This first week after Labor Day always leads to huge changes on the NACC 200. With a rush of stations returning from summer break injecting new energy comes a whopping eight new records in the Top 20 and a big jump to #1. Making that aforementioned climb to the top is last week’s most-added artist: English quintet Slowdive. The band, who first formed in 1989, jumps 8-1 with their fifth LP, Everything Is Alive (Dead Oceans/Secretly Group), improving on the Top 10 peak of their 2017 self-titled comeback album. Their climb to #1 in two weeks ties for the quickest climb to the top the NACC 200 has ever seen. They also rise to #1 at NACC NEXT & NEXT Non-Comm.
Two albums reach the NACC Top 10 this week. Making the third biggest climb on the entire chart and making just the second 100+ spot jump into the Top 10 this year is the appropriately named Speedy Ortiz. Speedy indeed! The band originated in Northampton, MA and was founded as a solo project for lead singer, guitarist, and lyricist Sadie Dupuis in 2011. Speedy Ortiz became a full fledged band later that year and has released four LPs, including their latest, Rabbit Rabbit (their first on Wax Nine after three Carpark releases). The album leaps from 128-9 this week.
Also reaching the top tier of the chart is Be Your Own Pet, led by lead singer Jamina Pearl. Although the Nashville quartet has been around since 2004, this is our first opportunity to feature them here. BYOP disbanded in 2008 after releasing two albums. The band’s hiatus ended in 2021 when they reunited at Jack White’s request for them to open some dates for him. This led to their signing with his label, Third Man, and releasing their first studio album in 15 years. Mommy is their third album and jumps 14-7 on the NACC 200 this week.
Though we’ll perhaps never know just how big the giant dog is in the name of this week’s highest debut on the NACC 200, we’re guessing it is in fact a very big dog… and a terrifying dog judging from the album’s artwork! Austin-based punk five-piece A Giant Dog jumps aboard the NACC 200 this week at #31 with their 6th LP. Having released five albums in seven years (between 2012-19), the band, fronted by Sabrina Ellis, waited four years to release its latest effort, Bite (Merge).
It was a battle royale this week for the ‘most-added’ crown between relatively new Chicago quartet Deeper and beloved indie band Sparklehorse (with an album of material lead singer Mark Linkous was working on before his 2010 death). Only one add ended up separating the two, but it was Deeper that collected 62 adds this week to land at #1 on the NACC 200 Top 30 Adds Chart. Their third album, and first for Sub Pop, is titled Careful!. The title references the time in which the album was written and the word they kept hearing from everyone while the pandemic was going on. The album also debuts at #77 on the NACC 200 this week and we imagine it will be anything but careful heading up the chart next week.
Mitski spends an impressive sixth (and final) week at #1 on the NACC Singles Chart with “Bug Like An Angel.” Why final? Because the album from which it comes from, her seventh LP, The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We, is due this coming Friday, which means the entire body of work will now be counted as a whole. The most-added single of the week comes from Leads, UK quartet English Teacher. Newly signed to Island Records, the band’s new single is titled “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab.” Though they didn’t collect enough adds to crack the NACC 200 Top 30 Adds Chart, they did best the next closest adding single from a little band called The Rolling Stones.
