With 61.10% of reports in, Alabama Shakes are shaking their way to their first number one album. This rock band out Athens, Alabama received critical acclaim with their first album and three Grammy nominations including Best New Artists. That album, “Boys and Girls” went onto sell 739K albums, but peaked at number 6 on the BB200 chart. The lead singer of Alabama Shakes is a bit of a rarity in a genre that overwhelming offers up white guys. Brittany Howard is neither, but she plays a mean guitar and has a fantastic bluesy voice. Thanks for bringing some variety to the stodgy rock charts. Their “Sounds and Color” is aiming for 80-85K in sales and 85-90K in combined.
Currently in second is Yelawolf – a fellow Alabama artist (from Gadsden). He’s working the hip-hop vein on Eminem’s Shady label. He’s actually a reality show competitor for a show from way back in 2005 (“The Road to Stardom with Missy Elliott”). It did gain him some attention, but he’s really grown his cred in the genre with mixed tapes. Drake surges to third on the chart (I’m out of the loop and don’t know why – it is a surprise to HDD as well because he’s seems to be doing better than they expected). Reba has a nice hold at 4th, Taylor Swift is 5th and Same Hunt moves up to 6th.
Some of the air has come out of the tires of Fast and Furious 7’s soundtrack album. It’s currently 7th on the sales chart and it will probably be no better than 4th on the BB200 this week. The movie has dominated the box-office for the past four weeks and become the fifth highest grossing film of all time (pretty good for a franchise this far into recycling its original premise). The movie will brace for the full impact of the latest Avengers movie coming out this week.
Sam Smith is 8th and Meghan’s sales tick up to 9th (Dear Future Husband is in the top 20 on Hot AC and Pop). Passion Pit (Indietronic – new genre description for me) is the final debut in the top 10.
Idol winners Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood are on the chart at 47th and 50th. They are also featured on the NOW ACM album at 27th. One Direction is on Now 53 at 22nd and Miranda Lambert is at 18th. Her husband represents the judges at 42 while his bro-mate Adam is at 21st. Empire Records continues to support itself at 15th
Chart Date: 04/28/2015
Last Updated: 04/27/2015 14:31:00
Status: Building 61.10%
LW TW Artist / Album Label Sales Index
— 1 ALABAMA SHAKES SOUND & COLOR ATO 69,790
— 2 YELAWOLF LOVE STORY SHADY/INTERSCOPE 41,968
20 3 DRAKE IF YOU’RE READING THIS, IT’S TOO LATE YMCMB/REPUBLIC 21,921
2 4 REBA MCENTIRE LOVE SOMEBODY NASHVILLE ICON 20,247
6 5 TAYLOR SWIFT 1989 BIG MACHINE 19,391
11 6 SAM HUNT MONTEVALLO MCA NASHVILLE 16,827
5 7 FURIOUS 7 SOUNDTRACK ATLANTIC 15,159
7 8 SAM SMITH IN THE LONELY HOUR CAPITOL 14,681
16 9 MEGHAN TRAINOR TITLE EPIC 13,280
— 10 PASSION PIT KINDRED COLUMBIA 13,190
….
12 15 EMPIRE CAST SOUNDTRACK, SEASON 1 TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX/COLUMBIA 11,392
..
35 18 MIRANDA LAMBERT PLATINUM RCA NASHVILLE 10,267
..
23 21 MAROON 5 V 222/INTERSCOPE 8,667
27 22 NOW 53 VARIOUS ARTISTS NOW/LEGACY 8,427
….
18 27 NOW ACM AWARDS 50TH ANNIVERSARY VARIOUS ARTISTS NOW/UME 7,516
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— 42 BLAKE SHELTON BRINGING BACK THE SUNSHINE WARNER BROS. NASHVILLE 5,218
….
49 47 KELLY CLARKSON PIECE BY PIECE RCA 3,761
..
— 50 CARRIE UNDERWOOD GREATEST HITS: DECADE #1 19/ARISTA NASHVILLE 3,602
