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Pop Rock Nation

Category: Releases

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  • Chart Chat 5/27/09: Eminem, The Real American Idol?

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    In the biggest chart no-brainer of the year, Eminem debuts at #1 with “Relapse”, which scans 608,000 units in it’s first week. It’s by far the biggest debut week of the year, although it’s the slowest start for an Eminem studio album since “The Slim Shady LP” debuted in spring 1999. Granted, the music industry was in a much different place then. To put things into perspective, if the year was to end today, “Relapse” would be 2009’s #9 album with only 6 days of sales. Em should easily enjoy a second frame at #1 with no major releases out this week (although his partner in controversy Marilyn Manson should enjoy a Top 5 debut), although his reign will come to an end when the new Dave Matthews Band album comes out 6/2.

    Elsewhere on the albums charts, it’s a sea of debuts and “American Idol”-led jumps. The top 10 hosts 7 new albums. In addition to Eminem, there’s the latest hits collection from Kenny Chesney at #3, Method Man & Redman’s “Blackout 2” at #4, Dane Cook at #5, Busta Rhymes at #6, Tori Amos at #9 and newcomer Kate Voegele at #10.

    A little further down on the charts, a couple of collections by this year’s American Idol champ and runner-up debut, and to no one’s surprise, Adam Lambert’s collection (#33, 16K) outduels Kris Allen’s (#50, 10K), although it looks like Kris has the edge when it comes to individual tracks.

    The chart’s biggest gainers this week also relate back to the “Idol” finale. Rod Stewart’s “Definitive” collection is up nearly 400% to 10,000 units, landing at #52 on the chart after being off of it the previous week. You might remember that Rod the Bod performed a generally atrocious version of “Maggie May” on the show. David Cook also finds himself the beneficiary of some “Idol” goodwill. His self-titled debut is up 111% to land at #29 with 17K in sales.

    On the other side of the coin, it’s bad news for Cam’ron and Paul Wall, as both rappers slide over 60% in sales in their albums’ respective second weeks. Killa Cam drops from 3-35, while Paul Wall plummets from 15-64. Yikes, folks. Might hip-hop be the genre suffering the most from illegal downloading? Or are people just reacting quicker to bad music?

  • First Look: Kanye West “Paranoid”

    For “808s & Heartbreak”‘s third video, Kanye West has enlisted the help of labelmate Rihanna.  The singer has made a few public appearances since her alleged beating at the hands of boyfriend Chris Brown (whose recent video blog touting his new album I won’t dignify with more than a sentence here), but this is the first connection to a musical event she’s had since the Brown incident. I can’t say that the video makes a hell of a lot of sense, but Ri-Ri sure does look good. What do y’all think?

  • New Release of the Week 5/26/09: Mandy Moore

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    When she debuted ten years ago with the pop confection “Candy”, no one thought Mandy Moore had any legitimate staying power. Yet here she is, kicking off her second decade in the biz. Of course, in that time she’s evolved from a teenybopper pop artist into a folk-influenced adult pop singer. Her new album, “Amanda Leigh” (the title is her given first and middle name) comes out today, and it’s the follow up to 2007’s well-received “Wild Hope”. I don’t have a lot of info on the album, but I wonder if her new hubby, Ryan Adams, makes an appearance. Heh. If you’d told me in 2001 that Mandy Moore and Ryan Adams would be husband and wife, I’d have asked for some of what you were smoking.

    Here’s Mandy’s video for “I Can Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week”.

    Here’s what else you’ll find in stores and online this week.

    Marilyn Manson The High End of Low: Everyone’s favorite malcontent is back with a new album. Manson’s returned to the headlines recently after being cited in yet another school shooting, however, his shtick has gotten pretty old by this point, and the shock value has long since died down. Does anyone still care? I guess we’ll find out.

    Julian Marley Awake: Bob certainly multiplied, didn’t he? For those keeping score, Julian was once a member of the Melody Makers with his brother Ziggy and two of his sisters. This solo record contains a cameo from the Lost Boyz’ Mr. Cheeks (where has he been hiding?), as well as, of course, several members of the very large Marley clan.

    Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix: These indie rockers have built up quite a buzz over the past couple of months. They scored a plum spot as the Saturday Night Live musical guest before even releasing their new album. “Wolfgang” has also gotten great reviews from mags like Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly.

    Boyz II Men Cooleyhighharmony: Expanded Edition: You’ve gotta wonder sometimes who decides to make these deluxe album packages. Some of the others coming out in the near future I can understand (like, for example, Charles Mingus’ “Mingus Ah Um” and Dave Brubeck’s “Time Out”, both of which are also released today), but Boyz II Men’s first album? Nothing against the guys, I’m just not sure what value Hip-O Select saw in putting this out. At any rate, it contains two previously unreleased tracks and a shit-ton of remixes, and I’ve written more about it than any album other than Mandy Moore’s, so it must have some value, right?

    Check out the entire list of this week’s new releases here.