Lil Wayne Can Dry His Tattooed-On Tears

As previously noted, Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III blew into the No. 1 spot on this week’s album charts thanks to a sales total that just broke the million mark–a feat that isn’t all surprising given last week’s early-bird chart debut, but is still probably causing some chilling-since-2005 Champagne corks to get popped in the offices of Universal Music Group.

Biggest Debuts: It wasn’t right behind Carter, but Plies’ Definition Of Real did tally some impressive numbers, selling 215,000 copies and entering the chart at No. 2. Perhaps most notable about this feat was that Plies accomplished it by wearing himself around his neck:

Is it as bad as his smoking book from last year? I honestly can’t decide.

In other debut news, N*E*R*D sold 80,000 copies of its new album Seeing Sounds and debuted at No. 7; Alanis Morrissette’s Flavors Of Entanglement sold 70,000 copies and came in at No. 8; and 49,000 people decided that My Morning Jacket’s recorded output was as worthy of their money as the band’s live show, as Evil Urges entered at No. 9.

Notable Jumps: He may be holding his albums back from iTunes, but Kid Rock’s Rock And Roll Jesus is still selling, with a 25% jump this week (No. 19, 28,000) that puts it just on the edge of reaching the million-sold mark.

Dropping Off: Weezer’s latest play for the geeks was down 64% (No. 10, 46,000 sold), and the album that beat it out for No. 1 last week, Disturbed’s Indestructible, took a 60% hit (No. 4, 102,000 sold).

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Speaking of albums that entered the charts a week ago, Journey’s Revelation took a mere 15% week-to-week hit, selling 89,000 copies and dipping from No. 5 to No. 6. Given that the Wal-Mart strategy worked even better for the Eagles and our Arnel Pineda/Steve Perry comparison posts have attracted more long tail traffic than pretty much anything else on the site (or I should say, anything that isn’t related to that Meg White impersonator who made her way around the Internet last fall), I shouldn’t be as surprised by this relatively small drop, but I guess “news that isn’t as bad as it should have been” is an anomaly for the music business these days.

Postscript: Alanis’ new album came in at No. 2 on the digital chart, selling just under 25,000 copies–or more than 35% of her overall sales total. The idea that Morrissette’s fans may be in the demographic sweet spot for ditching the physical and going for the digital copies of new releases was further borne out by another ’90s alt-rock star whose album hit physical and virtual shelves last week: Jakob Dylan, who came in at No. 24 on the big chart with 24,000 sales and entered the digital-albums chart at No. 9 with 8,500 copies sold. (By comparison, Tha Carter III topped the digital-albums chart with just about 100,000 sales (10% of its overall total), and Plies’ digital-album sales comprised just 2.8% of his overall sales total (6,100, No. 9).)

This week’s top 20 albums, with sales totals in parentheses: 1. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (1,000,000) 2. Plies, Definition Of Real (215,000) 3. Now 28 (132,000) 4. Disturbed, Indestructible (102,000) 5. Usher, Here I Stand (101,000) 6. Journey, Revelation (89,000) 7. N*E*R*D, Seeing Sounds (80,000) 8. Alanis Morrissette, Flavors Of Entanglement (70,000) 9. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges (49,000) 10. Weezer (46,000) 11. 3 Doors Down (38,000) 12. Sex And The City soundtrack (35,000) 13. Ashanti, Declaration (34,000) 14. Leona Lewis, Spirit (33,000) 15. Duffy, Rockferry (30,000) 16. Taylor Swift (30,000) 17. Frank Sinatra, Nothing But The Best (29,000) 18. Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits (29,000) 19. Kid Rock, Rock N Roll Jesus (28,000) 20. Mongomery Gentry, Back When I Knew It All (27,000)

This week’s top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses: 1. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (100,000) 2. Alanis Morrissette, Flavors Of Entanglement (25,000) 3. N*E*R*D, Seeing Sounds (16,000) 4. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges (15,000) 5. Disturbed, Indestructible (12,000) 6. Sex And The City soundtrack (10,000) 7. Weezer (8,900) 8. Jakob Dylan, Seeing Things (8,500) 9. Plies, Definition Of Real (6,100) 10. Usher, Here I Stand (5,300)