BIEBER, MGMT GO
FOR THE TOP SPOT
In the second week after our Lord and Savior rose from the dead, album sales have gone the way of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
In initial one-day returns from those music retailers who haven’t transformed their stores into pawn shops, Justin Bieber and MGMT will battle it out for #1, with a total that should threaten the previous low, Chrisette Michele’s 83k last May.
Columbia’s collegiate art-rockers, a Best New Artist Grammy nominee last year, will score the week’s highest debut with their sophomore album, Congratulations, already being cited as the most left-field major label release in many a year. Based on early reports, the album should do between 70-75k and at least challenge for a #1 bow.
Next up are fellow
Rhino/Atco’s new Jeff Beck album, Emotion & Commotion, his first solo studio effort in more than seven years, will debut with between 20-25k.
Natalie Merchant’s first album for Nonesuch, Leave Your Sleep, 26 poems by the likes of Ogden Nash, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edward Lear and Rachel Field, set to music, should do in the 15-20k range, the same as the eponymous Atlantic debut from American Idol alum Jason Castro.
Asylum rapper Gucci Mane’s mixtape, The Burrrprint 2 HD, is looking at 12-15k, as are Atlantic’s YouTube a cappella sensation Straight No Chaser and Mercury’s Laura Bell Bundy, the latest Luke Lewis tout which was reported to be the initial release under UMGD chief Jim Urie’s new aggressive pricing policy Velocity.
Glassnote’s Justin Nozuka could do between 8-10k next week, which would put him on the cusp of the Top 50.
The market was down 23% vs. last week, down 33% vs. same week last year (which was Easter) and now down 10% year to date. Look out below.
