So, Adele’s 21 is turning into quite the juggernaut. In a week when tons of superstar albums came out (8 albums debuted in the Top Ten), the British R&B singer retains her stranglehold on the top of the Billboard charts, with another 155,000 albums sold. In addition, the set’s first single, “Rolling in the Deep”, finally makes it to the top of Billboard’s Top Digital Songs chart and probably would’ve already been #1 on the overall Hot 100 singles chart if pop radio wasn’t so late to the party-I guess they’re too busy playing Ke$ha records to pay attention to what people are actually buying.
As I mentioned in the last paragraph, only two albums remain in the Top 10 from last week’s chart. Down at #9, Mumford & Sons’ Sigh No More rests-flat in sales from the previous week, but pushed down six spots from it’s #3 position. Reason for the displacement? New albums. LOTS of new albums. Starting with the Beastie Boys, who make a semi-triumphant comeback with Hot Sauce Committee Part 2. It sells a solid but not mind-blowing 128,000 copies to land in the #2 spot. Right behind them? The latest “Now That’s What I Call Music” compilation. Now 38 starts with 124,000. Those albums are followed by (inhale) indie troupe Fleet Foxes (debuting at #4 with an impressive 91K), Jennifer Lopez (on the comeback trail at #5 with her best first week in nearly a decade-83K), Stevie Nicks (#6 with 52K-and Fleetwood Mac’s classic Rumours re-enters the entire Billboard chart this week at #11…a good week for Stevie), Sade’s Ultimate Collection at #7 (38K), Musiq Soulchild (#8, 35K), and the top ten is rounded out by Sixx A.M., who start at #10 with 30K. (exhale)
A few other notable feats on this week’s chart: Mother’s Day is very likely the cause of not only the strong debuts by Nicks and Sade, but also the big jumps made by Josh Groban (#66 this week, +134%) and Michael Buble (re-entering at #172, +69%). The comeback trail this week contains not only J. Lo and Stevie Nicks , but R&B singer Kelly Price (#36, her highest charting album in almost a decade), Aretha Franklin (whose album debuts at #54 despite only being available in Wal-Mart stores) and Donny & Marie Osmond, whose country-flavored self-titled effort lands at an impressive #30-no doubt aided by the mid-week news that Marie re-married her first husband suddenly.
You’ve got to give props to staying power on this week’s chart-or mourn the music business’s lack of cultivating new artists. Of this week’s Top 10 albums, only three artists made their debuts in the last 10 years-Adele, Fleet Foxes, and Mumford & Sons.
On the country side of things-the new Shania Twain book has goosed sales for her Greatest Hits album (re-entering the charts at #92 with a gain of over 300%), and finally, Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now, which has already sold 3.5 million copies in 16 months, skips 43-27 on this week’s chart, a gain of 93% in sales, very likely due to the release of a new single, the first track from their upcoming third album. “Just a Kiss” starts at #3 on the Digital Singles chart (behind Adele and Katy Perry’s “E.T.”) with an impressive 211,000 units sold.
I don’t think anyone will be able to unseat Adele from her perch atop the charts next week, but I’d look for surprising debuts from comedy outfit The Lonely Island, teen singer Christina Perri, and indie rapper Tyler the Creator, from the much buzzed-about Odd Future collective.
Check out the full Top 20 after the jump:
1) 21 | Adele
2) Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2 | Beastie Boys
3) Now That’s What I Call Music 38 | Various Artists
4) Helplessness Blues | Fleet Foxes
5) Love? | Jennifer Lopez
6) In Your Dreams | Stevie Nicks
7) Ultimate Collection | Sade
8) Musiqinthemagic | Musiq Soulchild
9) Sigh No More | Mumford & Sons
10) This is Gonna Hurt | Sixx A.M.
11) Rumours | Fleetwood Mac
12) My Kinda Party | Jason Aldean
13) Wasting Light | Foo Fighters
14) Lemonade Mouth Soundtrack | Various Artists
15) Doo-Wops & Hooligans | Bruno Mars
16) Paper Airplane | Alison Krauss & Union Station
17) Teenage Dream | Katy Perry
18) So Beautiful or So What | Paul Simon
19) F.A.M.E. | Chris Brown
20) Femme Fatale | Britney Spears
4 comments
Mindy says:
May 11, 2011
LOVE her album, every song on it is fantastic so it is no surprise that she stays at the top!
blerd says:
May 11, 2011
People are still discovering her, too. So I think this album will have a long life!
Lauren says:
May 11, 2011
I’m so happy about Adele. Her album is seriously on repeat in my house between my fiance and me. Rumours re-entering at #11 really shows the power of Glee as well as the awesomeness of the album. It wasn’t such a stretch for their version of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” to go to #1 considering the actual single had just hit the same spot in the weeks before. But for an album as old as Rumours to resonate enough with young people watching Glee that they go out and buy it?? – that’s amazing.
blerd says:
May 11, 2011
I’ve been on a HUGE Mac/Nicks kick lately. I’m glad people are rediscovering the album too. It’s genius work.