Katie Hasty, N.Y.
Kanye West earns his third straight No. 1 on The Billboard 200 as
"808s & Heartbreak" bows in the top slot. The Roc-A-Fella/Def
Jam set moved 450,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen
SoundScan, the artist's lowest debut sales frame since his first
album, "The College Dropout," bowed with 441,000 in 2004.
His last release, "Graduation," began with 957,000 at No. 1 last
year, while sophomore set "Late Registration" checked in with
860,000 at No. 1 in 2005.
With the help of Thanksgiving sale prices and a performance from
the singer at the Nov. 23 American Music Awards, sales for Taylor
Swift's Big Machine album "Fearless" increase 23% to 267,000,
pushing the set up 4-2.
At No. 3 with 261,000 is Guns N' Roses' Best Buy exclusive "Chinese
Democracy" (Black Frog/Geffen), the first studio album of original
material from the group since 1991. GNR's last studio efforts, "Use
Your Illusion I" and "Use Your Illusion II," debuted at Nos. 2 and
1 respectively, with 685,000 and 770,000 after being released on
the same day in 1991.
Since then, the act has charted with a covers set (1993's "The
Spaghetti Incident?" with a 190,000 debut), a live effort (1999's
"Live Era '87 - '93;" 60,000) and the 2004 "Greatest Hits" package
(169,000).
Beyonce's "I Am ... Sasha Fierce" (Music World/Columbia) declines
by 47% in its second week, dropping 1-4 with 257,000. Debuting
right behind at No. 5 is Ludacris' "Theater of the Mind" (DTP/Def
Jam) with 213,000. It's the first time one of the rapper's albums
debuted anywhere but No. 1 since 2001's "Word of Mouf" bowed and
peaked at No. 3.
The Killers' third album, "Day & Age" (Island) enters at No. 6
with 193,000. Its 2006 predecessor, "Sam's Town," bowed at No. 2
with 315,000.
After debuting at No. 2 last week, Nickelback's "Dark Horse"
(Roadrunner) slips to No. 7 on a 46% decline to 178,000. Chop
Shop/Atlantic's soundtrack to the runaway hit film "Twilight" falls
6-8 with 162,000 (+29%) while the multi-label "Now 29" hits
compilation earns a 26% sales increase to 145,000, slipping 7-9.
David Cook's self-titled 19 Recordings/RCA debut rounds out the top
tier, descending 3-10 with 112,000 (-60%).
Other debuts this week include Barry Manilow's "Greatest Songs of
the Eighties" (Arista) at No. 14 with 78,000, the Coldplay EP
"Prospekt's March" (Capitol) at No. 15 with 77,000, Trace Adkins'
"X: Ten" (Capitol Nashville) at No. 32 with 37,000, Jeremy Camp's
"Speaking Louder Than Words" (Tooth & Nail) at No. 38 with
32,000 and Linkin Park's "Road to Revolution" (Warner Bros.) at No.
41 with 31,000.
At 12.15 million units, sales this week are up 29% compared to last
week's sum, but down 0.7% compared to the same sales week last
year.