Idolator
George Strait seems lined up for the top on next week's album sales chart, but it seems like depressing me with an appearance on Today earlier this week paid off for R.E.M.—Accelerate will likely grab the No. 2 spot, according to the occasionally reliable projections over at HITS. The Matt Lauer-introduced clip, as well as more chart wonkery, below the cut.
George Strait's success continues a remarkable chart run for a guy who seems nice enough and is liked a lot by my wife, somewhat to my puzzlement. The last five Strait albums have hit No. 1, with eighteen of his albums reaching the pinnacle over all. Meanwhile, the totally abysmal R.E.M. disc Around the Sun didn't even go gold, although if Accelerate's projected sales total of around 100,00 copies holds up, getting a plaque eventually seems likely.
In other projection news,Idolator favorite Trina will have a solid showing for an album I had forgotten about, selling a projected 50,000 copies; the Scorsese/Rolling Stones soundtrack Shine A Light at 35,000 for now, with weekend sales likely to boost that total; and somehow 25,000 people thought purchasing a Theory Of A Deadman disc would make their lives better.
In your "this industry is screwed" note of the week, sales are projected to be down 16% from this time last year, and are already off 11% year to date. In somewhat related news, I am thinking of signing up to learn air conditioning repair.
STRAIT UP, NO CHASER [HITS Daily Double]
Comments
I bought it. It's good. The first track, "Living Well Is The Best Revenge" is my favorite track and starts off the album nice. My only complaint is that it doesn't really go anywhere from there and "Until The Day Is Done" sounds exactly like "Nightswimming". Definately not their worst.
God... Michael is SO tired of that song.
I believe those Strait chart figures you quote are on the Country chart. He has topped the big chart, but only twice. Not to take anything away from him - next to Garth and Shania (not even sure she counts), he's pretty much the biggest thing in country, period, over the last quarter-century.
R.E.M. only has two No. 1 albums to its name - Out of Time and Monster - so regardless of how many actual copies Accelerate sells, a No. 2 debut/peak is perfectly respectable for them.
(Even when they were big in the '90s, they couldn't be counted on to top the charts regularly. Most infamously, they debuted at No. 2 in 1996 with New Adventures in Hi-Fi -- the album watched most intensively by the media because it was released just after the announcement of their monstrous $80 million Warners deal -- missing the top slot thanks to a short-lived comeback album by, no shit, New Edition.)
@Chris Molanphy: I should have made that more clear with regards to the Strait/country charts bit. My bad.
Hey, can someone here link that Colbert Report video with R.E.M.? Because after seeing the comments at Jezebel, I can no longer expose myself to that sort of derangement.
@AthertonMerriweather: Living Well is the Best Revenge is a pretty good opener... wish it was the single. I like the Dick Cheney song best.
@extracrispy: Oh! That is a good one. I wonder if Mike Mills is going to be part of planning another Vote For Change tour this year...
Definitely the best album since 1996's New Adventures In Hi-Fi.
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