Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Finally, record sales have entered the new year.
And not a moment too soon.
Jack Johnson's new Brushfire/Universal Republic album, Sleep Through the Static, has awakened music fans, according to one-day reports from our crack retail sources still working around this great country. The surfer-turned-singer-songwriter's first album since his 2006 Curious George soundtrack, looks set to move some 330k and, thanks to a huge Triple A smash in "If I Had Eyes," will easily debut at #1, with the added fillip of a Valentine's Day weekend. It's been #1 at iTunes since last year on pre-orders alone, and is on target to surpass Kanye West's one-week download record.
Sheryl Crow's Detours, her new album for A&M and first of original material since 2005's Wildflower, is on target for just around 85-90k, which will be good enough for #2. The personal disc deals with the singer-songwriter's bout with cancer, her new adopted son and the aftermath of her tabloid breakup with Lance Armstrong.
Lenny Kravitz is bringing the Love Revolution to the charts with his new Virgin album, which looks like it'll be in the 60-70k range, definitely Top 5, depending on Alicia Keys, a possible #3.
Overall, the market was up 4% vs last week, down 19% vs same week last year and now down 12% year-to-date. Double digits and we're barely into February. That sucks.