Since 1998, all eight of Jay-Z's solo studio albums have hit No. 1, in addition to his "Collision Course" project with Linkin Park and his "Unfinished Business" collaboration with R. Kelly.
After bowing at No. 1 last week, the Eagles' "Long Road Out of Eden" (Eagles Recording Co.) slips to No. 2 with 359,000, a 49% sales decrease. Garth Brooks' "The Ultimate Hits" (Pearl) debuts at No. 3 after shifting 352,000 units. Brooks' last studio set, 2001's "Scarecrow," debuted at No. 1 with 466,000. His only releases since then have been Wal-Mart exclusives and were thus not eligible to appear on The Billboard 200.
Teenaged R&B heartthrob Chris Brown starts at No. 4 with his sophomore Jive album, "Exclusive," which sold 294,000. His self-titled 2005 debut opened at No. 2 with 154,000. "Exclusive" features Brown's recent Hot 100 chart-topper, "Kiss Kiss," featuring T-Pain.
Carrie Underwood's 19 Recordings/Arista Nashville set "Carnival Ride" falls 3-5 with 121,000 (-29%), while Josh Groban's holiday album, "Noel" (143/Reprise), ascends 8-6 with a 52% sales increase to 116,000.
Selling 87,000 copies, Britney Spears' "Blackout" (Jive) slips 2-7 with a 70% sales hit in its second week. At No. 8, Taylor Swift's self-titled Big Machine debut flies from No. 26 with a 156% sales increase (68,000) in its 55th week. The boost came with the album's DVD-enhanced reissue and her Horizon award win at the recent CMA Awards.
Angels & Airwaves' second Geffen album, "I-Empire," begins at No. 9 with 66,000. The band's first set, "We Don't Need to Whisper," bowed higher, at No. 4, with 127,000 in May 2006.
His first album since completing jail time and surviving a near-fatal car accident in 2006, Cassidy's Full Surface/J set "B.A.R.S. The Barry Adrian Reese Story" begins at No. 10 after shifting 63,000. His sophomore release, 2005's "I'm a Hustla," started at No. 5 with 93,000.
Other big debuts this week include Latin reggaeton duo Wisin & Yandel's "Wisin Vs. Yandel: Los Extraterrestres" (Machete) at No. 14 with 53,000, country quartet Little Big Town's "Place to Land" (Equity Music Group) at No. 24 with 35,000, the Def Jam score/soundtrack to "American Gangster" at No. 36 with 21,000 and the Starbucks Entertainment holiday compilation "Stockings by the Fire" at No. 43 with 18,000.
Album sales are up 7.5% from last week at 9.95 million units and down 16.8% from the same week in 2006 (11.95 million).


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