DMB Busts Up the Charts
The Dave Matthews Band‘s Busted Stuff debuted Number One this week, with sales of 622,000, according to SoundScan. The number, while still the third highest single-week tally (behind Eminem’s The Eminem Show and Nelly’s Nellyville), fell 110,000 copies shy of last year’s Week One tally for DMB’s Everyday. A trio of reasons could explain the drop: the general sickly state of album sales this year, the fact that a number of the songs from Busted Stuff, in different forms, were traded about online over the past year, and the new album didn’t have a breakout lead single as Everyday did with “I Did It.”
Regardless, Busted Stuff moved enough units to more than double the week’s Number Two album, Nellyville, which registered 305,000 sales in its fourth week of release. The Eminem Show‘s strong showing continues, as it sold 211,000 copies, two months into its release.
The Vines’ Highly Evolved cashed in on all the advance hype. The record from the fresh-faced Aussie rock ensemble nearly bounced into the Top Ten, arriving at Number Eleven, with sales of 64,000. Mary Mary’s Incredible sold 43,000 copies to debut at Number Twenty; Darryl Worley’s I Miss My Friend landed a spot lower with sales of 42,000; Robert Plant’s Dreamland continued a summer string of solid codger releases, selling 25,000 copies at Number Forty; and the Flaming Lips just squeezed into the Top Fifty, at Number Fifty, with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which sold 22,000 units.
And a handful of albums enjoyed summer sales boosts. Pink’s Missundaztood fell a spot to Number Twelve, but sold 3,000 more copies than last week. Norah Jones and John Mayer both bounded back into the Top Twenty. The former from Number Twenty-one to Number Fifteen with sales of 47,000; the latter from Number Twenty-three to Number Sixteen with sales of 44,000. Weezer’s Maladroit also skipped from Number 100 to Number Eighty-two with sales of 14,000. The week’s biggest jump was the DMB’s Everyday, which rode some Busted Stuff inertia, flying from Number 120 to Number Sixty-seven, with sales of 17,000.
And with a weaker batch of releases this week, the DMB looks to have a lock on the top spot for at least another week.
This week’s Top Ten: the Dave Matthews Band’s Busted Stuff; Eminem’s The Eminem Show; Nelly’s Nellyville; Red Hot Chili Peppers’ By the Way; Avril Lavigne’s Let Go; Irv Gotti’s The Inc.; Styles’ A Gangster and a Gentleman; Ashanti’s Ashanti; Counting Crows’ Hard Candy; and Josh Groban’s Josh Groban.