Chicks Bring Home Number One
All the pre-fab luster that presumably surrounds the Dixie Chicks
is just part of the trick, as the trio takes its cue from another
pioneering blonde that fused first-rate musical chops with things
that sparkle: Dolly Parton. Because the Chicks have succeeded in
Nashville, they’re frequently lumped in with much of the fodder
that fills the country music charts from glamourpusses to
stetson-wearing beefcakes. It’s a mistake. That the trio has
insurgently slipped the banjo back into country music is an
accomplishment that other Music City mavericks haven’t been able to
accomplish. That the Chicks’ two albums (since the arrival of
sparkplug singer Natalie Maines) have sold more than 10 million
copies apiece despite the group’s genuine acoustic leanings is even
more so.
With their new album, Home, the Dixie Chicks again
challenged pop-minded country listeners to break up with them.
Home is their most wood-and-wire-driven recording since
the pre-Maines bluegrass circuit days. And despite dancing closer
and closer to country music’s rural roots, the group managed to
sell 780,000 copies of Home, according to SoundScan, a
tally that trails only Eminem’s The Eminem Show for best
single week number of the year. It’s also a number that dwarfs
their previous Number One, 1999’s Fly, which sold 341,000
in its first week. And no matter how you define your country music,
Home‘s Week One sales puts the Chicks in a club with the
likes of Shania (barely country) and Garth (white collar
country).
The Eminem Show, last week’s chart-topper, fell to
Number Two with sales of 176,000. Avril Lavigne’s Let Go
refuses to do just that, hanging in at Number Three on a 20,000
sales spike to 150,000. Two other strong debuts splashed into the
Top Ten: Coldplay broke the 40,000 Britpop ceiling with A Rush
of Blood to the Head, which sold 141,000 copies at Number
Five, topping Eve, whose Eve-olution jumped in at Number
Six with sales of 123,000.
The Labor Day holiday provided a bit of a boost for other
albums, as Pink’s Missundaztood (Number Sixteen) and
P.O.D.’s Satellite, which doubled its sales from last week
to jump from Eighty-four to Number Thirty-six both enjoyed sales
jumps. And the MTV Video Music Awards provided a bit of a
push for the Vines’ Highly Evolved, which moved from
Number Forty to Number Thirty-three, and the Hives’ Veni Vidi
Vicious, which climbed from Number 104, back into the Top 100,
at Number Ninety.
Hearty debuts were also scattered beyond the Top Ten. Lil’ Flip
sold 68,000 copies of his Undaground Legend at Number
Twelve. Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf moved
50,000 units at Number Seventeen, and BBMak’s Into Your
Head and Montgomery Gentry’s My Town jumped in at
Numbers Twenty-five and Twenty-six, respectively. And Aimee Mann
continues to do just fine on her own, selling a very strong 31,000
of her oh-so-indie Lost in Space, which debuted at Number
Thirty-five, which topped major-label fare like Slipknot side
project Stone Sour’s Stone Sour (Number Forty-six, 26,000
copies sold) and Jimmy Fallon’s Bathroom Wall (Number
Forty-seven, 25,000).
Next week don’t expect a lotta change. Without a flagship
release of note this week, the top of the charts will look largely
the same, as the Chicks look poised to top 1 million copies sold
and hold onto Number One, for at least another week.
This week’s Top Ten: Dixie Chicks Home; Eminem’s
The Eminem Show; Avril Lavigne’s Let Go; Nelly’s
Nellyville; Coldplay’s A Rush of Blood to the
Head; Eve’s Eve-olution; Bruce Springsteen’s The
Rising; James Taylor’s October Road; Clipse’s
Lord Willing; and Now That’s What I Call Music!
10.