After all the Justin Bieber and Usher-related excitement of the past two weeks, things on the Billboard album charts have slowed back down to a crawl. Thanks in part to his performance on “SNL” this past weekend, Mr. Bieber jumps back into the #1 slot with “My World 2.0”. It scans 102,000 copies this week, giving Justin a three-week total of 675,000. Not too shabby. Meanwhile, his mentor slides into the runner-up spot with “Raymond vs. Raymond”, which drops a stunning 75% this week to 92,000 units.
Four albums debut in the Top 20 this week. Former Guns ‘n Roses/Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash enters at the #3 spot with his first solo album. The Santana-like effort, featuring guest appearances from the likes of Fergie and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, sells just over 60K this week. A CD document of Madonna’s “Sticky & Sweet” tour (a live album? By Madonna? SERIOUSLY?) starts at #10, the new one from Jakob Dylan opens at #12, and retro-soul faves Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings debut at #15.
In other big chart news, Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” drops down to #26 this week. Why is this news? Because this is the first time in “Fearless”‘s entire 74-week existence that it has not been in the Top 20. Not sure what the last album was that had that kind of run, but I can’t imagine there have been too many of those recently (for the record, Lady Gaga and Zac Brown Band have been out for virtually the same amount of time, but neither of those albums started out in the Top Twenty).
Almost every album in the Top 200 decreases in scans from the week before as things settle down post-Easter. The handful of increases can be attributed to forthcoming returns. Jack Johnson’s “In Between Dreams” reenters the Top 200 at #178 with a 41% increase over the prior week’s sales. Johnson’s new single, “You & Your Heart”, premiered on iTunes last week and also debuted on the Hot 100 singles chart at a respectable #20, immediately becoming the highest-charting single of Johnson’s career. Increases were also seen by the “Glee” soundtrack (heralding the show’s return this past week) and MGMT’s “Oracular Spectacular”. The indie-pop duo has a slight chance of scoring next week’s #1 album with “Oracular”‘s follow-up “Congratulations”, although if I were a betting man, I’d wager another week at the top for the Bieb.
Here are this week’s Top 20 albums:
1) “My World 2.0” Justin Bieber
2) “Raymond vs. Raymond” Usher
3) “Slash” Slash
4) “Need You Now” Lady Antebellum
5) “Now That’s What I Call Music 33” Various Artists
6) “Still Standing” Monica
7) “The Fame” Lady GaGa
8) “My World” Justin Bieber
9) “New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh” Erykah Badu
10) “Sticky & Sweet Tour” Madonna
11) “Battle of the Sexes” Ludacris
12) “Women & Country” Jakob Dylan
13) “The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies)” Black Eyed Peas
14) “Freight Train” Alan Jackson
15) “I Learned the Hard Way” Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
16) “Animal” Ke$ha
17) “Here I Am” Marvin Sapp
18) “The Fame: Monster” Lady GaGa
19) “Soldier of Love” Sade
20) “Foundation” Zac Brown Band
2 comments
GG says:
Apr 15, 2010
Ush gets to at least 500K, but this album isn’t selling a milli.
blerdwords says:
Apr 16, 2010
It’s already over 400K, so 500K is a definite, but hitting a million doesn’t look good. Especially since they’ve burned off 5 singles already.