SARA SMILES, BATTLES EMINEM FOR #1

Sara Bareilles returns this week with her second Epic album, Kaleidoscope Heart, the follow-up to her 2007 Gold-certified Little Voice and its hit, Grammy-nominated single, “Love Song.” Based on first-day reports from those retailers who haven’t fled to Vermont to start a bed-and-breakfast, Bareilles’ sophomore release will be the week’s top debut at 80-90k, which will put it in direct competition with Eminem’s Recovery for the #1 spot on next Tuesday’s HITS Top 50 Album sales chart.

Longtime Roadrunner metal band Stone Sour, formed by Slipknot lead singer Corey Taylor, release their third album, Audio Secrecy, after earning three Grammy nominations on their previous two efforts. The new album looks to be on target for between 40-45k in first-week sales.

Winter Haven, FL, Christian alternative rock band Anberlin’s new Universal Republic album, Dark is the Way. Light is the Place, their second for the major and fifth overall, is looking to be in the 35-40k range. The group, featured on Amazon’s $3.99 Daily Special, is, predictably, nowhere to be found on iTunes.

Veteran N.Y. downtown PoMo rockers Interpol return to indie Matador for their fourth, this one self-titled, album after a pair of releases on Capitol, with a projected first-week total of 30-35k.

The market was up 2% vs. last week, down 17% vs. same week last year and still down 12% year to date.

If that’s not reason enough for repentance, we don’t know what is.