EVIL BEATS GOOD?
Bad Meets Evil’s Hell: The Sequel, the Shady/Interscope collaboration between Eminem and his old Detroit hip-hop pal Royce Da 5’9”, gets the slight edge for #1 on next week’s HITS Album chart with estimated sales of between 150-160k over Columbia 11-year-old America’s Got Talent prodigy Jackie Evancho’s Dream With Me, now in the 140-150k range. This is one horse race that won’t be decided until sales trends become clearer later in the week.
That’s based on one-day sales from those music retailers around the country who aren’t busy stocking up on “Anthony Weiner Faces Stiff Opposition” T-shirts.
Next highest debut will be Universal Republic’s Owl City—singer-songwriter Adam Young—with All Things Bright and Beautiful, the follow-up to the 2009 breakthrough Ocean Eyes and its #1 smash, “Fireflies.” Look for it to sell between 50-55k.
Stiletto Entertainment’s Barry Manilow album, 15 Minutes, his first studio effort in seven years and a meditation on fame, is on target for 25-30k through
Jason Flom’s latest signing, Lava/Universal Republic’s Hollywood neoglam-rockers Black Veil Brides look to Set the World on Fire with their major label debut, with estimate of first week sales between 20-25k, the same number as Capitol/EMI’s Now Country 4.
The market was flat vs. last week, down 2% vs. same week last year and now back down to flat (“the new up”) year to date.
Expect the overall sales picture to lose a little ground over the next couple of weeks as we go up against two of last year's biggest debuts in Drake (447k) and Eminem (741k).
