THREE-WAY IN
THE OFFING?

A battle could be brewing for #1 next week. It involves three titles, one from each of the three major distributors.

Sony’s Adele (XL/Columbia), UMG’s The 1975 (Interscope) and WEA/ADA’s Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (Macklemore) all seem poised to challenge for the top. Adele, coming off four BRIT Award wins, is expected to land somewhere in the 80-90k range. The 1975, who already have preorders and fan site sales in the neighborhood of 40k, could also tally around 80-90k.

The wild card, surprisingly, is Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. After selling 1.5m copies of their previous album, The Heist, and nearly 8m copies of its lead single, “Thrift Shop,” the duo finds itself facing an uphill battle with the follow-up. Because the album has been given just a one-week preorder and there’s no hit single, forecasters are reluctant to suggest first-week sales of more than 75k. Of course, even a slight over-performance will put it in the running for #1.

Check back on Saturday morning, when we’ll take our first look at this week’s new releases.