Ocean Alley’s ‘Love Balloon’ Floats to No. 3 on ARIA Chart

It’s love at first sight for Ocean Alley’s Love Balloon (via Community Music), which opens at No. 3 on the latest ARIA Albums Chart.

Recorded in three stages over roughly three months, Love Balloon is Ocean Alley’s fifth studio album, and first to feature the sonic talents of legendary rock producer Nick DiDia.

With its bright start, Love Balloon is the Sydney indie-rock outfit’s third consecutive collection to hit No. 3, following 2020’s Lonely Diamond and 2022’s Low Altitude Living.

Their breakthrough second album from 2018, Chiaroscuro, which housed the triple j Hottest 100 leader “Confidence,” reached No. 11 on the national survey.

Ocean Alley are taking their love balloon to the UK, where they’re set to play a dream show at London’s Alexandra Palace this Saturday, for more than 8,000 fans. The chillout specialists also appear on Spotify advertising banners in FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou Stadium.

On Spotify alone, reps say, the album has enjoyed more than 4 million streams, 150,000 playlist adds and 575,000 “saves”.

Love Balloon paces several new releases on the latest frame. Cardi B second studio album, Am I The Drama? (Atlantic/Warner), is new at No. 8. Featuring guest spots with Selena Gomez, Kehlani, Tyla, Summer Walker and Janet Jackson, Drama is the followup to the New York rapper’s 2018, Invasion Of Privacy, which peaked at No. 5.

Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails nabs a top 10 appearance with the soundtrack to TRON: Ares (Interscope/Universal). It’s new at No. 10 for the American industrial rock act’s sixth top tier effort in Australia, a tally that includes a best of No. 2 for 1999’s The Fragile. Daft Punk’s soundtrack to TRON: Legacy reached No. 17 in 2011.

Lola Young just misses out on a top 10 berth with I’m Only Fucking Myself (Island/Universal), her third album. It’s new at No. 12, for the British singer’s first ARIA Albums Chart appearance.

Further down the list, published late Friday, September 26th, Brisbane band Platonic Sex crack the top 40 with their debut album Face To The Flywire (Orchard). It’s new at No. 31.

At the top of the leaderboard, the soundtrack for KPop Demon Hunters (Republic/Universal) holds at No. 1 for a ninth non-consecutive week. Among soundtracks, that matches the run of nine weeks by the 1997 soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet, ARIA reports.

Since the ARIA Charts were first published in 1983, only four soundtracks have logged more weeks at the top, according to the charts compiler: the Australian cast recording of Jesus Christ Superstar (10 weeks in 1992); plus Titanic (1998), Moulin Rouge (2001) and A Star Is Born (2018), which each led for 11 weeks.

Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, KPop Demon Hunters’ lead track “Golden” keeps the crown for a ninth consecutive week.

“Golden” reigns over an ARIA Top 50 that isn’t impacted by any homegrown recordings, or any new releases.