NACC 200 NOTABLES:
1] It was beginning to feel like Wet Leg may never relinquish their hold on the #1 spot, but it does indeed happen this week in the most dramatic of fashion. New Zealand quartet The Beths explode in points, soaring from their #11 debut last week and leaping straight to #1 with their fourth LP, Straight Line Was A Lie. In doing so, it becomes their third straight #1 album on the NACC 200 and their second to climb from outside the Top 10 to #1. Theirs is just the second album to climb from outside the Top 10 to the top this year, following Japanese Breakfast, who rose 14-1 in April. And rising to #1 in just two weeks on the chart ties them for the fastest climb ever to #1. Their three chart-toppers place them in good company as one of just 10 acts with 3+ #1 albums on the NACC 200.
2] Making the biggest climb into the NACC Top 10 this week is London native Dev Hynes, who records as Blood Orange. Essex Honey is his fifth studio album and features contributions from Lorde, Caroline Polachek, and Daniel Caesar, to name a few. This is his first LP in seven years since 2018’s Negro Swan, and just like that album, it lands inside the Top 5 of the NACC 200 with a 37-5 jump. The album also rises 12-1 at NACC R&B/Soul.
3] Also making the Top 10 this week is Brooklyn quartet Big Thief. They’ve spent just over a decade making music together. Their highly anticipated sixth LP, Double Infinity, soars onto the NACC 200 this week at #8. It’s just the fourth album to debut inside the Top 10 this year. The others from Stereolab, Turnstile, and Wet Leg all eventually went to #1. That is a spot that has eluded the band thus far, despite their four previous albums all going Top 10. Hopefully, the fifth time will be the charm in putting them over the top!
4] Longtime lead singer of Paramore, Hayley Williams, is back with her third solo album and first since departing Atlantic Records. Her newfound freedom has been channeled into an album that is the second-best reviewed of 2025. Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party enjoys this week’s biggest climb on the NACC 200, jumping from 128-30, and gives us our first opportunity to feature her away from her band in our weekly NACC Chart recap.
5] This week’s most-added album comes from an Australian band that began as a home recording project for Dan Whitford in 2001. Now a quartet, Cut Copy has released seven albums since then. Amazingly, we’ve never had an opportunity to feature them until now. That seventh LP, Moments, is this week’s most-added album, collecting 56 Top 10 Adds. The album debuts at #78 on the NACC 200 and simultaneously makes a splashy Top 10 debut at NACC Electronic, opening at #6.
GENRE CHART HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK
– Alabama Shakes is back after a six-year hiatus (2018-2024) as a slimmed-down trio. “Another Life” is their first new music in a decade and teases a forthcoming album. Lead singer Brittany Howard topped the NACC 200 in 2018, and now the band debuts at the top of the NACC Singles Chart.
– Wet Leg may not be #1 on the NACC 200 anymore, but they have logged an impressive ninth week on top of both the NACC Non-Comm and NACC NEXT Charts. That is the longest run at #1 the NACC Non-Comm Chart has seen. The longest NACC NEXT run belongs to Alvvays (12 weeks in 2021).
– The NACC Jazz Chart is now one chart-topper short of the total #1s the Jazz Chart saw in all of 2024, with the 17-piece Grammy Award-winning Christian McBride Big Band rising 6-1 this week with Without Further Ado Vol. 1.
