On the Charts: Evanescence Debut at Number One, Killers Defy Weak Reviews
Well, Amy Lee’s pain is still a big seller, according to this week’s charts anyway, which have Evanescence scoring a seriously big Number One debut. The band’s new album, Open Door, (read the Rob Sheffield-penned Rolling Stone review here) sold 447,342 copies in its first week, beating the Killers‘ second album, Sam’s Town, by more than 100,00 copies. The Killers’ new album has received slams in this magazine and in other publications (like the New York Times), but according to frontman Brandon Flowers it’s “one of the best albums of the last 20 years” and at least 314,788 people think he’s onto something, as the record sold that many copies and secured the Number Two spot in its first week on the charts.
Fans may be having too much fun with Beck’s multimedia art project of a record for those U.K. chart-bosses, but here in the States Information debuted at Number Seven, selling 99,481 copies in its first week on the charts. Indie rock continued to triumph this week with the Decemberists’ Crane Wife making an impressive debut at Number 35, selling 26,226 copies.
Now here’s your directive: Go out and buy boatloads of copies of the Hold Steady’s new record, Boys and Girls in America, just like those scientologists reportedly did with Tom Cruise’s Vanity Fair cover. If they can use guerrilla methods to make sure their guy sells, we can do the same for the Brooklyn-based Twins fans. Cuz we can’t have that record wallowing down at 124, where it debuted. The world would be a sad and dark place in that case.