ONE-DAY SALES: KENNY CHESNEY, INCUBUS ON FIRE

After one day on sale, both Kenny Chesney’s When the Sun Goes Down (BNA/RLG) and Incubus’ A Crow Left of the Murder (Epic) appear headed for chart-dominating first-week sales tallies, according to early reports from national accounts.

Specifically, Chesney’s latest is on track at this point to sell more than 500k for the week, while the new Incubus should do over 300k. Both are beating sales projections handily. Veteran BNA/RLG music exec Butch Waugh says he hasn't seen a faster-selling album than Chesney's during his stint at the Nashville label group.

That means next week’s album chart should sport a new #1 and #2, with this week’s #1, Twista’s Kamikaze (Atlantic), likely settling in at #3.

We already know that many, many a red-blooded, family-values-having Amarakin loves him or her some good ole country music. But if there are any doubters out there on the hard rock tip, we’re told that some 1.5 million online fans went to MTV.com to get their first taste of the new Incubus—the second-largest online crowd on the site, behind those for Britney Spears and Blink 182 clips.

Also hitting the streets yesterday was Harry Connick Jr.’s Only You (Columbia), which should sell upwards of 100k for the week, making it a strong candidate for next week’s Top 5.

As for the business in general, our crack(ed) team of retail analysts tells us that sales were up overall this week by 2.1% (200k units) compared to last week. Compared to the same week last year, sales are up 10% (1 million units). For the year so far, album sales are up 10.4% (5.3 million units) over last year.