On the Charts: Muse, Rolling Stones Continue British Reign
More than two decades after they formed, British prog-rockers Muse have finally scored their first Number One album on the U.S. charts as their new LP Drones debuted atop the Billboard 200. Muse‘s seventh studio album moved 84,000 total albums in its first week of release, a drop from the 101,000 copies the band’s The 2nd Law sold in its first week in 2012 on its way to Number Two, Billboard reports.
Muse’s Number One landing comes a week after fellow Brits Florence and the Machine occupied the top spot. As Billboard notes, this is the first time in 30 years that two different British rock bands finished at Number One in consecutive weeks. The last time this happened: 1985, when Tears for Fears’ Songs From the Big Chair was unseated from atop the album charts by Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms.
Muse and Florence and the Machine weren’t the only British rockers making moves in the top 10: The Rolling Stones‘ 1971 classic Sticky Fingers found itself at Number Five thanks to the album’s stocked reissue. The Sticky Fingers rerelease moved 36,000 total albums, giving the LP its best chart position since the original Sticky Fingers slotted in the Number Five spot on Aug. 14, 1971.
Florence and the Machine’s How Big, How Beautiful, How Blue fell to Number Four in its second week, shedding 73 percent of its debut week sales to finish its second week with 37,000 copies sold. Taylor Swift’s 1989 held strong at Number Two thanks to the continued sales of her “Bad Blood” remix, while Of Monsters and Men’s Beneath the Skin wrapped up the Number Three spot with 61,000 copies, the Icelandic group’s best debut yet on the Billboard 200.
No other debuts managed to infiltrate the upper reaches of the charts as Ed Sheeran’s X, Sam Hunt’s Montevallo, A$AP Rocky’s At.Long.Last.A$AP, Maroon 5’s V and Meghan Trainor’s Title fleshed out the rest of the Top 10.