Alicia Keys: Yep, She’s Still On Top Of The Album Charts

Alicia Keys’ As I Am topped the album charts this week, selling 61,000 copies and increasing its sales total by 3% over a week ago, when it was in the No. 2 slot. Last week’s top seller, the soundtrack to Juno, took a 16% hit and flip-flopped with As I Am. Thank God the Jack Johnson album is coming out to rescue us from this monotony, eh? Wait, did I just really say that?

Biggest Debuts: Coming in at No. 3 was Bedlam In Goliath, the new album from the Mars Volta. it sold 54,000 copies, although there’s no word on how many USB versions of the album make up that total. At No. 4 is Bullet For My Valentine’s Scream, Aim, Fire, which sold 53,000 copies; behind that was a compilation of this year’s Grammy nominees, which somehow moved 50,000 copies despite being even staler than the latest installment of Now. A Hannah Montana tie-in record came in at No. 7 (40,000 sales), and all the way down at No. 17 was the hotly debated debut album by the hotly debated Vampire Weekend, which sold 28,000 copies. That album also debuted at No. 2 on the digital charts, proving that some people with Internet access and an interest in “buzz bands” still do, as a matter of fact, pay for their music.

Notable Jumps: Button-nosed ivory tinkler Sara Bareilles enjoyed a 40% uptick in sales, leaping into the top 20 with her album Little Voice (28,000 copies sold). She’s been all over VH1 and has even made it to TRL with her not-a-love-song “Love Song,” and given that just typing this has stuck the song into my brain on repeat I suspect she’ll be climbing the charts for many weeks to come.

Dropping Off: Natasha Bedingfield’s Pocketful of Sunshine, which debuted in the top three last week, took a 57% sales hit and dropped to No. 21 (24,000 copies sold); Cat Power’s Jukebox, which had a top-20 debut last week, fell off 47% (15,000 copies sold).

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Why are people still buying the Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack? Isn’t the movie out of theaters? Yet twenty-five thousand alleged fans of the pitchshifted pipsqueaks did this last week. Is the movie being screened at midnight somewhere? Can we blame YouTube?

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses: 1. Alicia Keys, As I Am (61,000) 2. Juno soundtrack (55,000) 3. Mars Volta, Bedlam In Goliath (54,000) 4. Bullet For My Valentine, Scream Aim Fire (53,000) 5. 2008 Grammy Nominees (50,000) 6. Mary J. Blige, Growing Pains (47,000) 7. Hannah Montana 2: Non-Stop Dance Party (40,000) 8. Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (36,000) 9. Taylor Swift (36,000) 10. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (35,000) 11. Chris Brown, Exclusive (33,000) 12. Garth Brooks, Ultimate Hits (33,000) 13. Sarah Brightman, Symphony (31,000) 14. Now 26 (31,000) 15. Radiohead, In Rainbows (30,000) 16. Sara Bareilles, Little Voice (28,000) 17. Vampire Weekend (28,000) 18. Sugarland, Enjoy The Ride (26,000) 19. Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack (25,000) 20. Colbie Caillat, Coco (24,000)