ONE-DAY SALES:
RETAIL’S ACT OF FAITH

A day into the new-release week, this much is clear: Faith Hill, the reigning queen of country music (although Shania fans might take issue with that statement), will rule next week’s charts with her brand-new Warner Bros. album Fireflies, which is en route to the 300k area code. While that is a more than respectable number, it doesn’t approach the 422k first week Hill registered on her previous LP, which streeted on 10/15/02. Nonetheless, it gives retail another welcome midsummer kick in the pants, not to mention hit-hungry WMG, which hasn’t had a bona fide blockbuster since Green Day last fall.

No other debut is likely to get much more than halfway to 100k, with Razor & Tie’s Kidz Bop Kids 8 leading the field in the early going as the latest volume of the series canters toward 50k-55k. Just behind is Def Jam/IDJ’s trickily named Teairra Marie at a projected 45k-50k, while Epic’s Natasha Bedingfield is looking 30k-35k-ish.

Thus, holdovers will comprise the bulk of the Top 10, with evergreens Mariah Carey (Island/IDJ) and Coldplay (Capitol) holding steady, even as Interscope’s Black Eyed Peas and Virgin’s Gorillaz continue to gain strength. Capitol’s Now 19 will continue to be a factor as well in its third week.

Weekly business is up 1.9% (or 195k units) over last week, but down 9.7% (or 1.1 million) versus the same week last year, when Ashlee Simpson debuted at #1 on 398k units. Total sales for the week were 10.3 million, and for the year to date, 323.9 million. The latter figure is 22.7 million units less than last year at this time, which comes out to a deficit of 7.9%.