MJ Lenderman is enjoying a real breakthrough on the NACC 200 with his fourth solo album, Manning Fireworks (Anti-). The Asheville, NC native had not reached the Top 10 of the chart before but is finding wild success with his latest studio effort. The album enjoyed one of the Top 10 highest debuts on the chart this year when it opened at #16 two weeks ago. It then tied for the second quickest climb to #1 ever on the NACC 200 last week. This week Lenderman’s Manning Fireworks scores the most points any #1 album has accumulated going back to April of this year. He also rises from 3-1 on the NACC Non-Comm Chart.
Two albums reach the NACC Top 10 this week. One comes from last week’s biggest climber on the chart. Hinds leaps 20-10 to score their first Top 10 on the NACC 200. But since we showcased them last week, we want to give the spotlight to the other album reaching the top tier this week. It comes from Welsh duo The Bug Club. They had the highest-debuting album on the chart three weeks ago at #58, though we usually don’t feature debuts outside the Top 40. We’re very pleased to have the opportunity to give them their first Wednesday NACC Chart Recap mention now as their third LP, On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System (their Sub Pop debut), rises 13-9. Forming in 2016, the band started as a trio with brothers Sam and Ross Willmett along with Tilly Harris, though Ross left after the band had self-released two self-titled EPs.
Longtime Austin, TX band The Jesus Lizard are back with their seventh studio album, Rack (Ipecac). It’s been a very long time coming seeing as their last album was 1998’s Blue. The band formed in 1987 with all six of their previous albums released between 1990-1998. The band have broken up twice along the way, though impressively three of the four current members are original with the fourth having been with the band since 1989. Famed producer Steve Albini called The Jesus Lizard “the best band of the 90s, hands down.” Their new album lands this week’s biggest climb on the NACC 200, leaping 192-30.
The chart’s highest debut comes in just one spot behind The Jesus Lizard at #31. Atlanta, GA five-piece Lunar Vacation. They formed in high school in 2016 when a teacher suggested two of the members start a band. Two EPs and two studio albums, including their latest, Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire (Keeled Scales) have followed. As with The Bug Club, the band’s leap onto the chart this week gives us our first opportunity to feature them here.
Most-added honors this week go to Omaha, NE trio Bright Eyes. A longtime staple of College and Non-Comm Radio, the band formed in 1995 by singer-songwriter Conor Oberst, Over the years Oberst has released solo material as well as played in bands like Desaparecidos, Monsters Of Folk, and Better Oblivion Community Center among others. Bright Eyes are back after four years away with their 11th LP, Five Dice, All Threes (Dead Oceans/Secretly Canadian). The album picks up 64 Top 10 Adds and is one of the Top-5-highest debuts of the week on the NACC 200 at #50.
Soccer Mommy doesn’t waste much time away from the top of the NACC Singles Chart this week. She was #1 just three weeks ago with “M” (the second preview track from her upcoming Evergreen album, due October 25). Now with “Driver” leaping 16-1 this week, she becomes the only artist this year with two chart-topping singles. Three singles appear on this week’s NACC Top 30 Adds Chart of the 56 total that were going for adds this week. Six-piece Bon Iver, fronted by Justin Vernon, has returned. Their new single “S P E Y S I D E” will be part of an EP called Sable that comes out October 18. The other singles on the chart this week come from Mogwai and Chloë Doucet.
