CHART STORY: THE 1975 DETHRONE 25

Dirty Hit/Interscope’s The 1975 have topped the HITS Album Sales Chart with 98k for their sophomore effort, I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it, which is coincidentally something HITS VP/Managing Editor Simon Glickman was overheard whispering to President Todd Hensley just the other day. On the Sales Plus Streaming (SPS) Chart, the long-titled set pulled in 108k.

XL/Columbia queen Adele, meanwhile, slides gracefully to #2, pulling in another 59k for 25—an age we have absolutely no memory of.

Indie icons Macklemore & Ryan Lewis have the second highest-charting debut, as This Unruly Mess I’ve Made rounds out the Top 3 with 46k.

As for the other big bows, Redwing’s Bonnie Raitt and Megaforce’s Anthrax land at #6 and #7, respectively, while chart veterans Mercury Nashville’s Chris Stapleton (#4) and Gaither’s Joey + Rory (#5) continue their stays in the Top 5.

After an incendiary American Idol performance that garnered a ton of buzz and sparked a surge in sales, Kelly Clarkson’s Piece by Piece (RCA) re-enters the chart at #11, while Old Dominion's Meat and Candy (RCA Nashville) makes its re-entry at #27 sales and #40 SPS, thanks in large part to a sale price of $3.99 at most DSPs.

Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall (Epic) also re-enters the chart—at #35—thanks in part to a carry-over effect from the release of Spike Lee’s acclaimed Showtime documentary and the anniversary reissue of the album, while Sam Smith’s In the Lonely Hour (Capitol) re-enters at #38, driven by his talked-about Oscars performance and win.

TDE/Aftermath/Interscope's Kendrick Lamar dropped his untitled unmastered in a surprise release last night. Staying in the vein of sneak attacks, Def Jam's 2 Chainz-Lil Wayne set, which Kanye West hinted about via Twitter on Wednesday (3/2), dropped as well.

Also streeting this week are albums from Legacy’s Loretta Lynn, RCA’s Ray Lamontagne, Jackalope’s Miike Snow and Interscope’s The Struts.

And on a related note, word has it that Donald Trump has plans to use the latter’s song “Dirty, Sexy Money” on his campaign trail, before spraying the unwanted hundred dollar bills he uses in lieu of toilet paper out of a confetti cannon.