Courtney Barnett means business. By remaining at #1 on the NACC 200 this week she matches Ty Segall, Soccer Mommy, & Frankie Cosmos for the longest run on top in 2018. And technically, with the week off last week, she’s been at #1 longer than anyone this year. Barnett will be part of Pitchfork’s “In Sight Out” series the morning of her Pitchfork Music Festival performance on Friday, July 20. The conversation with Barnett has already sold out. Her Mom + Pop release, Tell Me How You Really Feel, will have its fiercest competition for the top spot next week with Father John Misty and Neko Case both now back-to-back behind her. And don’t discount Gorillaz as a contender either. Even though they aren’t in the Top 10 yet, their 2017 release, Humanz, soared 13-1 last May. Regardless of what happens, Barnett has already established her album of one of the most successful on the NACC 200 this year.
Our previous most-added record has now become the biggest climber into the Top 10, rising 39-8. It’s Aussie band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. The band will be playing the Splendour In The Grass Festival in their home-country later this month before embarking on a European tour in August that sees them playing a number of Summer festivals. US tour dates begin August 25 in San Diego and wrap September 17 in Washington DC. Congrats go out to their band’s label, Sub Pop, who place three albums in the NACC Top 10 this week along with the aforementioned Father John Misty as well as Beach House. Also reaching the Top 10 this week: legendary Smith’s co-founder and acclaimed guitarist Johnny Marr. His third solo release, Call The Comet, rises 14-10.
Scoring two of our five features this week is Gorillaz. Not only are they this week’s most-added artist, but their sixth studio album, The Now Now (out on Parlophone/Warner Bros.) is also the NACC 200’s highest debut at #15, which makes it this year’s second highest debut behind Beach House (#12). Oddly, very few albums that have debuted inside the Top 20 on the NACC 200 go on to reach #1. Only 3 of the 14 albums we’ve had debut inside the Top 20 as the week’s highest debut have gone on to hit #1. We’ll see if Gorillaz can buck that trend in the weeks to come. The British virtual band fronted by Damon Albarn formed in 1988 and recently won the Brit Award for Best British Group at the 2018 Brit Awards, their first win in ten nominations.
Last month, Interpol became the first artist to ever land the NACC 200’s biggest climb with a single. Every top climber up to that point had been an LP or EP. The feat is accomplished again less than a month later by Canadian electronic-duo Bob Moses. Neither member is named Bob or Moses or Bob Moses. The duo is actually Tom Howie and Jimmy Vallance. The name Bob Moses (actually Robert Moses) was given to them by two of the co-founders of Brooklyn-based label Scissor and Thread, who liked naming their artists after New York City icons (in this case city planner Robert Moses). That’s your history lesson for the day. Bob Moses (the duo) race from 191-116 on the chart this week with their new Domino single, “Heaven Only Knows.”
With an open spot to highlight another artist, the clear choice went to Let’s Eat Grandma. The British duo of Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth are, despite what you might think, not geriatric-loving cannibals. Their name is taken from a grammatical joke meant to stress the importance of comma placement. Better grammar police than cannibals, in the end. The duo’s sophomore release, I’m All Ears (Transgressive/PIAS), has been met with critical acclaim. It currently ranks at #21 on Metacritic’s ‘2018 Highest Scores’ for albums released so far this year. In nearly any other week this year they’d be enjoying the highest debut on the chart. But thanks to Gorillaz, that is not the case. Nevertheless, they do enjoy the third highest debut on the NACC 200 this year.