneously writing what would become album number two. Though their manager, Danny Rogers, mentioned the obvious pressures of the difficult second album syndrome; stating the five-piece were feeling “as confident as you can be on a second album,” debuting atop the albums chart in their native country proves that their hard work has paid dividends.
There’s no doubting the strength of their entry into the ARIA charts, but how long they’ll stay crowning it is another issue.
A strong live presence will surely help maintain sales, currently on the road as part of a national tour, The Temper Trap are also booked to support Coldplay throughout their visit to Australia in November. However, their touring commitments between that gap of late-June to August are devoted to meeting their international demand in both Europe and America.
The critical reception to the band’s self-titled album, at least here in Australia, has been decidedly mixed. Here at Tone Deaf we gave The Temper Trap an average rating with “more misses than hits;” while The Vine‘s humorous write-up declared it would be “of interest to fans but also a fascinating case study in precision mediocrity.”
More interestingly, over in the band’s key UK market, the record debuted at #17 on the charts with the music press already delivering some lacklustre verdicts. NME called it “vision-free… faceless bluster-rock” while The Guardian gave the record a scathing two-star review. Worse still, UNCUT deemed it “not quite criminal, but close.”
Tone Deaf will be keeping a close eye on next week’s charts, as the results could spell the rocky-road ahead for the Temper Trap, or their certified success.
Watch this space…
