Luke Bryan’s “Crash My Party” is set to crash in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart next week with a very big bow.
Industry sources say the country star’s latest album to sell least 450,000 copies by the end of the tracking week on Aug. 18. That would mark the largest sales week for Bryan and the biggest for any male country artist since 2005. That November, Kenny Chesney logged a 469,000 start with his album “The Road and the Radio.”
The Civil Wars Debut at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart
The new Billboard 200 chart’s top 10 will be revealed on the morning of Aug. 21.
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If Bryan’s album moves 450,000, it would also be the third-largest sales week of 2013. Only the debuts of Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience” (968,000) and Jay Z’s “Magna Carta… Holy Grail” (528,000) captured bigger weeks.
It’s fairly rare nowadays for a country act to log a week as big as Bryan’s potentially large start. Since 2008, only four country albums have sold more than 450,000 in a single week — and three of them were by Taylor Swift (her last three studio releases). The fourth was by Lady Antebellum, when the trio’s “Need You Now” album opened with 481,000 in early 2010.
“Crash My Party” is Bryan’s fourth studio album and first since 2011’s “Tailgates & Tanlines” debuted and peaked at No. 2. Earlier this year, he earned his first No. 1 album with the compilation “Spring Break… Here to Party.”
To promote the album this week, Bryan appeared on E!’s “Chelsea Lately” and performed on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (both on the set’s Aug. 13 release date). He’s schedule to appear on NBC’s “Today” twice this week, first with an appearance on Aug. 15, followed by a performance the next day.
The new album’s title track — and lead single — hit No. 2 on the Hot Country Songs chart in April, and spent three weeks atop the Country Airplay chart. The set’s latest single, “That’s My Kind of Night,” jumps 40-35 on Hot Country Songs this week and rises 21-20 on Country Airplay.
While Bryan’s album will easily be the biggest of next week’s new entries, there are a few other new titles aiming for sizable bows. R&B singer K. Michelle (of VH1’s reality show “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta”) will likely debut in the top 10 with her first album, “Rebellious Soul.” The album might sell around 65,000.
Other releases looking to make high debuts next week include Parachute’s “Overnight,” Hoodie Allen’s “Americoustic” EP and Washed Out’s “Paracosm.”