Chicks Still Number One
The Dixie Chicks’ Home took the expected Week Two dive,
but the record’s sales of 367,000, according to SoundScan, were
enough to keep it at Number One, push its cumulative sales to more
than 1 million after two weeks of release, and more than double the
next best album, Eminem’s The Eminem Show, which moved
179,000. In the rapper’s defense, however, The Eminem Show
is displaying sturdy legs, with its second consecutive week with a
sales increase.
The rest of the Top Ten looks much like it did last week, with
the exception of Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me, which,
twenty-eight weeks after its release, finally broke in at Number
Six with sales of 75,000. Debuts were few, as Aaron Carter’s
Another Earthquake made the week’s biggest splash, selling
41,000 at Number Eighteen, the only newcomer to crack the Top 100,
save the Ozzfest 2002 compilation, which sold 15,000
copies at Number Eighty-two.
A few albums enjoyed sales jumps: Imagine, a
posthumously released collection of live material by Eva Cassidy,
bounded from Number 105 to Number Thirty-two with sales of 27,000.
System of a Down Toxicity enjoyed an 8,000-copy jump from
Number Forty-two to Number Twenty-four. And John Mayer’s Room
for Squares jumped back into the Top Twenty at Number Fifteen,
with sales of 51,000.
But for the most part, sales were on the downswing, in typical
fashion for the week following the Labor Day holiday. Next week
doesn’t look to be any more inspiring. Releases by Ani DiFranco,
John Doe and Arrested Development’s Speech might pepper the Top
100, but don’t look for a lot of action from newcomers, and the
one-year anniversary of September 11th will likely have people
thinking things other than records.