It’s a new day on the Billboard charts…at least it is if you go by the insane number of new albums on the chart this week. Leading the charge? Justin Bieber. The Canadian teen idol (and baby daddy?) scores the first holiday album of 2011 to reach the top of the charts. Under the Mistletoe starts off with a healthy 210,000 copies. Featuring guest appearances by Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men and Busta Rhymes, the album should have no problem plowing past the million sales mark by the time we’re done removing tinsel from our doorways. Of course, we haven’t even bought the Butterball from the local Stop ‘n Shop yet, so there’s plenty of time to make that happen.

The entire top 5 consists of new albums, with one holdover. I’m sure you can guess what that holdover is. Adele’s 21 continues it’s remarkable run, scanning another 108,000 copies and sitting at the #5 position. Yes, every album in the top 5 scans at least 100,000 copies. Actually, each of the top 7 albums scans 100,000 copies. That might be the first time this has happened in the entire year of 2011.

The other major debuts come from DC rapper Wale, whose #2 entry with Ambition easily marks a career high. The Rick Ross affiliated MC rings up a solid 164,000 units in his first week out. He is followed by country superstar Miranda Lambert at #3 and reality star turned money-in-the-bank Susan Boyle at #4 with her third album, Someone to Watch Over Me. Those two are separated by a mere 1,000 units. This marks a serious comedown from previous Boyle first week totals, but SuBo tends to gain steam as time passes, so look for this one to be a consistent seller into the holiday season.

It’s a pretty big week-there’s stuff happening ALL over the place. Christmas albums are exploding all over the place-evergreen titles by Andrea Bocelli and Josh Groban re-enter the Top 200, signifying the unofficial beginning of the “season”. The remaining announcements of superstar 4th quarter releases have been unveiled, and are causing increases for previous albums by those artists (Rihanna’s Loud, for example, skates up 22 spots to #56 on a 60% increase from previous week’s sales), revisions and reissues create movement (U2’s Achtung Baby re-enters the entire Top 200 at #35 thanks to a series of deluxe reissues), and there are a ton of moves that can just be attributed to plain old hits (way too many to enumerate.)

Someone probably not having a good week? The person who thought it would be a good idea to unite Metallica and Lou Reed. The last time a Metallica studio album did not hit #1 on the charts, Justin Bieber was -6. This week, LuLu debuts with a shockingly anemic 13,000 copies, achieving a #36 rank on the chart. I’m not even sure that a Lou Reed solo album couldn’t have achieved a number like that with the right promotion. In the words of Kanye and Jay, that shit cray!! Will this completely torpedo Metallica’s career? I can’t imagine them scaling any major level of success with this flop on their resume.

Next week! Oh, next week. The #1 album will very likely be from an artist who didn’t even get featured on this week’s New Release report (or did he? I have to check). Rapper Mac Miller will top the charts with his debut album, Blue Slide Park. Don’t know who Mac Miller is? Me either. But damn if the kids don’t. Apparently dude built up a following through these new social networky kinda sites like the YouTube? OK, I kid…kinda. But this is a pretty impressive feat, and he should enter with a number just a tad south of 200K. Hip-hop’s next Great White Hope, probably. Is Asher Roth sitting around going “what the fuck, dude?” Probably.

The soundtrack to the latest installment of “Twilight” and the 40th edition of “Now That’s What I Call Music” will also debut with numbers north of 100,000. Depending on the staying power of Justin Bieber and Susan Boyle, as well as the indefatigable Adele and potential jumps from this week’s CMA ceremony, we might be looking at another week with 7 albums in six figures. Selling records! What a concept!!

Here’s this week’s Top 20 albums:

1) Under the Mistletoe | Justin Bieber
2) Ambition | Wale
3) Four The Record | Miranda Lambert
4) Someone to Watch Over Me | Susan Boyle
5) 21 | Adele
6) Ceremonials | Florence + The Machine
7) Mylo Xyloto | Coldplay
8) Christmas | Michael Buble
9) Open Invitation | Tyrese
10) Stronger | Kelly Clarkson
11) Thirte3n | Megadeth
12) Clear As Day | Scotty McCreery
13) Clancy’s Tavern | Toby Keith
14) Own The Night | Lady Antebellum
15) Tha Carter IV | Lil Wayne
16) Heavenly Christmas | Jackie Evancho
17) Duets II | Tony Bennett
18) Goat Rodeo Sessions | Yo-Yo Ma
19) Bad As Me | Tom Waits
20) Cole World: The Sideline Story | J. Cole