How scary is it that we’ve completed almost four months of 2009 and NOT ONE album has hit the million mark in sales yet? Actually, only 7 albums have passed the 500,000 mark. If that’s not a sign that there’s some serious problems going on, I don’t know what is.
However, this week we have reason to celebrate! For the first time in 2009, sales last week were higher than sales for the same week in 2008, due to the ACM Awards as well as the Easter holiday. That leads to some nice and robust numbers on this week’s chart (which would have been an ordinary Top 10 in 2003, but I’m just sayin’…).
As expected, country trio Rascal Flatts debuts at the top spot with their new album “Unstoppable”. It’s their fourth #1 album, and it boasts the second biggest debut of the year, scanning 351,000 units, second only to U2’s first week total earlier this year. However, let’s put that into perspective. That total is less than half of what their “Me & My Gang” album did just three years ago.
Elsewhere on the album chart, Jadakiss debuts at a surprising #3 with his third album, “Kiss of Death”. I thought people had forgotten about the guy, but his Roc-a-Fella debut proved that the former LOX member could still move units. The week’s final big debut comes from country star Jason Aldean. Aldean, who is easily the most popular indie label country artist around, enters at #4 with his third album “Wide Open”.
The rest of the Top 10 includes the “Hannah Montana” soundtrack at #2 (expect this to make a run at #1 next week after Miley Cyrus’s “American Idol” appearance), the 30th installment of the “Now That’s What I Call Music” series is #5, Taylor Swift, who still has this year’s top selling album, moves back up to #6, padding her total, while Keith Urban, who had last week’s #1 album, slides down to #7, while the “Twilight” soundtrack hangs around at #8, Prince’s Target exclusive set falls to #9 after entering at #2, and Lady GaGa holds the #10 spot down (can the music business really be in trouble if people are still buying tripe like this?).
This week’s Epic Fail comes from Shad Moss, who you all know better as Bow Wow. After a run of five consecutive Gold or Platinum albums, his latest “New Jack City Part II”, falls to #43 in only it’s second week on the chart. This is despite the fact that his latest single, “You Can Have it All”, is currently rising up the charts. Ain’t no love left for a kid rapper, I guess. Especially when he doesn’t write his own lyrics.
When Prince left Warner Brothers back in ’96, one major sticking point was that his then label refused to allow him to release music at the pace he wanted to. Among the many issues Prince had was the fact that his magnum opus, 1987’s “Sign O’ the Times”, was whittled down from 3 discs to a more consumer-palatable 2. Prince finally got his 3-disc set upon his release from Warner with ’96’s “Emancipation”, which, while not bad for a 3-CD set, you can find for five bucks used at most retailers these days.