Bruce Springsteen Comes Out On Top In A Rough Week
As predicted last Friday, this week’s SoundScan charts were pretty rough, with no album breaking the six-figure sales total mark and only two–Bruce Springsteen’s Magic, off 42% from last week, and Kid Rock’s Rock N’ Roll Jesus, down 55%–breaking 75k. Magic just edged out Kid Rock’s album for the top spot on the chart, although that Waffle House brawl Kid got into over the weekend will surely boost his sales next week. (At least he hopes.)
Biggest Debuts: The week’s highest bow was elder-statesmen-of-emo Jimmy Eat World’s labia-tastic Chase This Light, which entered at No. 5; Santana’s latest attempt to cash in on his music-business connections, Ultimate Santana, bowed at No. 8. Meanwhile, soul stylist Angie Stone’s Art Of Love And War came in at No. 11, and the new album from Thrice, Alchemy Index: V, entered at No. 24.
Notable Jumps: This week was a rough one–to put it in perspective, Josh Groban’s Noel leapt from No. 10 to No. 4 by sheer virtue of his sales totals being only negligibly off from last week–but poppy MySpace sensation/Fleetwood Mac producer offspring Colbie Caillat saw sales of her debut album, Coco, jump 20% as it leapfrogged to No. 10.
Dropping Off: Pretty much everyone in the top 50, save Caillat and a few other notables (Rihanna, Sugarland, and our winner for this week’s Nickelback award), took a hit this week. But none was more notable than the one Jennifer Lopez suffered–sales of her latest album, Brave, dropped 65%, and she plunged out of the top 20 and all the way down to the No. 38 slot on the chart. To put it in perspective: She sold fewer records than Alter Bridge did last week.
Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: The Beatle-ified soundtracks to the boomer blechfest Across The Universe , with the deluxe edition jumping from No. 45 to No. 30 on a 28% sales gain and the plain edition going up 11% and rising from No. 46 to No. 36. The two editions combined sold 43,000 copies–which would be enough to put them just ahead of Matchbox Twenty on this week’s chart. Clearly, the demand for repackaged Lennon/McCartney tunes will never completely go away. Someone get that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Movie reissue on the fast track already!
The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses: 1. Bruce Springsteen, Magic (77,000) 2. Kid Rock, Rock N’ Roll Jesus (77,000) 3. Rascal Flatts, Still Feels Good (70,000) 4. Josh Groban, Noel (64,000) 5. Jimmy Eat World, Chase This Light (62,000) 6. Reba McEntire, Reba Duets (59,000) 7. High Schol Musical 2 soundtrack (57,000) 8. Santana, Ultimate Santana (56,000) 9. Kanye West, Graduation (54,000) 10. Colbie Caillat, Coco (50,000) 11. Angie Stone, The Art Of Love And War (45,000) 12. Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (44,000) 13. Matchbox Twenty, Exile On Mainstream (41,000) 14. Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, souljaboytellem.com (40,000) 15. Jill Scott, The Real Thing: Words And Sounds Vol. 3 (38,000) 16. J. Holiday, Back Of My Lac’ (35,000) 17. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (34,000) 18. Nickelback, All The Right Reasons (33,000) 19. Sara Evans, Greatest Hits (31,000) 20. Eric Clapton, Complete Clapton (31,000)
