CHART STORY: TAY
MAKES IT EIGHT

Taylor Swift earns an eighth non-consecutive week at #1 on the HITS Top 50 as her folklore (Republic) returns to the top of the chart. This week—three months after its release—the album got a sales boost from another round of autographed copies, lifting it to 81k (+184%). It also became the first and only 2020 album (so far) to cross the 1m threshold in pure sales; folklore now ranks at #3 in activity for the year. Swift’s eighth week at #1 marks the most non-consecutive weeks atop the chart since Drake’s Views in 2016.

K-Pop collective NCT scores the second-biggest debut with Resonance Pt. 1: The 2nd Album (SM/Capitol). Dropped in the middle of last week, the set from the 23-member supergroup (which includes the lads of NCT 127) lands at #6 with 35k in its first full week.

Some familiar faces from Warner’s legendary catalog occupy the Top 20. Tom Petty enters at #6 with his long-awaited reissue, Wildflowers & All the Rest; Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours moves to #14 following a viral TikTok campaign that reignited their hit “Dreams”; and The Eagles bow at #16 with the newly minted Live From the Forum MMXVIII (Rhino). We miss the Ski Lodge.

Sturgill Simpson rounds out this week’s Top 20 debuts as his surprise bluegrass offering, Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1 (Thirty Tigers), mows its way to #18.

Dig into the data your own damn self by surfing over to our Top 50 chart.

Streeting this week are new projects from Columbia’s Bruce Springsteen, Mass Appeal/Def Jam’s Dave East, Alamo’s Comethazine and a deluxe package from River House/Columbia Nashville’s Luke Combs. In other news, please fucking vote.