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Tag: Ciara

  • Chart Chat 5/7/09: Chillin’ Like Bob Dylan

    dylanSurprising no one, Bob Dylan makes his second straight entry at the top of the Billboard charts with his latest album “Together Through Life”. The album scans just under 125,000 units in it’s first week. The remainder of the chart is pretty mellow, with a couple of baby bands (Playing for Change and Heaven & Hell) debuting at #10 and #8, respectively, and the remainder of the Top 10 remaining relatively static.

    Lady GaGa continues her upward momentum, as “The Fame” rises to #5 this week with a 1% increase to 40K scanned. With 775,000 copies having crossed record store shelves (or the virtual equivalent), GaGa should be crossing Platinum territory very soon.

    “American Idol” and “Dancing with the Stars” continue to drive sales, as three of the four biggest increases of the week are due to performances on those shows. Taylor Hicks’ “The Distance” re-enters the chart at #180, with a 148% increase over the previous week’s sales. Robin Thicke and Jamie Foxx also make big increases, and Foxx’s “Blame It” single reaches a new peak on the singles chart, landing at #2 behind The Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow”.

    The biggest drop of the week comes from Depeche Mode, whose “Sounds of the Universe” falls from 3-18 on a 73% decrease to 22,000 units. However, this week’s epic fail has to go to Mike Jones (who??). The Texan rapper, who scored platinum sales several years ago with his debut, “Who is Mike Jones?” can only manage a #12 debut with his latest album, “The Voice”, which opens with a weak 25K.

    Next week, expect Ciara and Chrisette Michele to challenge for the #1 spot. Ciara might have an edge due to the fact that she’s performing on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend. The week after that, the real fireworks start, as Green Day’s album will hit the charts, followed by Eminem a week after that.

  • New Release of the Week 5/5/09: Elliott Yamin

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    Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone!

    Elliott Yamin’s debut album became one of the more unexpected successes of 2007, scoring Gold sales and spawning a huge hit single with “Wait for You”. After releasing a pair of holiday albums, Yamin is officially back with his second proper album, entitled “Fight for Love”. Elliott took a more active role in the songwriting this time around, and also found the budget for some more big-name collaborators. While Yamin has thankfully not gone the guest rapper route, he is collaborating with the likes of Stargate (who also co-composed “Wait for You”) and Jermaine Dupri. We’ve premiered the single and the video here on SonicClash, so rest assured that this is an album we’re pretty excited for.

    Here’s what else is arriving in stores and online this week:

    Ciara Fantasy Ride– Ciara’s third album was originally scheduled to come out last fall, but got pushed back due to a variety of reasons. Now, with a pair of hit singles under her belt (“Never Ever” with Young Jeezy and “Love, Sex & Magic” with Justin Timberlake), Ciara is ready to unleash her latest project onto the world. Other collaborators on this album include Missy Elliott and Chris Brown, who was somewhat controversially not removed from his featured track after the whole Rihanna brouhaha.

    Chrisette Michele Epiphany-Still an unknown to most people who aren’t fans of contemporary R&B, the jazzy-voiced Michele initially scored as a hook girl for Def Jam labelmates Nas and Jay-Z before scoring a modest hit with her debut album “I Am”. She even won a Grammy earlier this year for the song “Be OK”, which featured will.i.am. Michele’s second album moves her into a more contemporary zone, with up-to-date writing and production by the likes of the ubiquitous Ne-Yo. This one might be worth checking out-look for it to be the sleeper hit of the week.

    Ben Harper & Relentless 7 White Lies for Dark Times-I’ve never been much of a Ben Harper fan-he’s always struck me as a milquetoast version of Lenny Kravitz (some of you may argue that Lenny’s already milquetoast enough). Anyway, he’s certainly prolific, releasing albums at an almost once-a-year clip. “White Lies” features a new band called the Relentless 7. The jury’s out as to whether that’ll make his music any more interesting, though.

    Peaches I Feel Cream-If Prince had never found Jehovah and was still putting out nasty records by his female proteges, it would be pretty easy to see him getting behind Peaches, for whom filthy is an understatement. I’m not exactly sure what “electroclash”, but I guess that’s a hipster way of saying she makes modern-day dance music, kind of like a Lady GaGa with a much worse attitude and stronger libido. She’s an acquired taste, but if you’re into her, you’re probably already on your way to the record store to pick this up.

    As usual, get your full list of this week’s new releases here.

  • Chart Chat 4/4/09: Now That’s What I Call a #1 Album

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    A lot of folks have been complaining about the dearth of music releases so far in 2009, and I’d be inclined to agree. I can’t remember a year in recent memory when we’ve gotten to April and I’ve only bought maybe 5 new albums (Franz Ferdinand, The Fray, Lily Allen, Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Hicks). However, this week’s Billboard album charts features a cornucopia of new albums-12 new ones in the Top 20, actually. It’s the highest number of new releases to land in Billboard’s Top 20 since…well, since ever.

    Leading the pack is the 30th (!) installment of the “Now That’s What I Call Music series”, which debuts just short of 150K. It’s amazing that this series continues to sell when iTunes playlists exist. Right behind is Miley Cyrus with the soundtrack to the “Hannah Montana” movie, and R&B vixen Keri Hilson debuts at #4 with “In a Perfect World…”. Look for this one to stick around for a little while. Allegedly, it’s knee-deep in hit singles. This may end up being my 6th new release purchase of 2009.

    Other debuts in the Top 20 include Papa Roach (yes, they’re still around), at #8, untalented Dipset-affiliated rapper Jim Jones at #9, coountry singer Martina McBride at #10, bone-crunching metal outfit Mastodon at #11, future one-hit wonders Blue October at #13, faded Houston MC Slim Thug at #15, songwriter/half of Big & Rich John Rich at #16, Eric Church (I don’t know who he is either) at #17, and Yanni at #20. Yes, Yanni is still making music.

    The glut of debuts means that there are some pretty prestigious drops on the chart. Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” falls out of the Top 10 for the first time since its’ release last fall. Static-X, however, gets the award for biggest drop on the chart, sliding 16-69 with their latest album.

    In a chart like this, it’s weird for an older album to actually move up considerably, but Adele’s “19” does. The Grammy winner for Best New Artist and her Gold album shoots from 41-23 on this week’s chart.

    The holdovers in the Top Ten include the “Twilight” soundtrack, which holds at #3 thanks to the recent DVD release of the film, Kelly Clarkson, who slides to #5 after two weeks at #1, U2 slides 2-6, while Lady GaGa drops two spots to #7.

    Speaking of Lady GaGa, she becomes the first artist in 10 years (since Christina Aguilera) to hit #1 with her first two single releases. again showing that the American music buying public has no taste whatsoever. “Poker Face” climbs to #1, unseating Flo Rida’s “Right Round” after 6 weeks on top. There are two new songs in the Top 10. Miley Cyrus climbs 11-8 with the appropriately titled “The Climb”, while Ciara shoots up 17 spots to #10 with “Love Sex Magic”, a collaboration with Justin Timberlake. With T.I.’s “Dead & Gone” at #4 this week, JT joins GaGa as artists with two songs each in the Top 10. Collaborating with Timberlake seems to be kind of a golden ticket these days, as Timbaland, Madonna, 50 Cent, T.I. and now Ciara have all scored Top 10 hits featuring the former ‘NSync-er.

    Next week’s #1 single may be lurking just inside the Top 40. Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” inches in at #39, but it’s digital release will catapult it into, at the very least, next week’s Top 10 and it just may unseat GaGa at the top of the chart, although the fact that Lady G performed on “American Idol” last week could keep her at the top. Anyway, here’s this week’s Top 20 album charts. Watch out next week, when Keith Urban, Prince, Flo Rida, Bow Wow and a passel of others debut in the Top 20 of the charts, leading to another round of mega-drops.

    Top 20 Albums

    01-“Now That’s What I Call Music 30”-Various Artists

    02-“Hannah Montana Movie Soundtrack”-Miley Cyrus/Various Artists

    03-“Twilight Soundtrack”-Various Artists

    04-“In a Perfect World…”-Keri Hilson

    05-“All I Ever Wanted” Kelly Clarkson

    06-“No Line on the Horizon”-U2

    07-“The Fame”-Lady GaGa

    08-“Metamorphosis”-Papa Roach

    09-“Pray IV Reign”-Jim Jones

    10-“Shine”-Martina McBride

    11-“Crack the Skye”-Mastodon

    12-“Fearless”-Taylor Swift

    13-“Approaching Normal”-Blue October

    14-“Love vs. Money” The-Dream

    15-“Boss of All Bosses”-Slim Thug

    16-“Son of a Preacher Man”-John Rich

    17-“Carolina”-Eric Church

    18-“Dark Horse”-Nickelback

    19-“Hazards of Love”-The Decemberists

    20-“Voices”-Yanni