ABOVE AND BEYONCE!!!

The Destiny’s Child leader’s Dangerously in Love moved an impressive 331k units, while Branch’s sophomore effort, Hotel Paper, the follow-up to her multi-platinum debut The Spirit Room, soared to 158k.

Homers’ Rick Galusha was beside himself with glee, especially since he’d just acquired some illegal sparklers for the 4^th of July: "It was great to have so many titles hit at once. Beyonce, with a great debut, has definitely established herself as a superstar in her own right. And Michelle Branch has proven that she is not a one-album wonder. She has a real fan base, and we felt it this week."

Another Columbia-distribbed album, Da Unbreakables, from Hypnotized Mind rappers Three 6 Mafia, approached 100k in sales, good for a #4 debut.

The rest of the Top 10 goes like this: J Records’ Luther Vandross (#3), Elektra/EEG’s Metallica (#5), Wind-up’s Evanescence (#6), J’s Annie Lennox (#7), Blue Note’s Norah Jones (#8), Capitol’s Radiohead (#9) and J’s’ Monica (#10).

In case you dropped off during the previous sentence, that gives Clive Davis’ label three albums in the Top 10, verifying that the RCA Music Group boss has earned his current Caribbean vacation.

Other chart newcomers included Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax’s Charlies Angels 2 soundtrack (#15), Virgin’s Gang Starr (#20), Universal’s Lumidee (#22), Capitol’s Liz Phair (#23), A&M/Interscope’s Black Eyed Peas (#24), GSL/Strummer/Universal’s The Mars Volta (#27), Arista’s Blu Cantrell (#28), Palm Pictures/Reprise’s Guster (#39) and Lost Highway/IDJ’s Willie Nelson & Friends (#44).

Top gainer were DreamWorks Okie pop-punks The All-American Rejects, who showed a 19% increase over the previous week.

Next up, it’s all about Murder Inc./IDJ’s R&B chanteuse Ashanti, whose Chapter II hit stores Tuesday in anticipation of what many believe will be a chart-topping bow next week.