The Album Sales Review For 8/25/10: Still Under An Eminem Reign
While the Billboard 200 album chart's top 10 welcomes six debuts, none can push Eminem's "Recovery" out of the top slot (116,000 sold according to Nielsen SoundScan; down 12%). The set thus spends its seventh non-consecutive week at No. 1 -- the most weeks atop the list since Taylor Swift's "Fearless" strung together 11 non-consecutive frames in the penthouse in late 2008 and early 2009.
Maybe the story of the week though is the fact that ridiculously under the radar R&B throwback artist Elm is a terrific #2 on the charts despite virtually no backing.
Back on the Billboard 200 albums chart, R&B singer Kem claims his highest-charting set ever as "Intimacy" starts at No. 2 with 74,000. His last album, 2006's "Kem II," bowed at No. 5 with 140,000. His first set, 2003's "Kemistry," entered way down at No. 175 and ultimately peaked at No. 90.This guy is the real deal as an artist:
Great stuff.
It was a week filled with new debuts hitting the top 10. Besides Kem, Ray LaMontague's "God Willin' and The Creek Don't Rise" at #3, Iron Maiden's "The Final Frontier" at #4, Trace Atkins "Cowboy's Back In Town" at #5, David Gray's "Founding" at #9, and John Mellancamp's "No Better Than This" at #10 also having their first weeks drop on the top ten. But those aren't numbers to jump for joy on.
The rest of the Top 10 includes Lady Antebellum's "Need You Know" at #6, Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" #7, and Justin Bieber's "My World" at #8.
And those overall sales numbers are, as usual, dreadful:
Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Aug. 22) totaled 5.06 million units, up 2% compared to the SoundScan-era low sum last week (4.95 million) and down 11% compared to the comparable sales week of 2009 (5.70 million). Year to date album sales stand at 190.2 million, down 12% compared to the same total at this point last year (216.8 million).
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