CHART STORY: TRUTH ON TOP

Interscope’s Gwen Stefani has topped the HITS Album Sales Chart with 81k for her third studio album as a solo artist—and first in a decade—This Is What the Truth Feels Like. On the Sales Plus Streaming (SPS) Chart, it also conquered, scoring 88k. This makes three #1s in the last four weeks (following The 1975 and Kendrick Lamar) for John Janick's label.

Recent Republic signing and winner of Season 9 of NBC’s The Voice, Jordan Smith, follows at #2 with 53k for his breakout full-length, Something Beautiful. The set’s title just shows how pleasant and humble the star-in-the-making is. At HITS, however, we tend to make people turn their chairs in the opposite direction.

Consequently, XL/Columbia’s Adele slides to #3, earning another 43k for 25.

Following Sunday’s broadcast of live musical The Passion on Fox, the soundtrack, The Passion: New Orleans (Virgin), debuts at #4 with 29k. We were shocked to see that there is no comparable pop musical about Purim.

Meanwhile, as the 51st annual ACM Awards near, Joey + Rory’s Hymns (Gaither) and Chris Stapleton’s Traveller (Mercury Nashville) continue to sell at #5 and #6, respectively. Stapleton has the most nominations leading up to the show—set for 4/3—with six and he’s scheduled to perform, while Joey + Rory are up for Vocal Duo of the Year.

As for this week’s remaining big bows, RCA/Zone 4’s red-hot country newcomer, Kane Brown (#7), Loma Vista’s Iggy Pop (#11), WaterTower’s Batman Vs. Superman ST (#12) and BMG’s Jaheim (#13) all appear in the Top 15.

Westbury Road/Roc Nation’s Rihanna and RBMG/Def Jam’s Justin Bieber continue to prove that they’re monsters at SPS by more than tripling their album sales numbers.

Streeting this week are albums from RCA’s ZAYN, Warner Bros.’ Lukas Graham and Epic’s Judas Priest.

In other news, spring is here. Tra-fucking-la.