THIS CHART IS A MOUTHFUL 

In a neck-and-neck race, RCA’s a cappella wunderkinds Pentatonix have topped the HITS Album Sales Chart with 86k for their self-titled set—a follow-up to the multi-platinum holiday album, That’s Christmas to Me, which was the fourth biggest selling album of 2014.

Safehouse/Island/Hollywood’s Demi Lovato, took #2 on the album chart with 76k for her fifth studio album since 2008, Confident.

The rest of the Top 5 comprised new releases from Bad Boy/Interscope’s Machine Gun Kelly (#3, 47k), eOne’s The Game (#4, 45k) and Everything Evil’s Coheed & Cambria (#5, 30k).

A total of nine artists debuted in the Top 15 this week when you include Razor & Tie’s Kidz Bop Kids (#6), Hillsong’s Hillsong Worship (#11), eOne’s Joe Budden (#12) and Interscope’s BØRNS (#13).

Also noteworthy: eOne had three albums in the Top 15 for what might be the first time ever. The only thing we’ve ever had three of at a time are C&Ds.

Powered by a $5.99 sale at iTunes, TDE/Aftermath/Interscope’s Kendrick Lamar and Polo Grounds/RCA’s A$AP Rocky both re-entered the chart with percentage bumps over 100%.

This week’s biggest beneficiary of SPS was XO/Republic’s The Weeknd, whose Beauty Behind the Madness saw a 38k difference between the two charts.

Streeting this week are albums from Capitol’s 5 Seconds of Summer, 19/Arista Nashville’s Carrie Underwood, We the Best’s DJ Khaled, Capitol’s Rod Stewart, Dine Alone’s Vanessa Carlton and Virgin’s Seinabo Sey, along with a greatest hits set from Warner Bros. Nashville/Reprise’s Blake Shelton.