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Usually, the first chart of January is like a splash of cold water…cold water from a glacier fed lake that has been super-cooled with liquid CO2. We go from the exciting weeks of stocking stuffer sales – the two biggest sales week of the year for albums are those prior to Christmas – on a nerve jangling plummet into depressing sales. It’s not uncommon to see the top selling album of the week in January selling in the 60K range.

But this year is different. While last year had the amazing Adele to boost the sales of the number one album, the rest of the chart remained glum. This year, a combination of a successful movie musical and strategic iTunes album sales have combined for a week of sales that isn’t too bad. Our January is a little brighter this year.

With 68.46% of reports in, it’s clear that there is a market for actors pretending to be singers. The “Les Miz” movie soundtrack has been relentlessly climbing up the chart since its release and is now ready to ascend to the top of the chart. Mumford and Sons appear to be challenging from second place, but the prognosticators predict that “Les Miz” will beat les garçons.

The rest of the top 10 is taken up by female artists and reality show contestants. Alicia Keys is 4th, P!NK is 5th, Taylor Swift 6th and Ke$ha is 10th.

Representing shows we follow here at MJs in the top 10 are XF UK contestants and American Idol winners. One Direction (3rd on the 7th Season of XF UK) are third again with “Take Me Home” (tweens are clearly taking the title literally) while their original album “Up All Night” is up in 9th. Season 4 Idol winner Carrie Underwood’s “Blown Away” is currently 7th and right behind her is our most recent winner, Phil Phillips.

Outside of the top 10 are Kelly Clarkson with her greatest hits album at 21st. Carly Rae Jepsen from Canadian Idol arrives back in the top 50 with “Kiss” at 43.

And, representing the Voice are, you guessed it, the judges. Adam Levine’s Maroon 5′s “Overexposed” is right behind Kelly at 22nd and Blake Shelton’s “Red River Blue” is hanging in there at 49th.

Now 44, featuring a bunch of contestants and judges is at 16.

CHART DATE: 01/07/2013
LAST UPDATE: 01/07/2013 14:57:11
NOW IN: 68.46%

LW TW artist / album label power index
– 1 LES MISERABLES SOUNDTRACK 76,007
– 2 MUMFORD & SONS BABEL 75,352
– 3 ONE DIRECTION TAKE ME HOME 69,212
– 4 ALICIA KEYS GIRL ON FIRE 41,091
– 5 P!NK TRUTH ABOUT LOVE 40,951
– 6 TAYLOR SWIFT RED 29,700
– 7 CARRIE UNDERWOOD BLOWN AWAY 23,294
– 8 PHILLIP PHILLIPS WORLD FROM THE SIDE OF THE MOON 22,428
– 9 ONE DIRECTION UP ALL NIGHT20,176
– 10 KE$HA WARRIOR 19,732
…
– 16 NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC 44 VARIOUS ARTISTS 15,474
…
– 21 KELLY CLARKSON GREATEST HITS – CHAPTER 1 12,762
– 22 MAROON 5 OVEREXPOSED 12,539
…
– 43 CARLY RAE JEPSEN KISS 4,249
…
– 49 BLAKE SHELTON RED RIVER BLUE 2,469
– 50 THE WEEKND TRILOGY 2,431

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