We figured it would be a thrilling race to #1 this week with three Top 20 debuts and some massive jumps into the Top 10 last week, and it didn’t disappoint. The battle was a fierce one with Sharon Van Etten leading almost the entire reporting period. Then just before the deadline, Chaz Bundick (aka Toro Y Moi) snuck by and completed an impressive 20-1 jump to the top (the third biggest climb ever to #1 on the NACC 200). Pitchfork recently labeled the Carpark Records release, Outer Peace, “one of his best albums in years” while Drowned In Sound muses that “hopefully the splendor of Outer Peace is an eclectic foreshadowing of a thrilling year in music.” Don’t count the albums that Toro Y Moi climbed over to get to #1 out just yet though. With heavy hitters like Sharon Van Etten (6-2), who has the best-reviewed album of 2019 thus far, Pedro The Lion (4-3), and Deerhunter (16-4) as competition, no one’s #1 chances can be ruled out just yet.
Storming into the NACC Top 10 this week is Maryland native Maggie Rogers. Her debut studio album has been literally years in the making. After recording independent albums in 2012 and 2014, Rogers went viral in 2016 when a song she wrote (“Alaska”) was listened to in a master class at NYU by Pharrell Williams. The song nearly brought Williams to tears and the video taken of it has been viewed over a million times. Now signed to Capitol, various tracks have been teased from Heard It In A Past Life for the better part of a year. Finally released in its entirety, the album soars from 70-8 on the NACC 200 this week.
Exploding onto the chart this week at #13 is Los Angeles musician and art designer Mike Krol. Power Chords is his fourth LP, and second on Merge Records, and clocking in at 33 minutes, it’s almost twice as long as any of his previous releases. His fuzzy garage rock fuses pop melodies with punk abandon. And the cover art, with Krol sporting a black eye, fat lip, and bloodied fingers speaks to the personal tumult that unfolds lyrically. Fun Mike Krol fact: his name, image and two of his songs were featured prominently in an episode of the fourth season of Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe.
The NACC 200’s biggest climb this week comes from another LA-based solo musician. Alex Lilly has toured as a keyboardist and background singer for Beck, Lorde, and The Bird & The Bee. Her debut LP, 2% Milk, follows a self-released 2016 EP entitled Paranoid Times. This new project has actually been released on Bird & The Bee singer Inara George’s label, Release Me. George also directed the video for lead single “Pornographic Mind.” This week Lilly soars from 196-63 on the NACC 200.
The week’s most-added record comes from Oxford, England alt-rock band Swervedriver. Formed in 1989, the band, helmed by core members Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge, have released their second album since their reunion in 2008, after a 10-year hiatus. Future Ruins, out on Dangerbird, is their sixth studio album overall. In a wildly competitive and crowded add week that saw new albums from Guided By Voices, James Blake, Guster, and Buzzcocks (and even older UK band than Swervedriver, dating back to 1976), as well as new singles from Vampire Weekend and Jenny Lewis, the veterans of indie rock seem to have marked 2019 as prime time for a return.
Broken Bells make it four straight weeks at #1 on the NACC Singles Chart this week with “Shelter.” That ties Childish Gambino for the longest stay at the top we’ve seen on this chart. The week’s most-added single marks the return of Vampire Weekend. Father Of The Bride will be their first new album in six years. The first taste of their fourth LP is a double single: “Harmony Hall” b/w “2021.”
You can find the Top 20 of the NACC 200, the Top 5 of the NACC Adds Chart, and all of this week’s #1 genre releases and most-added genre records below. This week sees almost all NACC Charts retain their #1s with the exception of NACC Hip Hop (and of course, the NACC 200). Subscribe to NACC to view full top 30 charts in all genres.
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NACC 200 Chart: Top 5 ADDS
# | ARTIST | TITLE | LABEL | # OF ADDS
1) SWERVEDRIVER Future Ruins [Dangerbird] //72//
2) SNEAKS Highway Hypnosis [Merge] //67//
3) JAMES BLAKE Assume Form [Polydor] //64//
4) ROYAL CANOE Waver [Paper Page] //60//
5) WILLIAM TYLER Goes West [Merge] //58//
#1 On NACC Genre Charts:
GENRE: ARTIST Title [Label]
NON-COMM: SHARON VAN ETTEN Remind Me Tomorrow [Jagjaguwar]
NACC NEXT: SHARON VAN ETTEN Remind Me Tomorrow [Jagjaguwar]
HEAVY: SOILWORK Verkligheten [Nuclear Blast USA]
ELECTRONIC: VARIOUS ARTISTS Brainfeeder X [Brainfeeder]
HIP HOP: GEORGIA ANNE MULDROW Overload [Brainfeeder]
JAZZ: HAROLD MABERN The Iron Man: Live At Smoke [Smoke Sessions]
FOLK: LULA WILES What Will We Do [Smithsonian Folkways]
WORLD: ALBOROSIE Unbreakable – Alborosie Meets The Wailers United [Greensleeves]
CHILL: MOODS Zoom Out [Boogie Angst]
BLUES: CHARLES BRADLEY Black Velvet [Dunham/Daptone]
LATIN: CHUCHO VALDES Jazz Batá 2 [Mack Avenue]
Most-Added @ NACC Genre:
GENRE: ARTIST Title [Label]
ELECTRONIC: NICOLA CRUZ Siku [ZZK]
FOLK: LULA WILES What Will We Do [Smithsonian Folkways]
HEAVY: DETHONATOR Race Against The Sun: Part 1 [Pavement]
HIP HOP (tie): DAWN New Breed [Local Action/Our Dawn]
J-E-T-S Play (EP) [Innovative Leisure]
JAZZ: MICHAEL WOLFF Swirl [Sunnyside]
WORLD: NICOLA CRUZ Siku [ZZK]
NACC Singles:
GENRE: ARTIST Title [Label]
#1 SINGLE: BROKEN BELLS “Shelter” [30th Century]
#1 MOST-ADDED SINGLE: VAMPIRE WEEKEND “Harmony Hall” b/w “2021” [Columbia]
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