Biggest Debuts: Entering the charts at No. 3 was the soundtrack to the soon-to-be-sequeled Jonas Brothers vehicle Camp Rock, which sold 188,000 copies. Katy Perry came in at No. 9 with 47,000 copies of One Of The Boys, a sales total that might hint to her future home in the 99-cent bin. (Compare those numbers to those posted by her current hit, "I Kissed A Girl," which is No. 1 on the digital tracks chart; it sold about 228,000 copies this week and is (sigh) near the million mark overall. Talk about the pop hits a cultural moment deserves.)

The Offspring sold 46,000 copies of their latest comeback album, Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace, and came in at No. 10, while Judas Priest's double album about Nostradamus came in at a semi-predictable No. 11, selling 42,000 copies.

Notable Jumps: The cash-in reissue of Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad sold 63,000 copies—a 930% jump that was good enough for a leap from No. 124 to No. 7. The album has sold 1.3 million copies to date, which seems like a small total given the omnipresence of "Umbrella" and "Don't Stop The Music." Good thing she's got all those endorsements to back her up.

Dropping Off: Last week's No. 1, Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III, took a 69% hit, but it only fell to No. 2 on the overall chart since a one-week sales total of 309,000 is still pretty good in this more-anemic-than-ever market. (Billboard noted that while the year-to-year decline was only 6.7%, the week-to-week decline was 10.6%, or about a million units.)

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Kid Rock continues his Warren Zevon-assisted run back up the album chart, with Rock N Roll Jesus selling 28,000 copies and inching up to No. 16.

This week's top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Coldplay, Viva La Vida (721,000)
2. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (309,000)
3. Camp Rock soundtrack (188,000)
4. Now 28 (81,000)
5. Plies, Definition Of Real (68,000)
6. Usher, Here I Stand (65,000)
7. Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad (63,000)
8. Disturbed, Indestructible (59,000)
9. Katy Perry, One Of The Boys (47,000)
10. The Offspring, Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace (46,000)
11. Judas Priest, Nostradamus (42,000)
12. Journey, Revelation (38,000)
13. Weezer (30,000)
14. 3 Doors Down (29,000)
15. Alanis Morrissette, Flavors Of Entanglement (29,000)
16. Kid Rock, Rock N' Roll Jesus (29,000)
17. Leona Lewis, Spirit (28,000)
18. Duffy, Rockferry (28,000)
19. Taylor Swift (27,000)
20. N.E.R.D., Seeing Sounds (24,000)

The top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Coldplay, Viva La Vida (288,000)
2. Camp Rock soundtrack (38,000)
3. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (27,000)
4. Katy Perry, One Of The Boys (16,000)
5. The Offspring, Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace (11,000)
6. Disturbed, Indestructible (7,200)
7. Alanis Morrissette, Flavors Of Entanglement (6,700)
8. Coldplay, X & Y (6,200)
9. Sex And The City soundtrack (6,200)
10. Weezer (5,900)

Biggest Debuts: It wasn't right behind Carter, but Plies' Definition Of Real did tally some impressive numbers, selling 215,000 copies and entering the chart at No. 2. Perhaps most notable about this feat was that Plies accomplished it by wearing himself around his neck:

Is it as bad as his smoking book from last year? I honestly can't decide.

In other debut news, N*E*R*D sold 80,000 copies of its new album Seeing Sounds and debuted at No. 7; Alanis Morrissette's Flavors Of Entanglement sold 70,000 copies and came in at No. 8; and 49,000 people decided that My Morning Jacket's recorded output was as worthy of their money as the band's live show, as Evil Urges entered at No. 9.

Notable Jumps: He may be holding his albums back from iTunes, but Kid Rock's Rock And Roll Jesus is still selling, with a 25% jump this week (No. 19, 28,000) that puts it just on the edge of reaching the million-sold mark.

Dropping Off: Weezer's latest play for the geeks was down 64% (No. 10, 46,000 sold), and the album that beat it out for No. 1 last week, Disturbed's Indestructible, took a 60% hit (No. 4, 102,000 sold).

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Speaking of albums that entered the charts a week ago, Journey's Revelation took a mere 15% week-to-week hit, selling 89,000 copies and dipping from No. 5 to No. 6. Given that the Wal-Mart strategy worked even better for the Eagles and our Arnel Pineda/Steve Perry comparison posts have attracted more long tail traffic than pretty much anything else on the site (or I should say, anything that isn't related to that Meg White impersonator who made her way around the Internet last fall), I shouldn't be as surprised by this relatively small drop, but I guess "news that isn't as bad as it should have been" is an anomaly for the music business these days.

Postscript: Alanis' new album came in at No. 2 on the digital chart, selling just under 25,000 copies—or more than 35% of her overall sales total. The idea that Morrissette's fans may be in the demographic sweet spot for ditching the physical and going for the digital copies of new releases was further borne out by another '90s alt-rock star whose album hit physical and virtual shelves last week: Jakob Dylan, who came in at No. 24 on the big chart with 24,000 sales and entered the digital-albums chart at No. 9 with 8,500 copies sold. (By comparison, Tha Carter III topped the digital-albums chart with just about 100,000 sales (10% of its overall total), and Plies' digital-album sales comprised just 2.8% of his overall sales total (6,100, No. 9).)

This week's top 20 albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (1,000,000)
2. Plies, Definition Of Real (215,000)
3. Now 28 (132,000)
4. Disturbed, Indestructible (102,000)
5. Usher, Here I Stand (101,000)
6. Journey, Revelation (89,000)
7. N*E*R*D, Seeing Sounds (80,000)
8. Alanis Morrissette, Flavors Of Entanglement (70,000)
9. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges (49,000)
10. Weezer (46,000)
11. 3 Doors Down (38,000)
12. Sex And The City soundtrack (35,000)
13. Ashanti, Declaration (34,000)
14. Leona Lewis, Spirit (33,000)
15. Duffy, Rockferry (30,000)
16. Taylor Swift (30,000)
17. Frank Sinatra, Nothing But The Best (29,000)
18. Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits (29,000)
19. Kid Rock, Rock N Roll Jesus (28,000)
20. Mongomery Gentry, Back When I Knew It All (27,000)

This week's top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (100,000)
2. Alanis Morrissette, Flavors Of Entanglement (25,000)
3. N*E*R*D, Seeing Sounds (16,000)
4. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges (15,000)
5. Disturbed, Indestructible (12,000)
6. Sex And The City soundtrack (10,000)
7. Weezer (8,900)
8. Jakob Dylan, Seeing Things (8,500)
9. Plies, Definition Of Real (6,100)
10. Usher, Here I Stand (5,300)

Biggest Debuts: Now 28, which this time actually features songs that are still selling briskly on the Hot Digital Tracks chart ("Bleeding Love," "Lollipop," that dreary Natasha Bedingfield track) came in second on the big board, selling 185,000 copies. At No. 4 was the red self-titled album by Weezer, which sold 126,000 copies; No. 5 was Journey's Arnel Pineda'd out Revelation, which was taken home by 105,000 Wal-Mart shoppers; No. 6 was Ashanti's The Declaration, which sold 86,000 units; and No. 8 was Jewel's country album Perfectly Clear, which moved 48,000 copies.

Also, debuting at No. 20 was something called Now Classic Rock, which features these hits that will never be erased from the modern consciousness:

1. Queen - We Will Rock You
2. Heart - Barracuda
3. George Thorogood & The Destroyers - Bad to the Bone
4. Rush - Spirit of the Radio
5. The Who - My Generation
6. Jimi Hendrix Experience - Fire
7. Boston - More Than a Feeling
8. Kansas - Carry on My Wayward Son
9. Styx - Renegade
10. Foreigner - Cold as Ice
11. Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
12. Grand Funk Railroad - We're an American Band
13. Mountain - Mississippi Queen
14. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising
15. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama
16. Steve Miller Band - The Joker
17. David Bowie - Rebel Rebel
18. Cheap Trick - Surrender
19. Peter Frampton - Show Me the Way (live)
20. Kiss - Rock and Roll All Nite (live)

I'm not sure if its high chart placement is a sign of a weak market or a sign that these songs are just going to be the Rock Standards until long after I'm six feet underground.

Notable Jumps: Thanks to its sales-goosing reissue, Chris Brown's Exclusive leapt from No. 56 to No. 10 on a 261% sales gain—that's 36,000 albums sold.

Dropping Off: Last week's No. 1, Usher's Here I Stand, took a 67% hit—but only dropped from the top spot to No. 3.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: The Sex And The City soundtrack took a not-bad 9% hit in its second week on shelves, despite a tracklisting that includes Fergie and freaking Morningwood. Well, if it means that some Black Eyed Peas fan will be turned on to Al Green, I guess it's worth it. Even if he had to duet with Joss Stone to get a spot on the playlist.

The top 20 sellers, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Disturbed, Indestructible (253,000)
2. Now 28 (185,000)
3. Usher, Here I Stand (145,000)
4. Weezer (126,000)
5. Journey, Revelation (105,000)
6. Ashanti, The Declaration (86,000)
7. Sex And The City soundtrack (60,000)
8. Jewel, Perfectly Clear (48,000)
9. 3 Doors Down (45,000)
10. Chris Brown, Exclusive (36,000)
11. Leona Lewis, Spirit (33,000)
12. Duffy, Rockferry (31,000)
13. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (30,000)
14. Madonna, Hard Candy (27,000)
15. Taylor Swift (27,000)
16. Frank Sinatra, Nothing But The Best (27,000)
17. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (25,000)
18. Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits (24,000)
19. Bun B, II Trill (24,000)
20. Now Classic Rock (23,000)

The top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Weezer (41,000)
2. Disturbed, Indestructible (41,000)
3. Sex And The City soundtrack (19,000)
4. Usher, Here I Stand (9,900)
5. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (6,400)
6. Jewel, Perfectly Clear (6,300)
7. Radiohead, Best Of Radiohead (5,900)
8. Jason Mraz, We Sing We Dance We Steal Things (5,800)
9. Ashanti, The Declaration (5,800)
10. 3 Doors Down (5,600)

Biggest Debuts: At No. 2, yet way, way behind the Usher album, was the soundtrack to Sex And The City, which sold 66,000 copies to people who just had to acquire that crummy Fergie song legally. Al Green's Lay It Down entered at No. 9, selling 34,000 copies, and further down the chart, Cyndi Lauper's actually-quite-good foray into AutoTuned electro, Bring Ya To The Brink, sold 12,000 copies and debuted at No. 41.

Notable Jumps: Speaking of that Fergie song, did you know that The Dutchess just got reissued, because apparently 3.6 million record sales weren't enough for the people at Universal? The reissue resulted in 15,000 new sales—good enough for a leap to No. 28 and a 131% overall jump in its 89th week on the chart, but it can't help but seem kinda paltry when you think about it in the context of the album's sales before it got its shiny new cover and Nelly collaboration. And when you think about the fact that the EP consisting of just the bonus tracks sold 11,000 copies of its own.

Dropping Off: Last week's No. 1, the new self-titled album by 3 Doors Down, dipped 59%, selling 63,000 copies, and fell to No. 3.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Oh, come on. Like this would go to anyone but Fergie this week, given that "Labels Or Love" somehow manages to be 80x more annoying than the characters it's attached at the expensively sheathed hip to. (Sure, Taylor Swift's self-titled album has now been on the chart for 84 weeks, but how can you think of her success as "inexplicable"? She's so cute!)

The top 20 albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Usher, Here I Stand (443,000)
2. Sex And The City soundtrack (66,000)
3. 3 Doors Down (63,000)
4. Bun B, II Trill (40,000)
5. Leona Lewis, Spirit (39,000)
6. Frank Sinatra, Nothing But The Best (37,000)
7. Duffy, Rockferry (36,000)
8. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (36,000)
9. Al Green, Lay It Down (34,000)
10. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (33,000)
11. Madonna, Hard Candy (32,000)
12. Taylor Swift (29,000)
13. Jason Mraz, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things (27,000)
14. Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits (26,000)
15. Neil Diamond, Home Before Dark (25,000)
16. Julianne Hough (24,000)
17. Now 27 (20,000)
18. Flobots, Fight With Tools (19,000)
19. Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride (19,000)
20. Kid Rock, Rock N Roll Jesus (18,000)

The top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Usher, Here I Stand (44,000)
2. Sex And The City soundtrack (27,000)
3. Fergie, Dutchess EP (11,000)
4. 3 Doors Down (10,000)
5. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (9,600)
6. Jason Mraz, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things (7,500)
7. Duffy, Rockferry (6,600)
8. Al Green, Lay It Down (5,800)
9. Cyndi Lauper, Bring Ya To The Brink (4,800)
10. Juno sountrack (4,700)

Biggest Debuts: Warner Music Group's recent 360-deal signee Frank Sinatra scored a No. 2 debut with his latest greatest-hits collection, Nothing But The Best (99,000 copies sold). Meanwhile, the money Jason Mraz saved on his album cover can go straight back into his pocket, maybe, as his new album We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things entered the charts at No. 3 with 73,000 copies sold. (Actually, maybe that budget-cutting technique was a smart thing.) And Lulu-in-training Duffy's debut album, Rockferry, came in at No. 4, selling 71,000 copies.

Notable Jumps: A weak week meant not a lot of upward mobility on the chart, and the 7% jump in sales for Kid Rock's Rock & Roll Jesus resulted in the album jumping 16 spots on the chart (No. 31, 15,000 sold). Oh, and confusing Simon Cowell on last week's American Idol sort of paid off for Fantasia—her self-titled album saw a 27% bump, but that only meant that its sales were in the mid-three-digit range instead of the lower-three.

Dropping Off: Who didn't drop off this week? The No. 20 album, Jack Johnson's Sleep Through The Static, didn't even scrape the 20,000-sold mark. Last week's No. 1, Neil Diamond's Home Before Dark, had a 63% dip (No. 7, 53,000); Gavin DeGraw's self-titled album plunged 67% (No. 15, 21,000).

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Well, hm. Ol' Blue Eyes seems to be holding up pretty well, doesn't he? Honestly, the numbers this week are so bleak—we're treading pretty close the point where the total number of albums sold in a week won't even break the double-platinum mark, people—I can't even make an Alvin & The Chipmunks joke (No. 22, 18,000 sold, down 16% week to week).

The top 20 albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (144,000)
2. Frank Sinatra, Nothing But The Best (99,000)
3. Jason Mraz, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things (73,000)
4. Duffy, Rockferry (71,000)
5. Leona Lewis, Spirit (62,000)
6. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (59,000)
7. Neil Diamond, Home Before Dark (53,000)
8. Madonna, Hard Candy (53,000)
9. Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits (41,000)
10. Keith Sweat, Just Me(37,000)
11. Taylor Swift (30,000)
12. 10 Years, Division (28,000)
13. Now 28 (23,000)
14. Dierks Bentley, Greatest Hits: Every Mile A Memory (22,000)
15. Gavin DeGraw (21,000)
16. Josh Groban, Awake Live (21,000)
17. Lyfe Jennings, Lyfe Change (21,000)
18. Clay Aiken, On My Way Here (21,000)
19. Juno soundtrack (20,000)
20. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (20,000)

The top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (55,000)
2. Jason Mraz, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things (24,000)
3. Duffy, Rockferry (17,000)
4. Frank Sinatra, Nothing But The Best (10,000)
5. Chronicles Of Narnia soundtrack (8,300)
6. Madonna, Hard Cady (7,200)
7. Gavin DeGraw (5,900)
8. Juno soundtrack (5,800)
9. Leona Lewis, Spirit (4,600)
10. P.S. I Love You soundtrack (4,400)

Biggest Debuts: In addition to Diamond's top-selling bow, the top 10 had six debuts: Toby Keith's 35 Biggest Hits (No. 2, 103,000 sold), Clay Aiken's On My Way Here (No. 4, 94,000), Gavin DeGraw (No. 7, 66,000); a Josh Groban live album (No. 8, 58,000); Dierks Bentley's greatest-hits collection (No. 9, 43,000); and Luis Miguel's Complices (No. 10, 32,000).

Notable Jumps: Thanks to their appearance on last week's American Idol results show, Maroon 5's It Won't Be Soon Before This Album Recoups The Ridiculous Amount Of Money Universal Poured Into It (We Hope) enjoyed a 62% bounce, selling 13,000 copies and jumping to No. 58. Likewise, Rascal Flatts, who appeared in the audience on Idol and "treated" the Dancing With The Stars audience to their godawful tunes, shot up 82%, selling 17,000 copies and leaping to No. 37.

Dropping Off: Last week's No. 1, Madonna's Hard Candy, failed to break the six-figure mark in its second week on the chart; its sales were down 66% for a total of 94,000, and they were only ahead of On My Way Here's numbers by about 70 units or so. Pandering: It doesn't always work out of the gate!

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: They haven't proven their long-term durability yet, but I'd be remiss if I didn't note that Scream by the inexplicably popular Tokio Hotel sold 16,000 copies in its first week on shelves and entered the chart at No. 39. While that sales total may not seem impressive even in these low-selling times, given that they're pretty much an Internet sensation at this point, you can't deny that 16,000 sales is a much larger total than that notched by your average blog band. (And I include both Mika and Robyn in that list.)

The top 20, with last week's sales totals in parentheses:
1. Neil Diamond, Home Before Dark (146,000)
2. Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits (103,000)
3. Madonna, Hard Candy (94,000)
4. Clay Aiken, On My Way Here (94,000)
5. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (87,000)
6. Leona Lewis, Spirit (76,000)
7. Gavin DeGraw (66,000)
8. Josh Groban, Awake Live (58,000)
9. Dierks Bentley, Greatest Hits: Every Mile A Memory (43,000)
10. Luis Miguel, Complices (32,000)
11. Taylor Swift (32,000)
12. Lyfe Jennings, Lyfe Change (32,000)
13. Now 27 (29,000)
14. George Strait, Troubadour (29,000)
15. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (26,000)
16. Tye Tribbett, Stand Out (26,000)
17. Juno soundtrack (24,000)
18. Jordin Sparks (24,000)
19. Colbie Caillat, Coco (24,000)
20. Tim McGraw, Greatest Hits 1 & 2 (23,000)

The top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Gavin DeGraw (23,000)
2. Madonna, Hard Candy (13,000)
3. Clay Aiken, On My Way Here (6,700)
4. Leona Lewis, Spirit (6,200)
5. Neil Diamond, Home Before Dark (6,100)
6. Juno soundtrack (5,900)
7. Dierks Bentley, Greatest Hits: Every Mile A Memory (5,100)
8. The Roots, Rising Down (4,700)
9. P.S. I Love You soundtrack (4,300)
10. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (4,200)

Biggest Debuts: As we mentioned, last week was a pretty great one for new releases, with lots of excellent albums dropping in the pre-paycheck, post-tax-return rush. So how'd they all do? Let's run down the list:
The Roots, Rising Down: No. 6, 54,000 sold (No. 2 digital, 15,000 sold)
Portishead, Third: No. 7, 53,000 sold (No. 3 digital, 15,000 sold)
Lil Mama, VYP: Voice Of The Young People: No. 25, 19,000 sold (not on digital albums chart)
Estelle, Shine: No. 38, 15,000 sold (No. 16 digital, 3,700 sold)
SantogoldNo. 74, 9,500 sold (No. 13 digital, 4,000 sold)
Robyn: No. 100, 7,100 sold (No. 25 digital, 2,800 sold)

All of them were out-debuted by Madge, Lyfe Jennings' Lyfe Change (No. 4, 80,000 sold), and Def Leppard's Live From The Sparkle Lounge (No. 5, 55,000 sold). So what have we learned? You can't stop Def Leppard. The Lil Mama record maybe should have come out when "Lip Gloss" was hot, if only to be the beneficiary of not-as-bad-as-they-are-now record sales. All the Fader covers and Bud Light Lime ads in the world can't help shift copies of an album, even when they do wonders for RCRD LBL's Google Blog Search hits. And holding a record back from U.S. release for an extended period of time, then hoping that Perez Hilton's breathless, syntax-challenged endorsement can be the foundation for a marketing campaign, is a lousy strategy—no matter how good the album is.

Notable Jumps: Natasha Bedingfield's appearance on American Idol last week goosed sales of The Album That's Really Called NB No Matter How Dumb Record Executives Think Americans Are—its sales totals jumped 199% week-over-week, and it shot from No. 97 to No. 24 (19,000 copies sold) on the chart.

Dropping Off: Ashlee Simpson's Bittersweet World was off 64% week to week, falling from No. 4 to No. 31 (17,000 sold); Atmosphere's When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold had a 61% drop, tumbling from No. 5 to No. 41 (14,000 sold); and Flight Of The Conchords was down 57%, although its chart drop was a mere 14 places (No. 3 to No. 17, 22,000 sold).

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: An executive decision: This category is going to be held down by Alvin & the Chipmunks until they scurry out of the top 20. (They're at No. 14 this week with 23,000 copies sold.)

The top 20, with last week's sales in parentheses:
1. Madonna, Hard Candy (280,000)
2. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (95,000)
3. Leona Lewis, Spirit (84,000)
4. Lyfe Jennings, Lyfe Change (80,000)
5. Def Leppard, Songs From The Sparkle Lounge (55,000)
6. The Roots, Rising Down (54,000)
7. Portishead, Third (53,000)
8. Mudcrutch (38,000)
9. Now 27 (31,000)
10. Tim McGraw, Greatest Hits 1 & 2 (29,000)
11. Taylor Swift (29,000)
12. Steve Winwood, Nine Lives (26,000)
13. Juno soundtrack (26,000)
14. Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack (23,000)
15. Carly Simon, This Kind Of Love (23,000)
16. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (23,000)
17. Flight Of The Conchords (22,000)
18. George Strait, Troubadour (22,000)
19. Colbie Caillat, Coco (19,000)
20. Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, Best Of Both Worlds Concert Tour (22,000)

This week's top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Madonna, Hard Candy (73,000)
2. The Roots, Rising Down (15,000)
3. Portishead, Third (15,000)
4. Augustana, Can't Love Can't Hurt (11,000)
5. Leona Lewis, Spirit (9,400)
6. Flight Of The Conchords (7,500)
7. Juno soundtrack (6,700)
8. Mudcrutch (6,700)
9. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (6,500)
10. Def Leppard, Songs From The Sparkle Lounge (4,900)

Biggest Debuts: Aside from the debuts in the 3, 4, and 5 slots, ivory-tickling country singer Phil Vassar's Prayer Of A Common Man entered the chart at No. 10, selling 27,000 copies; St. Louis punkers Story Of The Year came in at No. 18 with Black Swan (21,000); and the awfully named outfit the Weepies, who are apparently big with the Grey's Anatomy set, debuted at No. 31 with 14,000 sales of Hideaway—and 11,000 of those were digital, putting them at No. 4 on the Digital Albums chart. (That particular chart was topped by Flight Of The Conchords, which was downloaded 24,000 times.) See? TV!

Notable Jumps: Michael Buble's Call Me Irresponsible had a 65% sales gain and leapt from No. 46 to No. 19 (20,000 sold).

Dropping Off: She held on to the top spot in the face of not much competition, but Mariah Carey's E=MC² took a 61% week-to-week sales hit, which means that she'll probably be in at least the No. 2 position on next week's album charts.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: I don't know about you, but if someone had told me that Rick Ross would be the only mainstream hip-hop artist hanging tough with a top 20 album right now? Sure, it's only been seven weeks since Trilla (No. 15, 23,000) came out, but Snoop Dogg's Ego Trippin' came out the same week and that album is all the way down at No. 35 (13,000).

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (182,000)
2. Leona Lewis, Spirit (96,000).
3. Flight Of The Conchords (52,000)
4. Ashlee Simpson, Bittersweet World (47,000)
5. Atmosphere, When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold (36,000)
6. Now 27 (32,000)
7. Juno soundtrack (31,000)
8. George Strait, Troubadour (29,000)
9. Taylor Swift (27,000)
10. Phil Vassar, Prayer Of A Common Man (27,000)
11. Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, Best Of Both Worlds Concert (26,000)
12. Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack (25,000)
13. James Otto, Sunset Man (24,000)
14. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (24,000)
15. Rick Ross, Trilla (23,000)
16. Lady Antebellum (22,000)
17. R.E.M., Accelerate (21,000)
18. Story Of The Year, Black Swan (21,000)
19. Michael Buble, Call Me Irresponsible (20,000)
20. Jordin Sparks (19,000)

Biggest Debuts: The new country band Lady Antebellum entered the big chart at No. 4 and the Country Albums chart at No. 1, with their self-titled debut selling 43,000 copies. Meanwhile, Thrice's Vol. 3-4: The Alchemy Index and Rush's Snakes & Arrows Live each sold 21,000 copies in their opening weeks, with Thrice coming in at No. 17 on the big board and Rush entering at No. 18.

Notable Jumps: Even though I found her completely irritating and smug when she was co-hosting last week's CMT Awards, Miley Cyrus' TV appearance spurred a big jump in sales of her live album (which she shares credit on with her alter ego, Hannah Montana). The Best Of Both Worlds Concert had a 162% sales leap and sold 47,000 copies, which was enough for it to land at No. 3 for the week. Other post-CMT Awards bumps were much more modest: Taylor Swift hopped 13% (26,000 sold, No. 10), Sugarland's Enjoy The Ride inched up 16% (12,000 sold, No. 47), and Leann Rimes' Family reappeared on the chart at No. 178 (4,000 sold, up 22%). And despite taking away three awards during the evening, Kellie Pickler's sales didn't jump enough to bring her back to the top 200 albums chart.

Dropping Off: Leona Lewis' Spirit was off 54%, but thanks to yet another weak sales week (seriously, I should get a macro for this), her 95,000-copy tally was enough for her to take the No. 2 spot.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Every week that the Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack is in the top 10 is yet another week that I shake my head and despair for the future of this world. (It's at No. 7 this week, having sold 32,000 copies—which means that it's sold only 623,000 so far. Why does it seem like it's been around so much longer?)

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (463,000)
2. Leona Lewis, Spirit (95,000)
3. Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, The Best Of Both Worlds Concert (47,000)
4. Lady Antebellum (43,000)
5. Now 27 (39,000)
6. George Strait, Troubadour (38,000)
7. Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack (32,000)
8. Juno soundtrack (31,000)
9. R.E.M., Accelerate (30,000)
10. Taylor Swift (30,000)
11. Rick Ross, Trilla (27,000)
12. James Otto, Sunset Man (26,000)
13. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (25,000)
14. Danity Kane, Welcome To The Dollhouse (23,000)
15. Daughtry (23,000)
16. Jordin Sparks (23,000)
17. Thrice, Vol. 3-4: The Alchemy Index (21,000)
18. Rush, Snakes & Arrows Live (21,000)
19. Sara Bareilles, Little Voice (20,000)
20. Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple (20,000)

Biggest Debuts: The upper echelons of the chart were full of new albums this week, with four debuts and one sorta-debut. In addition to Lewis, MuzikMafia member/Atlanta Braves fan James Otto entered the charts at No. 3 with his album Sunset Man, which sold 58,000 copies; sex tape star Ray J's All I Feel debuted at No. 7 and moved 39,000 copies; and early-'00s relics P.O.D. debuted at No. 9 with When Angels And Serpents Dance, which sold 34,000 copies. Also, Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV, which hit SoundScannable shelves a month after being made available via the Internet, debuted at No. 14, selling 26,000 copies.

Another album that looked like a debut, but actually had a long-dormant chart life, was the Time-Life compilation Body + Soul: Midnight Fire, which sold 28,000 copies after selling about 1% of that a week ago. What inspired this spike? Did Time-Life finally hook a SoundScan reader up to its call center? I have no idea.

Notable Jumps: Somehow, enough people who didn't own Daughtry watched last week's "Idol Gives Back," propelling it back into the top 20 on a 44% gain (25,000 albums sold). His "IGB" performance of "What About Now" also came in at No. 10 on the Digital Tracks chart, selling 65,000 copies—it came in right behind Carrie Underwood's cover of "Praying For Time," which moved 66,000 AACs. Jordin Sparks also saw a boost from the charityathon, selling 24,000 copies and coming in on the charts right behind the bald-headed also-ran.

Dropping Off: Last week's No. 1 and No. 2 albums, George Strait's Troubadour and R.E.M.'s Accelerate, had sales slumps in the 60% range, but thanks to the field mostly being weak, they hung on to their top-five slots.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: The Alvin And The Chipmunks soundtrack continued its reign of chart terror by sitting at No. 6, despite a 22% week-to-week sales drop. How much longer must we suffer? I ask you.

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Leona Lewis, Spirit (205,000)
2. George Strait, Troubadour (59,000)
3. James Otto, Sunset Man (58,000)
4. Now 27 (47,000)
5. R.E.M., Accelerate (46,000)
6. Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack (40,000)
7. Ray J, All I Feel (39,000)
8. Rick Ross, Trilla (34,000)
9. P.O.D., When Angels And Serpents Dance (34,000)
10. Danity Kane1, Welcome To The Dollhouse (28,000)
11. Body & Soul: Midnight Fire (28,000)
12. Panic At The Disco, Pretty Odd (27,000)
13. Taylor Swift (26,000)
14. Nine Inch Nails, Ghosts I-IV (26,000)
15. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (26,000)
16. Daughtry (25,000)
17. Jordin Sparks (24,000)
18. Day 26 (24,000)
19. Counting Crows, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings (23,000)
20. Raconteurs, Consolers Of The Lonely (23,000)

Biggest Debuts: Flo Rida's Mail On Sunday sold 86,000 copies, entering at No. 4. To compare, Flo has three singles (!) in the top 25 right now: "Low" (No. 11, 82,000 units); "Elevator" (No. 13, 69,000 units); and "Roll" (No. 21, 38,000 units). Maybe his next "album" should just be a series of digital singles? Or, hell, ringles? (Whatever happened to those, anyway?)

Meanwhile, Gnarls Barkley's rush-released The Odd Couple came in at No. 18 with 31,000 units sold—26,000 of which were from digital outlets. That's a bit shy of my chart prediction from last week, although the Easter traffic this week did raise the bar for top-15 placement. (Last week, a sales total of 31,000 would have landed The Odd Couple at No. 14, right behind the damn Alvin soundtrack.)

Notable Jumps: I wasn't kidding about the Easter-basket rush. Look at these gains for tween-targeted albums: Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus was up 137%; Jonas Brothers saw a 107% gain; the latest Kidz Bop collection was up 104%; and a Radio Disney compilation was up 113%. All of those albums were in the top 20 this week, with the Radio Disney collection leaping 28 chart spots.

Dropping Off: Meanwhile, albums that had "Parental Advisory" stickers on them didn't fare so well. Last week's No. 1, Rick Ross' Trilla, was down 50% (No. 3, 90,000); Snoop Dogg's Ego Tripping dropped 58% (No. 7, 57,000). And Fat Joe's Elephant In The Room nosedived from No. 6 to No. 56, losing 67% of its sales from the previous week (15,000).

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: The Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack was up 83% (No. 11, 48,000 copies sold), showing that American parents aren't afraid of gifting their children with material related to a movie where a main character eats its own crap as a way of celebrating the holiest holiday on the Christian calendar. God bless the USA, indeed.

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Danity Kane, Welcome To The Dollhouse (236,000)
2. Now 27 (170,000)
3. Rick Ross, Trilla (90,000)
4. Flo Rida, Mail On Sunday (86,000)
5. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (67,000)
6. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (61,000)
7. Snoop Dogg, Ego Trippin' (57,000)
8. Taylor Swift (57,000)
9. Sara Bareilles, Little Voice (55,000)
10. Hannah Montana/Miley Ray Cyrus, Best Of Both Worlds Concert (51,000)
11. Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack (48,000)
12. Jonas Brothers (47,000)
13. Alicia Keys, As I Am (41,000)
14. Alan Jackson, Good Time (40,000)
15. Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride (37,000)
16. Kidz Bop 13 (36,000)
17. Janet Jackson, Discipline (34,000)
18. Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple (31,000)
19. Colbie Caillat, Coco (30,000)
20. Radio Disney Vol. 10—Kids Jams (30,000)

Biggest Debuts: Two editions of the Now series had top-20 debuts, with Now 27 selling 169,000 copies and entering at No. 2 and an '80s-themed version of the collection (oh dear God) selling 34,000 copies and debuting at No. 11. Snoop Dogg's Ego Trippin' entered at No. 3 with 137,000 units sold, a slightly disappointing total that made me wonder if his fanbase has shifted over to the "illegal downloaders" side of the fence; Fat Joe's Elephant In The Room debuted at No. 6 after selling 46,000 copies; Hannah Montana/Miley Ray Cyrus' Best Of Both Worlds live album reeled in 34,000 buyers who figured that buying a CD was cheaper than paying thousands of dollars for a ticket; and the Randy Jackson album proved that hyping an album on TV doesn't always translate to sales, as it entered the chart at No. 50 after selling 13,000 copies.

Notable Jumps: OK, what show that I don't watch had a weeper scene scored by OneRepublic songs last week? Not only were sales of Dreaming Out Loud up 52%, enough to propel the album back into the top 20, the total sales of "Apologize" neared the 50,000 mark—not bad for a song that's been out, well, forever. (The follow-up single, "Stop And Stare," also had a 37% digital-track-sales spike, and it's now hovering outside the top 10 on that chart.)

Also, for those of you who were wondering—the one-two punch of being featured during MTV's commercials for The Hills and being featured on Saturday Night Live helped Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut rise all of 2% week-to-week; the album moved 20,000 copies and inched up from No. 26 to No. 25.

Dropping Off: The Black Crowes' Warpaint had a 63% sales plunge, falling from No. 5 to No. 34 and selling 17,000 copies. It's Maxim's fault, isn't it?

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: In addition to the OneRepublic chart oddness, the freakin' Alvin and the Chipmunks soundtrack somehow experienced a 23% sales gain, selling 26,000 copies and jumping to No. 15. Is this because its parent film is now on the in-flight movie rotation for JetBlue?

This week's top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Rick Ross, Trilla (198,000)
2. Now 27 (169,000)
3. Snoop Dogg, Ego Trippin' (137,000)
4. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (55,000)
5. Alan Jackson, Good Time (53,000)
6. Fat Joe, Elephant In the room (46,000)
7. Sara Bareilles, Little Voice (40,000)
8. Janet Jackson, Discipline (38,000)
9. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Part One< (35,000)
10. Hannah Montana/Miley Ray Cyrus, Best Of Both Worlds (34,000)
11. '80s: Now That's What I Call Music (34,000)
12. Taylor Swift (33,000)
13. Alicia Keys, As I Am (32,000)
14. Amy Winehouse, Back To Black (28,000)
15. Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack (26,000)
16. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (26,000)
17. Jonas Brothers (23,000)
18. Colbie Caillat, Coco (22,000)
19. Flogging Molly, Float (22,000)
20. OneRepublic, Dreaming Out Loud (21,000)

Biggest Debuts: Behind Janet in the No. 2 slot was Erykah Badu's mind-blowing New Amerykah Part One, which sold 124,000 copies. Webbie's Vol. 2—Savage Life came in at No. 4, selling 72,000 copies; Shawty Lo's Units In The City sold 31,000 copies to come in at No. 13; Dolly Parton's Backwoods Barbie sold 27,000 copies and entered at No. 17; and 20,000 musical-theater fans bought the soundtrack to the Broadway version of The Little Mermaid, enough for that album to come in at No. 26.

Notable Jumps: Last week's digital-sales gains by the Oscar-winning soundtrack to Once did, in fact, serve as a portent for this week's chart, where the album's overall sales shot up by 143% (to 47,000 copies), propelling it from No. 31 to No. 7. ("Falling Slowly," which captured the Best Song gold, sold 42,000 digital tracks, a 199% bump.) And the thrice-featured Enchanted soundtrack also saw something of a bump, doubling its sales totals and moving from No. 193 to No. 107; it did only sell 7,300 copies, which is a sliver of the Oscar-viewing audience, but hey, any port in a storm.

Dropping Off: Kidz Bop 13, which was last week's top debut (it entered at No. 4), took a 54% hit and dropped to No. 22, no doubt in part because the Kidz Bop powers that be picked some really freaking terrible songs to cover this time around. ("Party Like A Rock Star"? Seriously?)

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: At this point, the upper reaches of the chart have become so static, and record sales so relatively miniscule when compared to the rest of the culture, that everyone's "success" is explicable in a "same as it ever was" kind of way. Sheryl Crow (No. 15)? Understandable. Nickelback (No. 52)? Sure. Daughtry (No. 20)? Oh, I get it. Buckcherry (No. 39)? I thought "For The Movies" was way better than their latest power ballad, but hey, they kick Hinder's eyelinered asses. Even Lenny Kravitz's recent record sales are kinda easily explained, since they're as stagnant as his music is (It Is Time For A Love Revolution is at No. 34 after four weeks and has sold 149,000 copies so far).

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Janet Jackson, Discipline (181,000)
2. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Part One (124,000)
3. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (92,000)
4. Webbie, Vol. 2—Savage Life (72,000)
5. Alicia Keys, As I Am (58,000)
6. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (54,000)
7. Once soundtrack (47,000)
8. Juno soundtrack (42,000)
9. Sara Bareilles, Little Voice (38,000)
10. Amy Winehouse, Back To Black (38,000)
11. Mary J. Blige, Growing Pains (34,000)
12. Taylor Swift (32,000)
13. Shawty Lo, Units In The City (31,000)
14. Step Up 2: The Streets soundtrack (31,000)
15. Sheryl Crow, Detours (27,000)
16. Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (27,000)
17. Dolly Parton, Backwoods Barbie (27,000)
18. Chris Brown, Exclusive (26,000)
19. Colbie Caillat, Coco (24,000)
20. Daughtry (23,000)

Biggest Debuts: The latest installment in the Kidz Bop series—Kidz Bop 13, which has covers of the Shop Boyz, Fergie, and Colbie Caillat, among others—entered the chart at No. 4, selling 49,000 copies. Coming in at No. 8 and selling 37,000 copies was Chris Cagle's My Life's Been A Country Song, and entering the chart at No. 19 was Jim Jones' Harlem's American Gangster, which sold 25,000 copies.

Notable Jumps: Another interesting gainer lurking in the lower reaches of this week's charts: the soundtrack for Once, which was honored with an Oscar on Sunday night and which actually dropped 2% in overall sales. But contrast that dip with the album's 82% gain on the digital-sales chart; its week-to-week digital sales went up by about 5,000 copies, while "Falling Slowly," the track that won Oscar gold, also made a reappearance on the digital-tracks chart at No. 103, selling 14,000 copies and shooting up 359%.

Given that two weeks ago, Herbie Hancock and Amy Winehouse experienced impressive digital gains in the few hours after the Grammys—which were followed by both albums shooting up the big chart thanks to people reaching their brick-and-mortar stores during the week—one could think that the digital-sales chart of the week immediately following a Sunday-night awards ceremony now serves as a sort of leading indicator for sales leaps on the big chart in the week after.

Dropping Off: Let's just say that it was another bad week for the record business, with overall sales dropping 18.5% week-to-week and off 13.1% from this week last year.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: That Sara Bareilles—what a cutie! Well, to people who aren't me; they're still buying her album Little Voice in relative droves, and she was the only member of the top 20 to experience a sales increase this week. (She's up 9% to 37,000 sold; that tally propelled her from No. 21 to No. 7.)

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (105,000)
2. Alicia Keys, As I Am (53,000)
3. Amy Winehouse, Back To Black (52,000)
4. Kidz Bop 13 (49,000)
5. Step Up 2: The Streets soundtrack (43,000)
6. Juno Soundtrack (38,000)
7. Sara Bareilles, Little Voice (37,000)
8. Chris Cagle, My Life's Been A Country Song (37,000)
9. Mary J. Blige, Growing Pains (35,000)
10. Taylor Swift (33,000)
11. Sheryl Crow, Detours (33,000)
12. Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (30,000)
13. Chris Brown, Exclusive (29,000)
14. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (29,000)
15. Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack (26,000)
16. Herbie Hancock, River: The Joni Letters (26,000)
17. 2008 Grammy Nominees (25,000)
18. Daughtry 25,000)
19. Jim Jones, Harlem's American Gangster (25,000)
20. Across The Universe soundtrack (deluxe edition) (23,000)

Biggest Debuts: The new, self-titled, Max Martin-collaborating album by Simple Plan came in at No. 14, selling 39,000 copies; the next new entry on the chart is Wow Gospel 2008, which came in at No. 34 (28,000 sales).

Notable Jumps: All over the chart, Grammy-assisted boosts were visible, from Amy Winehouse's Back To Black (No. 2, 115,000 sales/+368%) to Alicia Keys' As I Am (No. 3, 109,000 sales/+38%) to John Legend's Live From Philadelphia (No. 12, 40,000 sales/+209%) to the Foo Fighters' Echoes Silence Patience And Grace (No. 22, 33,000 sold/+160+). Even Feist's wan performance of "1-2-3-4" helped The Reminder get a 70% sales uptick. And Celine Dion's Taking Chances experienced a CBS-aided renaissance of its own, with the singer's Friday night special no doubt adding to her 141% sales boost.

Dropping Off: While sales last week were up 16.1% from the week before, they were down 11.6% from this time last year, according to Billboard.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: People are still buying the Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack, which experienced another 20% sales gain last week. We can only take comfort that the high number of Grammy-assisted chart vaults led to the album taking a backwards bullet and falling from No. 19 to No. 26.

The week's top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (180,000)
2. Amy Winehouse, Back To Black (115,000)
3. Alicia Keys, As I Am (109,000)
4. 2008 Grammy Nominees (72,000)
5. Herbie Hancock, River: The Joni Letters (54,000)
6. Juno soundtrack (53,000)
7. Taylor Swift (52,000)
8. Sheryl Crow, Detours (52,000)
9. Mary J. Blige, Growing Pains (49,000)
10. Step Up 2: The Streets soundtrack (45,000)
11. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (43,000)
12. John Legend, Live From Philadelphia (40,000)
13. Chris Brown, Exclusive (40,000)
14. Simple Plan (39,000)
15. Daughtry (38,000)
16. Eagles, Long Road Out Of Eden (38,000)
17. Lenny Kravitz, It Is Time For A Love Revolution (38,000)
18. Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (35,000)
19. Garth Brooks, Ultimate Hits (35,000)
20. k.d. lang, Watershed (35,000)

Biggest Debuts: Three of the top four albums were debuts; behind Johnson was Sheryl Crow's Detours (92,000 sold), and at No. 4 was the new album by Lenny Kravitz (73,000). k.d. lang's Watershed entered the chart at No. 8, selling 41,000 copies; the soundtrack to Step Up 2: The Streets, which features the awful "Low" by Flo Rida, came in at No. 13, selling 31,000 copies; and Kenny G's Starbucks-distributed Rhythm and Romance entered right behind it at No. 14, also selling 31,000 copies.

Notable Jumps: The few hours after the Grammy telecast were the final hours of the SoundScan week, and the Grammy effect could already be seen with certain artists: Alicia Keys' As I Am saw a 31% gain (No. 3, 80,000 sales); Feist's The Reminder jumped up 22% (No. 88, 8,600); Foo Fighters' Echoes Silence Patience And Grace went up 35% (No. 65, 13,000). But no other Grammy performer's jump was as big as the one enjoyed by the Across The Universe soundtrack, which jumped from No. 150 to No. 38 on a 284% sales gain (18,000 sales).

Also, it's probably worth noting that Herbie Hancock's Album of the Year winner River: The Joni Letters entered the charts at No. 158 and sold 5,000 copies—which makes up one-twelfth of its sales total to date.

Dropping Off: After debuting at No. 3 last week, the Mars Volta's Bedlam In Goliath sank 70% and fell to No. 51 (16,000 sold); last week's No. 4, Bullet for My Valentine's Scream, Aim, Fire, dropped 56% and fell to No. 29 (23,000); Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut took a 38% hit and fell from No. 17 to No. 43 (17,000).

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Daughtry's sales went up 20% this week, allowing the album to inch back into the top 20. It's sold 3.8 million copies so far, and I guess it has a way to go before it reaches All the Right Reasons sales levels...

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (375,000)
2. Sheryl Crow, Detours (92,000)
3. Alicia Keys, As I Am (80,000)
4. Lenny Kravitz, It Is Time For A Love Revolution (73,000)
5. 2008 Grammy Nominees (52,000)
6. Juno soundtrack (47,000)
7. Mary J. Blige, Growing Pains (45,000)
8. k.d. lang, Watershed (41,000)
9. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (40,000)
10. Taylor Swift (39,000)
11. Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (35,000)
12. Chris Brown, Exclusive (32,000)
13. Step Up 2: The Streets (31,000)
14. Kenny G, Rhythm & Romance (31,000)
15. Sara Bareilles, Little Voice (30,000)
16. Garth Brooks, Ultimate Hits (30,000)
17. Now 26 (30,000)
18. Daughtry (27,000)
19. Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack (27,000)
20. Sugarland, Enjoy the Ride (26,000)

Biggest Debuts: Coming in at No. 3 was Bedlam In Goliath, the new album from the Mars Volta. it sold 54,000 copies, although there's no word on how many USB versions of the album make up that total. At No. 4 is Bullet For My Valentine's Scream, Aim, Fire, which sold 53,000 copies; behind that was a compilation of this year's Grammy nominees, which somehow moved 50,000 copies despite being even staler than the latest installment of Now. A Hannah Montana tie-in record came in at No. 7 (40,000 sales), and all the way down at No. 17 was the hotly debated debut album by the hotly debated Vampire Weekend, which sold 28,000 copies. That album also debuted at No. 2 on the digital charts, proving that some people with Internet access and an interest in "buzz bands" still do, as a matter of fact, pay for their music.

Notable Jumps: Button-nosed ivory tinkler Sara Bareilles enjoyed a 40% uptick in sales, leaping into the top 20 with her album Little Voice (28,000 copies sold). She's been all over VH1 and has even made it to TRL with her not-a-love-song "Love Song," and given that just typing this has stuck the song into my brain on repeat I suspect she'll be climbing the charts for many weeks to come.

Dropping Off: Natasha Bedingfield's Pocketful of Sunshine, which debuted in the top three last week, took a 57% sales hit and dropped to No. 21 (24,000 copies sold); Cat Power's Jukebox, which had a top-20 debut last week, fell off 47% (15,000 copies sold).

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Why are people still buying the Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack? Isn't the movie out of theaters? Yet twenty-five thousand alleged fans of the pitchshifted pipsqueaks did this last week. Is the movie being screened at midnight somewhere? Can we blame YouTube?

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Alicia Keys, As I Am (61,000)
2. Juno soundtrack (55,000)
3. Mars Volta, Bedlam In Goliath (54,000)
4. Bullet For My Valentine, Scream Aim Fire (53,000)
5. 2008 Grammy Nominees (50,000)
6. Mary J. Blige, Growing Pains (47,000)
7. Hannah Montana 2: Non-Stop Dance Party (40,000)
8. Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (36,000)
9. Taylor Swift (36,000)
10. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (35,000)
11. Chris Brown, Exclusive (33,000)
12. Garth Brooks, Ultimate Hits (33,000)
13. Sarah Brightman, Symphony (31,000)
14. Now 26 (31,000)
15. Radiohead, In Rainbows (30,000)
16. Sara Bareilles, Little Voice (28,000)
17. Vampire Weekend (28,000)
18. Sugarland, Enjoy The Ride (26,000)
19. Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack (25,000)
20. Colbie Caillat, Coco (24,000)

Biggest Debuts: Well, first some good-ish news: Two albums debuted in the top 10 this week. Raheem DeVaughn's Love Behind The Melody sold 45,000 copies and entered the charts at No. 5, while John Legend's Target-only Live From Philadelphia scanned 33,000 copies and debuted at No. 7. Also—editorial judgment based entirely on really, really liking this album alert!—the Magnetic Fields' Distortion sold 8,000 copies and debuted at No. 77.

Notable Jumps: There wasn't much in the way of good upward movement on this week's chart—many of the upticks were of the "hey, our album sales only decreased in single-digit percentages" variety—but both Hannah Montana tie-in albums saw sales gains this week, with the two-disc Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus inching its way back into the top 10.

Dropping Off: Sure, things are bad all over this week. But can we pour one out for the Spice Girls? Their greatest-hits collection entered the charts at No. 93, selling a paltry 7,000 copies. Perhaps the other Spices (well, save Victoria, natch) will start showing up in those Prego ads now that their record-sales gravy train has apparently run dry?

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Let's just say that this week's numbers make this category tougher than ever to fill. And the continuing top-20 success of the Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack is pretty explicable, given Americans' bottomless appetite for crap and the fact that the bar to get into the top 20 is lower than ever these days. So, to fill some space here: Did you know that Nickelback's All The Right Reasons is still in the top 30 after 120 weeks on the chart? 120 weeks! That's 30 months or so! I don't even remember what I was doing 120 weeks ago, but I probably wasn't wondering if the bottom was for real, finally going to fall out of the music business in the coming six weeks, I'll tell you that much.

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Alicia Keys, As I Am (61,000)
2. Juno soundtrack (58,000)
3. Mary J. Blige, Growing Pains (52,000)
4. Radiohead, In Rainbows (46,000)
5. Raheem DeVaughn, Love Behind The Melody (45,000)
6. Taylor Swift (34,000)
7. John Legend, Live From Philadelphia (33,000)
8. Now 26 (30,000)
9. Chris Brown, Exclusive (29,000)
10. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (27,000)
11. Colbie Caillat, Coco (26,000)
12. Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (26,000)
13. Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack (25,000)
14. Garth Brooks, Ultimate Hits (25,000)
15. Eagles, Long Road Out Of Eden (24,000)
16. Sugarland, Enjoy The Ride (23,000)
17. Fergie, The Dutchess (22,000)
18. High School Musical 2 (20,000)
19. OneRepublic, Dreaming Out Loud (20,000)
20. Daughtry (19,000)

Biggest Debuts: Sia's some people have real problems (like eating markers) bowed at No. 26 with 20,000 albums sold; meanwhile, Kate Nash's wordy-yet-gradually-endearing Made Of Bricks came in at No. 36, selling 16,000 copies. That's it for debuts until No. 102, where the compilation Total Dance 2008, which brings together a lot of club mixes of last year's hits, entered with 6,800 copies sold.

Notable Jumps: Only four of the albums in the top 100 experienced sales gains this week. Of those four, one was the result of a technicality (the Juno soundtrack's weeklong gap between its digital release date and its physical release date); one was by a recently deceased artist (a Luciano Pavarotti greatest-hits collection); one experienced a 1% uptick (a Grammy tie-in comp); and one is an album that I can find absolutely no information on, despite it just squeaking into the top 100 with 6,800 scans. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what's on the compilation Across The Pond?

Dropping Off: From Billboard: "Sales this week are down 20% from last week to 7.25 million units and are off 10% from the same week in 2007 (8.09 million)." That isn't as bad as last week's 37.5% plunge, but we should all be worried that a week where the one-week album sales total is equal to Nickelback's 6.5 million-sale tally for All The Right Reasons may not be all that far off.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Fergie's The Dutchess continued to hang tough in a depressed sales field, selling 28,000 copies. The Dutchess has now sold more than three million copies after looking like a flop in its earliest weeks on shelves. Maybe there's hope for the retooled Songs About Girls yet!

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Alicia Keys, As I Am (70,000)
2. Radiohead, In Rainbows (69,000)
3. Juno soundtrack (68,000)
4. Mary J. Blige, Growing Pains (64,000)
5. Taylor Swift (35,000)
6. Now 26 (33,000)
7. Chris Brown, Exclusive (30,000)
8. Eagles, Long Road Out Of Eden (29,000)
9. Garth Brooks, Ultimate Hits (28,000)
10. Fergie, The Dutchess (28,000)
11. Colbie Caillat, Coco (27,000)
12. Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (27,000)
13. Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack (27,000)
14. OneRepublic, Dreaming Out Loud (26,000)
15. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (26,000)
16. Sweeney Todd soundtrack (24,000)
17. Sugarland, Enjoy The Ride (23,000)
18. Sara Bareilles, Little Voice (23,000)
19. Daughtry (23,000)
20. Led Zeppelin, Mothership (22,000)

Biggest Debuts: The Juno soundtrack, which is stuffed to the gills with songs from Moldy Peach Kimya Dawson, entered at No. 8, selling 38,000 copies—almost all digital, because the CD actually came out yesterday. It's one of five soundtracks in the top 20. (Did you know that people are actually buying the soundtrack to Alvin & The Chipmunks, by the way? No, really.)

Notable Jumps: Not really much to report here, as pretty much every album in the top 50 except for In Rainbows experienced major dropoffs in sales. The Once soundtrack did jump from No. 74 to No. 38 because its week-to-week sales totals only went down by five percent, though!

Dropping Off: Sales overall went down 37.5% from last week. But on the bright side, there was actually one other album (Alicia Keys' As I Am) that sold in the six-figure range!

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: OK, it fell from No. 3 to No. 58, but still: 15,000 people bought Josh Groban's Noel last week. Fifteen thousand. That's a higher one-week sales total than Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad, Feist's The Reminder, and Curtis, in case you were wondering. However! That sales figure is much lower than the one-week sales enjoyed last week by Elliot Yamin's Target-only holiday EP, which enjoyed a 112% sales gain and vaulted up to No. 32 (from No. 123). Either the deep discount enticed people, or guess there are still traditionalists out there who believe in the whole "12 Days Of Christmas" concept!

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Radiohead, In Rainbows (122,000)
2. Alicia Keys, As I Am (112,000)
3. Mary J. Blige, Growing Pains (89,000)
4. Now 26 (54,000)
5. Taylor Swift (47,000)
6. Chris Brown, Exclusive (41,000)
7. Garth Brooks, Ultimate Hits (39,000)
8. Juno soundtrack (38,000)
9. Colbie Caillat, Coco (38,000)
10. Eagles, Long Road Out Of Eden (36,000)
11. Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (35,000)
12. Fergie, The Dutchess (33,000)
13. Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack (33,000)
14. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (32,000)
15. OneRepublic, Dreaming Out Loud (32,000)
16. Led Zeppelin, Mothership (31,000)
17. Lupe Fiasco, Lupe Fiasco's The Cool (31,000)
18. Sweeney Todd soundtrack (31,000)
19. Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride (30,000)
20. High School Musical 2 soundtrack (29,000)

Biggest Debuts: Bow Wow and Omarion's Face/Off—currently "losing" to Hell Rell in their Worst Album Cover Of The Year match—bowed (ha ha GET IT?) at No. 11, selling 107,000 copies. Birdman's 5*Stunna entered at No. 18 and sold 86,000 copies; Mario's Go came in at No. 21, moving 77,000 copies; and the Wu-Tang Clan's 8 Diagrams entered at No. 25, selling 68,000 copies; and The-Dream's Love/Hate came in at No. 30, selling 59,000 copies.

Notable Jumps: Mannheim Steamroller now has a top five album, everyone. Why? Because sales of Christmas Song jumped 98% from last week; the album sold 180,000 copies. One hundred and eighty thousand copies! Do they have golden tickets inside? Do they come with free foot rubs?

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: In addition to the Steamroller madness, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is No. 1 on the Top Pop Catalog chart. Anyone else afraid that this means that even more all-Christmas radio-format flips are in the offing for 2008?

This week's top 20:
1. Josh Groban, Noel
2. Alicia Keys, As I Am
3. Eagles, Long Road Out Of Eden
4. Now 26
5. Mannheim Steamroller, Christmas Song
6. High School Musical 2 soundtrack
7. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus
8. Taylor Swift
9. Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride
10. Garth Brooks, Ultimate Hits
11. Bow Wow & Omarion, Face/Off
12. Chris Brown, Exclusive
13. Rascal Flatts, Still Feels Good
14. Led Zeppelin, Mothership
15. Celine Dion, Taking Chances
16. Jonas Brothers
17. Colbie Caillat, Coco
18. Birdman, 5*Stunna
19. Andrea Bocelli, The Best Of Andrea Bocelli: Vivere
20. Sugarland, Enjoy The Ride

Biggest Debuts: Blake Lewis' unfortunately art directed Audio Day Dream entered the chart at No. 10, with 98,000 copies sold; Scarface's M.A.D.E. came in at No. 17, selling 63,000 copies. Further down the chart, DJ Drama's legit release Gangsta Grillz entered at No. 26, selling 49,000 copies; Wyclef's Carnival 2 came in at No. 28, selling 46,000 copies; and Ghostface's The Big Doe Rehab entered at No. 41, selling 36,000 copies.

Notable Jumps: The holidays mean that it's time to buy "safe" presents for the kids, and what could be safer than Hannah Montana, at least for those girls who are out of the "tantrum-throwing" stage after not getting tickets to Billy Ray Cyrus' spawn's sold-out tour? Both volumes of music from the Miley Cyrus/Disney Channel synergy are back in the top 20, with Hannah Montana 2 gaining 37% in sales to move up to No. 5 and the original moving up to No. 20 on a 33% sales jump.

Dropping Off: There wasn't a lot of downward sales movement this week—hey, even a dead cat has to bounce when you drop it, right?—but the Eagles' 35% sales drop only resulted in their Wal-Mart jugggernaut falling from No. 2 last week to No. 3 this week. And Jay-Z's American Gangster saw its sales fall off by 13%, which resulted in the album dropping from No. 17 to No. 30.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Who needs another Mannheim Steamroller album (especially when you've got Josh Groban for your Yuletide needs)? Apparently, 91,000 people did last week, as Christmas Song fell out of the top 10 but increased its sales by 17%.

This week's top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Josh Groban, Noel (581,000)
2. Alicia Keys, As I Am (234,000)
3. Eagles, Long Road Out Of Eden (204,000)
4. Now 26 (158,000)
5. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (132,000)
6. High School Musical 2 (128,000)
7. Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride (107,000)
8. Garth Brooks, Ultimate Hits (105,000)
9. Taylor Swift (99,000)
10. Blake Lewis, Audio Day Dream (98,000)
11. Mannheim Steamroller, Christmas Song (91,000)
12. Celine Dion, Taking Chances (93,000)
13. Chris Brown, Exclusive (83,000)
14. Rascal Flatts, Still Feels Good (79,000)
15. Jonas Brothers (72,000)
16. Led Zeppelin, Mothership (65,000)
17. Scarface, M.A.D.E. (63,000)
18. Colbie Caillat, Coco (62,000)
19. Sugarland, Enjoy The Ride (59,000)
20. Hannah Montana (56,000)

Biggest Debuts: Jordin Sparks' "Tattoo" may be a pop hit, but her debut album bowed at No. 10 with 119,000 copies sold. (To be fair, that total may have netted her a higher first-week chart placement in non-Black Friday weeks, but then again, if people weren't out shopping for crap to give to their friends and relatives, would her sales have been so robust? Dilemmas!) Then again, if you want an all-over-the-radio act whose album kind of underperformed, look at No. 17, where OneRepublic's Dreaming Out Loud opened with 75,000 copies sold. So much for the power of airplay, eh? Elsewhere in the top 20, Keith Urban's greatest-hits collection came in at No. 11, selling 117,000 copies; Christian pop act MercyMe entered at No. 15.

Notable Jumps: Beyonce's B'Day re-entered the charts at No. 19, selling 73,000 copies; that's a staggering jump from last week, when she moved 4,200 units. Guess people still do watch the American Music Awards.

Dropping Off: Celine Dion's Taking Chances took a 40% week-to-week hit; the way this album is kind of tanking is, frankly, somewhat surprising to me. I really thought that a) she'd be easily over the 500,000-sold mark by now and b) the Black Friday rush would have buoyed her numbers at least a little bit. Is "waiting for Celine to go gold" going to become the new "waiting for Curtis to go platinum"?

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Even in the a la carte era, the Now compilations soldier on as the go-to pop music gift for the tough cookies on peoples' lists, with the latest installment—featuring all of last summer's hits, like "Crank That," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Hey There Delilah," and "Rock Star"—climbing from No. 4 to No. 3 on a 12% sales bump. Because what says "happy holidays" better than "remember that song you got sick of six months ago"?

This week's top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Josh Groban, Noel (405,000)
2. Alica Keys, As I Am (349,000)
3. Now 26 (234,000)
4. Garth Brooks, Ultimate Hits (192,000)
5. Eagles, Long Road Out Of Eden (184,000)
6. High School Musical 2 soundtrack (183,000)
7. Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride (141,000)
8. Celine Dion, Taking Chances (128,000)
9. Chris Brown, Exclusive (121,000)
10. Jordin Sparks (119,000)
11. Keith Urban, Greatest Hits (117,000)
12. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (99,000)
13. Taylor Swift (88,000)
14. Jay-Z, American Gangster (87,000)
15. Mercyme, All That Is Within Me (84,000)
16. Led Zeppelin, Mothership (82,000)
17. OneRepublic, Dreaming Out Loud (75,000)
18. Colbie Caillat, Coco (74,000)
19. Beyonce, B'Day (73,000)
20. Rascal Flatts, Still Feels Good (65,000)

Biggest Debuts: Celine Dion, another Oprah spotlightee, entered the chart at No. 3 with Taking Chances, which sold 214,000 copies in its first week on store shelves. Which was a much lower number than I was expecting, I have to say. Meanwhile, Led Zeppelin's latest cash-in comp, Mothership, entered at No. 7 with 136,000 sold. Dane Cook (No. 11), the Killers (No. 12), George Strait (No. 13), and James Taylor (No. 17) also had top 20 entrants.

Notable Jumps: It's getting to be the most wonderful time of the year, if your idea of "wonderful" is "piped in holiday music everywhere." In addition to Groban's 93% sales gain, the latest album by holiday stalwarts Mannheim Steamroller, Christmas Song, leaps into the top 20 from No. 28. And it should be noted that all 10 of the albums in the top 10 had six-figure sales totals, with total album sales being up 17.9% from last week, if down 6.2% from a year ago.

Dropping Off: Jay-Z's American Gangster dropped from the top position on a 70% sales decrease (131,000); Chris Brown's Exclusive fell from No. 4 to No. 10, selling 63% fewer copies than last week (110,000).

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: I will forever despise Dane Cook for sullying the baseball playoffs with those stupid "There's only one Octoooooober" commercials, so he gets this award this week. Especially since he's one of the few artists putting out albums right now whose first-week sales total was actually higher than the one enjoyed by his previous outing (Live At Madison Square Garden sold 90,000 copies, 4,000 more than the first-week total of his last album). How do people think that dude is entertaining at all? Blech.

Biggest Debuts: Bowing at No. 3 was the umpteenth greatest-hits collection by Garth Brooks, Ultimate Hits, which sold 352,000 copies; behind him was Chris Brown's Exclusive, which sold 294,000. Angels & Airwaves (No. 9) and Cassidy (No. 10) also had top-10 debuts, and Zune stars Wisin Y Yandel entered the charts at No. 14.

Notable Jumps: Last week's CMAs helped albums by Taylor Swift (+156%, up from No. 26 to No. 8) and Sugarland (+112%, up from No. 28 to No. 13) more than double their sales tallies from the week before; Reba McEntire also saw a 44% jump for her duets album, which ticked up to No. 12. Further down the chart, Miranda Lambert's criminally overlooked Crazy Ex-Girlfriend had a 45% sales gain (No. 181 to No. 131), and Kellie Pickler's tear-stained performance resulted in Small Town Girl entering the top 200 for the first time after being on store shelves for a year. (Meanwhile, Rascal Flatts, whose woeful show-closing performance probably made a bunch of people leap for their remotes, saw sales of Still Feels Good drop by six percent.)

Dropping Off: Naturally, all the meanie gossip blogs were mau-mauing about Britney Spears' Blackout selling only 87,000 copies last week; that's 70% off its first-week sales total, which resulted in it tumbling from No. 2 to No. 7. But you'll have to look a little further down the chart for the week's biggest percentage drop, which belongs to Brit Brit's fellow teenpop alumns the Backstreet Boys. Unbreakable proved to be anything but, taking a whopping 77% week-to-week hit and plunging from No. 7 all the way down to No. 40.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Surely the Eagles count here, right? Long Road Out Of Eden dropped nearly 50% in week-to-week sales, but that still means 359,000 people trucked out to Wal-Mart to buy the thing. And "Hotel California" had a 2% uptick on the digital-tracks charts, too.

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Jay-Z, American Gangster (425,000)
2. Eagles, Long Road Out Of Eden (359,000)
3. Garth Brooks, Ultimate Hits (352,000)
4. Chris Brown, Exclusive (294,000)
5. Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride (121,000)
6. Josh Groban, Noel (116,000)
7. Britney Spears, Blackout (87,000)
8. Taylor Swift (68,000)
9. Angels & Airwaves, I-Empire (66,000)
10. Cassidy, B.A.R.S. The Barry Adrian Reese Story (63,000)
11. High School Musical 2 soundtrack (59,000)
12. Reba McEntire, Reba Duets (55,000)
13. Sugarland, Enjoy The Ride (55,000)
14. Wisin y Yandel, Wisin vs. Yandel: Los Extraterrestres (53,000)
15. Colbie Caillat, Coco (51,000)
16. Alison Krauss & Robert Plant, Raising Sand (50,000)
17. Rascal Flatts, Still Feels Good (50,000)
18. Andrea Bocelli, The Best Of Andrea Bocelli: Vivere (50,000)
19. Josh Turner, Everything Is Fine (45,000)
20. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (43,000)

Biggest Debuts: Behind the Eagles and Britney came Avenged Sevenfold's self-titled album, which entered at No. 4; country singer Josh Turner's Everything Is Fine, which came in at No. 5; the Backstreet Boys' Unbreakable, which couldn't break the six-figure mark and landed at No. 7; and a best-of from Oprah favorite Andrea Bocelli, which came in at No. 9.

But there were also two semi-debuts that I noticed way down the chart, thanks to the rule-finagling that allowed the Eagles to get in: the mega-God-complex known as the Lakewood Church had its album Free To Worship, which is available at its Web site and at Wal-Mart, enter the chart at No. 131 (on a 22% drop); former American Idol contestant Bo Bice entered the chart at No. 150 with his album See The Light, which is also only available at Wal-Mart and online. (It debuted in the top 100 on the Comprehensive Albums chart last week, its first week on Wal-Mart's racks.) Just think: Even with God (maybe) on one (or both!) of their sides, neither of those artists' managers had the chart-altering power of Eagles heavy Irving Azoff!

Notable Jumps: The Jonas Brothers' self-titled album hopped up from No. 44 to No. 20 on a 90% increase in sales. While one could chalk a large part of this gain up to their opening-act slot on the Hannah Montana tour, it's also worth noting that the band's current single, the sprightly "S.O.S.," has started making the teensiest of inroads at pop radio (I heard it on New York's top-40 heavy Z100 over the weekend).

Dropping Off: Last week's other debuts did not fare as well as Underwood, Plant, and Krauss; cowboy Gary Allan plunged from No. 3 to No. 23, agitato Serj Tankian from No. 4 to No. 24, and groany-moaners Seether from No. 9 to No. 22. And poor Coheed and Cambria, after debuting at No. 6 last week, fell all the way down to No. 44. Guess everyone who bought that album had a very important D&D game to get back to.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Kid Rock, how can I learn to like you again if you won't go away? OK, it'll probably never happen, fine. That said, I continue to be amazed by the staying power of Rock N' Roll Jesus, which slips from No. 7 to No. 12, thanks in part to the six debuts crowding the top of the chart. I mean... doesn't this routine seem just a smidge cartoonish by now? Is that the appeal? Or do people actually want to be this dude, possibility of disease and all?

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Eagles, Long Road Out Of Eden (711,000)
2. Britney Spears, Blackout (290,000)
3. Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride (170,000)
4. Avenged Sevenfold (94,000)
5. Josh Turner, Everything Is Fine (84,000)
6. Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, Raising Sand (81,000)
7. Backstreet Boys, Unbreakable (81,000)
8. Josh Groban, Noel (76,000)
9. Andrea Bocelli, The Best Of Andrea Bocelli: Vivere (67,000)
10. Rascal Flatts, Still Feels Good (53,000)
11. High School Musical 2 soundtrack (51,000)
12. Kid Rock, Rock N' Roll Jesus (49,000)
13. Colbie Caillat, Coco (43,000)
14. Bruce Springsteen, Magic (42,000)
15. Reba McEntire, Reba Duets (39,000)
16. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (37,000)
17. Kanye West, Graduation (35,000)
18. Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (35,000)
19. Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, souljaboytellem.com (34,000)
20. Jonas Brothers (33,000)

Biggest Debuts: The Robert Plant/Alison Krauss duets album Raising Sand came in at No. 2, selling 112,000 copies, while Gary Allan completed the twangy trifecta by selling 69,000 copies of Living Hard. Behind them at No. 4 was System Of A Down lead singer Serj Tankian, whose Elect The Dead sold 66,000 copies; Coheed and Cambria's No World For Tomorrow entered at No. 6, moving 62,000 progged-out units. Completing the top-10 debuts was Seether, who sold 57,000 copies of Finding Beauty In Negative Space to people who don't get embarrassed over buying records with terrible covers around the country.

Notable Jumps: Not much in the way of notable album-sales spikes—aside from Sugarland and Taylor Swift seeing bumps, thanks in part no doubt to the many country fans who showed up to buy record sales this week—but it's definitely "time for people to freak out about seasonally appropriate music for a Halloween party" on the digital tracks chart. "Thriller" jumped up to No. 40, selling 20,000 e-singles, while "The Monster Mash," "Ghostbusters," "Werewolves Of London," and the theme to Halloween all popped into that chart's top 200.

Dropping Off: Waiting to see when Jennifer Lopez's Brave breaks the six-figure mark is going to be almost as fun as waiting to see when Curtis broke seven figures (that finally happened last week). This week, it skidded from No. 38 to No. 59, selling 14,000 copies. That's a total of 85,000 copies sold so far. Well, at least her total copies sold have exceeded a 1:1 ratio with her album-cover budget!

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Kid Rock's Rock N' Roll Jesus hung tough in its third week on the chart, taking a 21% sales hit and falling from No. 2 to No. 7. You know what that means, right? The Waffle House ploy worked.

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride (527,000)
2. Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, Raising Sand (112,000)
3. Gary Allan, Living Hard (69,000)
4. Serj Tankian, Elect The Dead (66,000)
5. Josh Groban, Noel (65,000)
6. Coheed & Cambria, No World For Tomorrow (62,000)
7. Kid Rock, Rock N' Roll Jesus (61,000)
8. Rascal Flatts, Still Feels Good (57,000)
9. Seether, Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces (57,000)
10. High School Musical 2 soundtrack (57,000)
11. Neil Young, Chrome Dreams II (54,000)
12. Bruce Springsteen, Magic (51,000)
13. Juanes, La Vida ... Es Un Ratico (47,000)
14. Reba McEntire, Reba Duets (44,000)
15. Colbie Caillat, Coco (43,000)
16. Kanye West, Graduation (43,000)
17. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (37,000)
18. Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, souljaboytellem.com (35,000)
19. Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (32,000)
20. matchbox twenty, Exile On Mainstream (30,000)

Biggest Debuts: The week's highest bow was elder-statesmen-of-emo Jimmy Eat World's labia-tastic Chase This Light, which entered at No. 5; Santana's latest attempt to cash in on his music-business connections, Ultimate Santana, bowed at No. 8. Meanwhile, soul stylist Angie Stone's Art Of Love And War came in at No. 11, and the new album from Thrice, Alchemy Index: V, entered at No. 24.

Notable Jumps: This week was a rough one—to put it in perspective, Josh Groban's Noel leapt from No. 10 to No. 4 by sheer virtue of his sales totals being only negligibly off from last week—but poppy