Coldplay It Again, Sam
It’s still hard out there for a pimp, but apparently it’s not much easier for a saint.
Mötley Crüe’s Saints of Los Angeles and Three 6 Mafia’s Last 2 Walk were the week’s biggest bows, but neither came close to the three albums that pulled a Groundhog Day up top.
Coldplay’s Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends held the No. 1 spot for the week ended Sunday, selling another 249,000 copies, per Nielsen SoundScan. Lil Wayne followed at No. 2 with 209,000 copies of Tha Carter III, and the Jonas Brothers-led Camp Rock soundtrack held at No. 3 with 169,000.
In just three weeks, Lil Wayne has sold 1.53 million copies, giving Tha Carter III a commanding lead as the year’s best-selling album. Coldplay’s Viva la Vida is already the fifth best-selling album of 2008, with 971,000 copies sold in just two weeks.
The Crüe, meanwhile, scored the week’s biggest debut, opening at No. 4 with 99,000 copies, while Three 6 Mafiabest known for the Oscar-winning “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”sold 77,000 copies at No. 5.
Shinedown’s The Sound of Madness landed the third and final top 10 bow at No. 8, moving 50,000 copies.
Other notable debuts included Sigur Rós’ Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust at No. 15, Cute Is What We Aim For’s Rotation at No. 21, Amos Lee’s Last Days at the Lodge at No. 29, Dwele’s Sketches of a Man at No. 35 and Superchick’s Rock What You Got at No. 65.
Over on the digital tracks chart, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” held the top spot on 187,000 copies sold, though the Jonas Brothers’ “Burnin’ Up” sold a massive 183,000 copies in its debut. Expect a huge bump for the sibling singers on tomorrow’s Hot 100 chart.
Overall, album sales were down nearly 8 percent from last week and 13 percent compared to the same week last year, when the Hannah Montana 2 soundtrack led the charts.
Next week, look for the Fiddy-led G-Unit to make a play for No. 1 with T.O.S. (Terminate On Sight).
To recap, the top 10 albums were as follows:
- Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, Coldplay
- Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne
- Camp Rock soundtrack, various
- Saints of Los Angeles, Mötley Crüe
- Last 2 Walk, Three 6 Mafia
- Now That’s What I Call Music! 28, various
- Here I Stand, Usher
- The Sound of Madness, Shinedown
- Indestructible, Disturbed
- Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna
Viva la Coldplay! Brit Crew Dominates Charts
Apparently cold is the new hot.
A week after becoming the first British rock group in 20 years to top the Hot 100, Coldplay just took over the Billboard 200 with the biggest sales week for a rock act since, well, the band’s last album.
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends ruled the week ended Sunday by selling 721,000 copies, per Nielsen SoundScan.
No rock group has rung up this many copies since Coldplay’s X&Y sold 737,000 first-week units in 2005. The only acts to come close are the Eagles (711,000) and Linkin Park (623,000), both last year. To find a bigger week, we gotta turn back the calendars to 2004, when U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb debuted with 840,000 copies.
Coldplay’s latest also set a new record by selling 288,000 digital copies, the most ever and more than double the previous record (139,000 copies) set by Jack Johnson’s Sleep Through the Static earlier this year. Not surprisingly, Viva la Vida was the biggest preorder in iTunes history.
On the other side of the pond, Viva la Vida entered its second week at No. 1 as the U.K.’s fastest-selling album of the year. The title track also reached No. 1 there. Elsewhere, the album has registered chart-topping bows in Japan, Australia, Canada, France and Germany.
Coldplay, set to perform on tonight’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart, launches its North American tour July 14 in Los Angeles.
After last week’s million-copy debut, Lil Wayne slipped to No. 2, selling another 309,000 copies of Tha Carter III. Prior to last week, only three albums this year sold more copies in their first weeks.
In a year of slumping sales, Weezy and Coldplay just delivered one of the biggest one-two punches in music history. There’s only been one other instance in which albums debuted with 700,000-plus copies in back-to-back weeks: Britney Spears’ Oops!…I Did It Again (1.3 million) and Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP (1.8 million) on May 24 and 31, 2000.
This week’s chart also chalked up more cheese for the Mouse. The Jonas Brothers-led Camp Rock soundtrack sold 188,000 copies at No. 3 following the telefilm’s weekend debut on the Disney Channel. The cable movie drew nearly 9 million viewers, trailing only High School Musical 2 as the most-watched original production in the channel’s history. A sequel is already in the works.
Madonna fave Katy Perry smooched her way to No. 9 as One of the Boys sold 47,000 copies. Getting her start as Christian popster Katy Hudson, she has broken through by belting out tunes like “Ur So Gay,” “Waking Up in Vegas” and the Digital Tracks chart-topper “I Kissed a Girl.”
With its first new album in half a decade, the Offspring sold 46,000 copies of Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace at No. 10. The veteran O.C. punks, who benefit from the rock hit “Hammerhead,” only managed a No. 30 bow for 2003’s Splinter.
While the original was released in May 2007, a reissue of Rihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad with three new tracks helped skyrocket the album 117 spots to No. 7, selling another 63,000 copies.
Just missing the top 10, Judas Priest sold 42,000 copies of Nostradamus at No. 11. Despite such iconic metal hits as “Breaking the Law,” “Living After Midnight” and “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’,” the Priest never before climbed this high on the Billboard 200.
Other notable debuts included Blood Raw’s My Life: The True Testimony at No. 30, 2 Pistols’ Death Before Dishonor at No. 33 and Wolf Parade’s At Mount Zoomer in the No. 46 spot. Further down, the Hold Steady managed a No. 170 bow with the digital release Stay Positive.
Despite Coldplay’s big week, overall sales were down more than 10 percent compared to last week and nearly 7 percent compared to the same sales week last year, when Bon Jovi topped the charts.
Next week, watch for Oscar-winning rappers Three 6 Mafia to see if it’s still hard out there for a pair of pimps.
To recap, the top 10 albums were as follows:
1. Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, Coldplay2. Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne3. Camp Rock soundtrack, various4. Now That’s What I Call Music! 28, various5. Definition of Real, Plies6. Here I Stand, Usher7. Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna8. Indestructible, Disturbed9. One of the Boys, Katy Perry10. Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, the Offspring
Lil Wayne Humongous on Charts
Lil Wayne just got himself some more platinum to add to that blinged-out grill of his.
The boastful Cash Money hip-hopster banked sales of 1 million copies for his long-awaited Tha Carter III, the first album in more than three years to break the seven-figure ceiling, per Nielsen SoundScan, and Wayne’s first No. 1. The MC, who calls himself the world’s greatest rapper, will have those bragging rights for the time being.
As evidence of its anticipation, the album sold 423,000 copies in its first day alone. So far this year, only two other albums have sold more copies than that in an entire week.
Tha Carter III ranks as the 14th biggest sales week of all time, and it’s already the No. 3 bestseller of the year. Just one week out, trailing Mariah Carey’s nine-week-old E=MC2 by just 17,000 copies. (Jack Johnson’s Sleep Through the Static is No. 1 with 1.2 million in sales to date.)
The last albums to break the million-copy mark were 50 Cent’s The Massacre (1.14 million) in 2005, and Usher’s Confessions (1.1 million) and Norah Jones’ Feels Like Home (1.02 million) in 2004.
Lil Wayne’s sweet success also extends to his hit single “Lollipop,” which has become the fastest-selling ringtone of all time. The song, currently atop the Hot 100, has spent five of the past eight weeks there. Since 2006, Flo Rida’s “Low” and Soulja Boy’s “Crank That” are the only rap singles to spend more time at No. 1.
After releasing five albums in six years, Lil Wayne (real name: Dwayne Michael Carter Jr.) spent the past three years working on Tha Carter III and growing his fan base through mixtapes and cameos. Most notably, the rapper released four double-disc mixtapes, The Drought Is Over 1-4, and made over 100 guest appearances.
At No. 2, Plies sold 215,000 copies of Definition of Real, mirroring the starting position of his 2007 debut, The Real Testament. The prolific rapper already plans to release his third album, Da Realest, in December.
Three more albums also cracked the top 10: the Neptunes’ rock project N.E.R.D. sold 80,000 copies of Seeing Sounds at No. 7; Flavors of Entanglement, Alanis Morissette’s first album since her split with Ryan Reynolds, sold 70,000 copies at No. 8; and acclaimed Kentucky rockers My Morning Jacket sold 49,000 copies of Evil Urges at No. 9.
Only 237 copies separated Montgomery Gentry’s Back When I Knew It All and Emmylou Harris’ All I Intended to Be, which each sold around 27,000 copies at Nos. 20 and 22, respectively.
Wallflowers frontman Jakob Dylan debuted at No. 24 with 24,000 copies of his first solo album, Seeing Things. (In comparison, the Wallflowers peaked at No. 40 with their last album, 2005’s Rebel, Sweetheart.) The genetically gifted singer recorded his solo debut with Rick Rubin, taking a stripped-down approach similar to the producer’s acclaimed work with Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond.
Further down the chart, Scottish rockers the Fratellis sold 10,000 copies of Here We Stand at No. 80.
Meanwhile, over on the U.K. charts, Coldplay’s Viva la Vida rocketed to No. 1 on Monday, selling 302,000 copies in just three days. On this side of the pond, the new album, which already sold more than 1 million digital copies of its title track, will make its Billboard 200 debut next week.
Thanks to Lil Wayne, sales are up nearly 23 percent compared to last week and up over 4 percent compared to the same sales week last year when Toby Keith topped the charts.
A recap of the top 10 albums for the week ended Sunday:
1. Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne2. Definition of Real, Plies3. Now That’s What I Call Music! 28, various4. Indestructible, Disturbed5. Here I Stand, Usher6. Revelation, Journey7. Seeing Sounds, N.E.R.D.8. Flavors of Entanglement, Alanis Morissette9. Evil Urges, My Morning Jacket10. Weezer, Weezer
Disturbed Destroys Weezer, Journey, Ashanti, Jewel
Indestructible had to live up to its name this week.
Disturbed faced big-time competition as Weezer, Journey, Ashanti, Jewel and the latest installment in the powerhouse Now That’s What I Call Music! series all debuted in the top 10, but the self-produced Indestructible was an unstoppable force at No. 1. The Chicago metal act won the week ended Sunday by selling 252,000 copies, per Nielsen SoundScan.
Indestructible, which leads at rock radio with “Inside the Fire,” is the band’s third album to top the charts in four tries. Disturbed’s Ten Thousand Fists opened with 239,000 copies in 2005, while 2002’s Believe topped its competition with a career-best 284,000-copy bow.
Now That’s What I Call Music! 28 locked up the No. 2 spot, selling 185,000 copies. The newest Now! disc features such No. 1s as Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” and Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop.” Now! 27 also opened at No. 2 in March; 2007’s Now! 25 is the last in the series to open at No. 1.
After scoring the year’s second-biggest bow last week, Usher’s Here I Stand fell to No. 3 on 145,000 copies. In contrast, his megahit Confessions held the top spot for nine nonconsecutive weeks four summers ago.
Weezer’s new self-titled album, aka The Red Album, slid into the No. 4 spot moving 126,000 copies. This is the band’s third self-titled album with a color-coded nickname. The band’s 1994 eponymous debut was later called The Blue Album to differentiate it from the group’s 2001 self-titled release (otherwise known as The Green Album). The group’s latest eponymous disc, coproduced by Rick Rubin, leads at radio with the Modern Rock chart-topper and YouTube favorite “Pork and Beans.”
Journey’s new triple-disc Wal-Mart exclusive, Revelation, sold 105,000 copies at No. 5 for the pop band’s biggest debut in a dozen years. The group, which got a boost when “Don’t Stop Believing” became the key song of The Sopranos’ series finale, found its latest singer by scouring Journey cover bands on YouTube.
Ashanti’s The Declaration and Jewel’s countrified Perfectly Clear rounded out the Top 10 debuts at Nos. 6 and 8, selling 86,000 and 48,000 copies, respectively.
Perfectly Clear also crowned the Top Country Albums chart, while Ashanti’s promotional viral videoa fake news clip about a spree of copycat murders inspired by her music topped the questionable taste chart.
Chris Brown’s new deluxe reissue, Exclusive: The Forever Edition, surged to the No. 10 spot selling 36,000 copies. That’s up 26,000 copies and 46 spots compared to the original album’s previous week.
Radiohead’s Best Of, which the band actually protested, opened at No. 26 as a single disc and at No. 81 with the double-disc edition.
Other notable debuts included Now That’s What I Call Classic Rock at No. 20, Opeth’s Watershed at 23, former Bush-man and Gwen Stefani squeeze Gavin Rossdale’s Wanderlust at 32 and the double-disc Vans Warped Tour ’08 at 34.
Poison singer and Rock of Love date master Bret Michael landed at 39 with his VH1 Classics release Rock My World. The album, which doubles as a soundtrack to his reality show, combines new songs with select tracks from his past two solo albums.
Further down, Aimee Mann’s @#%&! Smilers entered at No. 80 with 8,000, three spots and a few hundred copies ahead of the music blog flavor of the month, Fleet Foxes.
Next week, look for Lil Wayne’s long overdue Tha Carter III to top the charts by a landslideper Billboard, the album sold more than 400,000 copies on its first day of release Tuesday.
1. Indestructible, Disturbed2. Now That’s What I Call Music! 28, various 3. Here I Stand, Usher4. Weezer, Weezer 5. Revelation, Journey6. The Declaration, Ashanti7. Sex and the City soundtrack, various8. Perfectly Clear, Jewel9. 3 Doors Down, 3 Doors Down10. Exclusive: The Forever Edition, Chris Brown