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Pop Rock Nation

Category: News

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  • Chart Chat 11/4/09: Yup, More MJ News

    Surprising absolutely no one, Michael Jackson rules the Billboard Album Charts this week. The soundtrack to the movie “This is It” opens at the top spot with an impressive 373,000 units sold. An additional 6,000 units of the iTunes only collection of the album’s demos were also sold. The buzz around “This is It” was so intense that even the debut album by the intended tour’s guitarist, Orianthi, debuts at #125 this week with over 4,000 units sold. The King of Pop leads a busy pack of debuts this week, followed by the return of Creed. “Full Circle”, the band’s first studio album since 2002, opens at #2 with just under 110,000 copies sold. That’s barely 300 more units than the expanded edition of Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” sold, catapulting the already 4X Platinum album to #3 on this week’s chart. “Fearless” also becomes the second album to cross the 2 million barrier in sales so far in 2009, joining MJ’s “Number Ones” collection. The new songs on “Fearless”, all of which have been made available a la carte via download services, litter the Top 20 of the digital singles sales chart this week. For a second week, that particular chart is led by Christian synth-pop outfit Owl City with “Fireflies”.

    Also entering the charts this week, the new collection of soul standards by Rod Stewart (#4), holiday collections by The Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Sting at numbers 5 and 6, and a live album by Jack Johnson at #11.

    In the “all publicity is good publicity” column, we have Lil Wayne. “Tha Carter III” increases 3% in scans this week, no doubt due to the headlines surrounding Weezy’s upcoming jail term.

    Next week, Carrie Underwood is expected to debut at the top with her new album “Play On”. Strong debuts are also expected from “Now That’s What I Call Music 32”, the “Glee” cast album, Weezer’s new one, and a Greatest Hits collection from the Foo Fighters.

    Here’s this week’s Top 20 albums.

    1) Michael Jackson “This is It”
    2) Creed “Full Circle”
    3) Taylor Swift “Fearless”
    4) Rod Stewart “Soulbook”
    5) Trans-Siberian Orchestra “Night Castle”
    6) Sting “If On a Winter’s Night…”
    7) Michael Buble “Crazy Love”
    8) Various Artists “Twilight: New Moon Soundtrack”
    9) Tim McGraw “Southern Voice”
    10) Jay-Z “The Blueprint 3”
    11) Jack Johnson “En Concert”
    12) Miley Cyrus “Time of Our Lives EP”
    13) Michael Jackson “Number Ones”
    14) The Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D.”
    15) Tech N9ne “K.O.D.”
    16) The Swell Season “Strict Joy”
    17) Wolfmother “Cosmic Joy”
    18) Train “Save Me, San Francisco”
    19) Atreyu “Congregation of the Damned”
    20) Owl City “Ocean Eyes”

  • First Listen: “Wait Your Turn” by Rihanna

    The buzz is very quickly increasing on Rihanna’s “Rated R”, which is expected on November 23rd. Following the moody, mysterious first single “Russian Roulette”, we get the…moody, mysterious new single ‘Wait Your Turn”. Aside from being moody and mysterious, these songs have one thing in common to me: they’re both boring as hell. I know Rihanna’s supposed to be working this ice-queen vibe in her music, but the songs on her last album had some pep and vigor. These songs are just very…blah. She’s a much better vocalist than a lot of folks give her credit for, but she can’t save these songs. Why do I get the feeling I’ll be disappointed with this album? Talk about unfair expectations. Prior to “Good Girl Gone Bad”, I wouldn’t have given a warm shit about a Rihanna release. Make one good album and the world is expected of you, huh?

    I’m curious to know what y’all think. Leave a comment.

  • New Releases 11/3/09: Carrie, Weezer, “Glee” and More!!!

    Another fall week, another six million CDs coming out. Here are some of the highlights.

    Carrie Underwood “Play On”: Sure, Carrie’s first two albums sold like hotcakes, and sure, she’s the only “American Idol” winner to win a Best New Artist Grammy. But Taylor Swift has kinda swagger-jacked her, don’t you think? Is there room for two young, blonde beauties with pop appeal in the country music marketplace? Probably-Carrie’s probably the closest thing to a “gimme” in the “Idol” marketplace these days, especially since Daughtry’s last one caught a brick.

    Weezer “Raditude”-Rivers Cuomo and company keep plugging away, don’t they? Coming not even 18 months after their “Red Album”, “Raditude” contains collaborations with hip-hop luminaries Lil Wayne and Jermaine Dupri. Weezer & Weezy. A match made in heaven? If only they’d gotten Isabel Sanford (“The Jeffersons”‘ Weezie) to make a cameo.

    Various Artists “Glee Vol. 1”-The fall’s most buzzed-about new show now has a soundtrack. Led by Broadway star Matthew Morrison, this album contains all of the songs you’ve sung along with and danced to on the show-“Bust a Move”, “Don’t Stop Believin’”, “Sweet Caroline”, “No Air”. I’m not sure what the biggest selling TV soundtrack of all time is, but something tells me this has a chance to set that record. Look for this to be the sleeper hit of the week.

    Foo Fighters “Greatest Hits”-All I can say about this is IT TOOK LONG ENOUGH!!! The Foo Fighters are a singles band if there ever was one. Now, finally, all the hits are on one album. Man, who’d have ever thought that the stringy-haired drummer from Nirvana would become the Tom Petty of his generation? Now, if they can hook us up with a video compilation (“Learn to Fly” and “Big Me” are amazing videos), I’ll be a happy man.

    Amerie “In Love & War”- This R&B cutie’s career really has just one highlight (“1 Thing” was the jam). After that song became a hit, label drama derailed a follow-up for a number of years. Does the notoriously fickle contemporary soul audience even remember who this chick is? The folks at her new label, Island Def Jam, are hoping that they do. This is the second of this week’s new releases to boast a Lil Wayne cameo.

    Also this week, a holiday album from Andrea Bocelli-it doesn’t feature Lil Wayne, but it does feature Mary J. Blige, who seems to appear on every album that Weezy doesn’t. There’s also a new album from Halford called “Winter Songs”. I’m hoping that the title is coincidental and the lead singer of Judas Priest hasn’t released a Christmas album. That’s not very metal. Say Anything (who won my heart forever when they covered ODB’s “Got Your Money” on a compilation last year) have a new one out, as does Ivy League R&B singer Ryan Leslie (with his second album in a year. Considering no one bought the first one, what’s the point?).

    On the compilation side, there’s a new double-CD set from The Bee Gees (man, does these guys’ catalog get recycled a lot), plus repackagings of The Rolling Stones’ “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out” and Nirvana’s debut “Bleach”. Of course, it wouldn’t be the holidays without a “Now That’s What I Call Music” album. Vol. 32 features hits from The Black Eyed Peas, Taylor Swift, and newcomer Jay Sean, whose #1 hit “Down” features…you guessed it, Lil Wayne.

    A full list of new releases can be found here.