CARRIE THAT WEIGHT!

There’s nothing scary about Carnival Ride, Carrie Underwood’s Arista Nashville/RMG follow-up to her 6-million-selling bow, Some Hearts.

The former American Idol and two-time Grammy winner debuts at #1 on the HITS Album Sales chart this week with 537k, more than enough to beat back rock legend Robert Plant’s much-touted Rounder collab with Alison Krauss, Raising Sand, which raises up some 101k in units at #2.

MCA Nashville country singer-songwriter Gary Allan’s aptly named Living Hard is up next at #3, with 70k, while Serjical Strike/Reprise’s moonlighting System of a Down vocalist Serj Tankian makes it four debuts out of five, with Elect the Dead entering at #5.

Reprise crooner Josh Groban’s seasonal Noel is the only holdover in the Top 5 at #4.

Columbia’s Coheed & Cambria is the other Top 10 newcomer at #7 with No World for Tomorrow, the art-rockers’ highest chart debut to date.

Last week’s topper, Atlantic’s Kid Rock, walks with Jesus at #6, with Lyric Street’s Rascal Flatts (#8), Walt Disney Records’ hardy perennial High School Musical 2 (#9) and Columbia icon Bruce Springsteen making Magic at #10, rounding out the top rank.

Wind-up’s Seether (#11), Universal Music Latino’s Juanes (#12), Reprise’s Neil Young (#17), J Records’ Say Anything (#25) and Hurricane Chris (#29), Lost Highway’s Ryan Adams & the Cardinals (#38), American Gramaphone holiday standard Mannheim Steamroller (#45) and New West’s Dwight Yoakam tribute to Buck Owens (#47) round out the first-timers in the Top 50.

Island/Mercury Nashville’s Sugarland enjoys the week’s top double-digit gain at 19%, moving #33-27, followed by Disney Records’ Hannah Montana 2—Meet Miley (+15%, #19-16) and Big Machine teenage country chanteuse Taylor Swift (+12%, #30-26).

Hitting the streets this week and poised for a chart-topping debut next is Jive/ZLG’s Britney Spears, with labelmates Backstreet Boys and MCA Nashville’s Josh Turner also on tap. The Eagles will also hit Wal-Mart nationwide, with Victory’s Thursday and Taking Back Sunday available in all finer retailers around the country.