The sales week ended yesterday and One Direction celebrated by surprise releasing a new single. “Drag Me Down” is slaying it. They raced straight to number one and compressed the rest of the chart. The ratio of their sales to the rest of the chart is impressive. The domination is worldwide. This kind of slayage makes my number-loving-heart glow like ET.
On the album front, multi-talented American singer/actress Jill Scott is headed for her second number one album. 55-60K in combined sales is a little grim, but I guess the summer doldrums are upon us. Whatever, she’s got two number one albums and that’s something to brag about. Lamb of God is not far behind in second. If your first guess was that this must be a Christian AC group, you’d be wrong. Their previous name was “Burn the Priest” and these guys work a decidedly un-lamb-like vein of rock. They started out as death metal, but some would describe their current sound as metalcore or groove/thrash metal. This is their 8th studio album.
Rapper Future will probably slide from first to third in his second week and Taylor Swift will be mixing it up either usurping that third spot or making do with fourth. The Southpaw Soundtrack (from Eminem’s label) looks to be fifth. Good year for Soundtracks.
Bea Miller was on the second season of X-Factor US when she was 13. She’s only 16 now, but she’s got an album in the top 10 (she is signed to Simon Cowell’s label SYCO and Disney’s label “Hollywood” – she also has acting credits – probably the most likely thing you’ve heard her in is as Molly from Toy Story 3 (younger sister of the kid who owns Andy and Buzz)). This is her debut album and she’s doing pretty well for a 9th place finisher on a reality singing show. Some winners don’t even get albums. She’ll be 5th in sales, but may have to slide to 7th or 8th on combined with Taylor, Ed and perhaps Sam or Meek Mills moving up.
The rest of the top 10 will be made up of Tyrese (R&B), Alan Jackson (Country) and We Came as Romans (Melodic Metalcore – I don’t normally think of melodies when I think of metalcore – but then I don’t normally think of groove lines either).
*Jill Scott (Blues Babe) 50-55k sales, 55-60k SPS
*Lamb of God (Epic) 43-48k, 45-50k
Future (Epic) 30-35k, 47-52k
*Southpaw (Shady/Interscope) 30-35k, 35-40k
*Bea Miller (SYCO/Hollywood) 24-27k, 25-28k
Tyrese (Voltron) 21-24k, 24-27k
Taylor Swift (Big Machine/BMLG) 21-24k, 45-50k
Alan Jackson (Capitol Nashville) 19-22k, 20-23k
*We Came As Romans (Equal Vision) 15-18k, 16-19k
Meek Mill (MMG/Atlantic) 14-16k, 27-29k
Ed Sheeran (Atlantic) 14-16k, 30-35k
*Hopsin (Funk Volume/Warner Bros.) 14-16k, 15-17k
*Jack & Jack (Jack & Jack) 13-15k, 15-17k
Kidz Bop Kids (Razor & Tie) 12-14k, 13-15k
Sam Hunt (MCA Nashville) 12-14k, 26-29k