DAUGHTRY'S STILL "NOT OVER"

The answer in all three cases is, Y-E-S.

This week, it's all about RCA/RMG’s Daughtry, which returns to the top spot on the HITS album chart with 90k in sales. Yes, you read that correctly.

Here’s hoping Merge’s indie hopes Arcade Fire, Bad Boy/Atlantic’s posthumous Notorious B.I.G. greatest hits, Capitol’s Relient K and Virgin’s Korn with an MTV Unplugged effort, can move the meter when they hit retail this week.

SRC/Universal Motown’s Akon climbs back to #2, followed by last week’s chart-topping Norah Jones album on Blue Note, IDJ’s Fall Out Boy and Star Trak/Interscope’s Robin Thicke, who rounds out the Top 5.

The rest of the Top 10 includes Jive/ZLG’s Justin Timberlake, Geffen’s Nelly Furtado, Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax’s Dreamgirls, Open Wide/Monument/ Columbia’s Dixie Chicks and Capitol’s Corinne Bailey Rae.

The week’s top newcomer is Koch’s B.G. and the Chopper City Boyz (#21) and Atlantic’s Music & Lyrics soundtrack (#47).

Manhattan/BNLG’s Celtic Woman (#42-19, +58%) is the leading double-digit gainer, followed by Fueled by Ramen/Atlantic’s Gym Class Heroes (#46-22, +32%), Virgin’s 30 Seconds to Mars (#44-27, +20%) and Interscope’s Gwen Stefani (#22-17, +14%), in addition to Dreamgirls (#18-8, +40%).

Other gainers include Geffen’s Furtado (#13-7, +8%) and Sub Pop’s The Shins, who own the highest-ranked indie album of 2007, which moves #41-33, up 7%. Daughtry is up by the same percentage.

Interscope’s Rich Boy and Universal Motown’s Lloyd are set for a March 13 release, followed by Epic’s Modest Mouse, Virgin’s Joss Stone and G-Unit/Interscope’s Young Buck on March 20. All those looking for the year’s next blockbuster may have to wait until March 27, when Curb’s Tim McGraw and Now 24 arrive, followed by Avril Lavigne on April 17. Until then, folks, hang in there.