Nelly Back on Top
After a two week break, Nelly’s Nellyville returned to the
top of the charts, replacing Bruce Springsteen’s The
Rising after its fourteen-day run. Nellyville sold
183,000 copies, according to SoundScan, putting the album at Number
One for six of its eight weeks of release. Nellyville also
held off The Eminem Show, which climbed to Number Two on a
6,000 copy sales increase (to 179,000). The Rising‘s sales
slipped to 167,000, and left the album just 50,000 copies shy of
breaking the 1 million mark.
The week’s biggest newcomer was James Taylor’s eagerly awaited
October Road, which jumped in at Number Four with sales of
154,000. But debuts peppered the Top Fifty. After nine albums and
fifteen years, R&B singer Keith Sweat looked to start anew with
Rebirth; and the album did just fine selling 58,000 copies
at Number Fourteen. Nickel Creek’s self-titled debut took a year to
sell 50,000 copies, en route to its current tally of more than
700,000. The acoustic trio’s latest, This Side, moved
51,000 in its first week for a Number Eighteen bow. Snoop Dogg’s
new venture with MCA got off to a strong start as he and the Doggy
Style All-Stars sold 49,000 copies of their debut record (Number
Nineteen), and Slum Village, another Detroit hip-hop export, sold
47,000 copies of Trinity (Past, Present and Future) to
debut one slot lower.
There was little else to report from the charts. For the most
part, sales sagged again, with The Eminem Show,
XXX, System of a Down’s Toxicity and Nappy Roots’
Watermelon, Chicken and Gritz and Norah Jones’ Come
Away With Me, the only albums inside the Top Fifty to enjoy
sales boosts.
Next week should provide more of the same — a handful of
newcomers, including Sleater-Kinney, the Black Crowes — who should
jump into the Top Fifty or Top 100. But don’t expect a major
shake-up at the top.
This week’s Top Ten: Nelly’s Nellyville; Eminem’s
The Eminem Show; Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising;
James Taylor’s October Road; Avril Lavigne’s Let
Go; Now That’s What I Call Music! 10; Toby Keith’s
Unleashed; Linkin Park’s Reanimation;
XXX soundtrack; and Scarface’s The Fix.