SoundScanner: Robin Thicke Has A Big ... Debut!
Hey hey hey! Give it up for Robin Thicke, who lands his first No. 1 album this week, and who wears a dual crown as "Blurred Lines" also returns to the top of Nielsen SoundScan's Digital Songs chart. Here's our weekly look at the sales charts:
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ROBIN THICKE HAS A BIG ... DEBUT: A decade spent in the trenches of pop and R&B finally paid off for Robin Thicke, who nabs his first No. 1 album this week with Blurred Lines. The set kicks off with 177,000 sales, a career-best sales week for Thicke, whose previous chart high came with the No. 3 debut of 2008's Something Else. Blurred Lines blows away the first week sales of his last album, 2011's Love After War, which started at No. 22 with 41,000 copies sold. The album's triumph isn't the only good news for Thicke this week, as the single Blurred Lines returns to No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart, adding another 405,000 sales to its tally, up 30 percent from last week and bringing its total to date to a whopping 4.27 million copies. Maybe Thicke really should change his name to Blurred Lines, as the singer joked during an appearance on Howard Stern last week. (SEE ALSO: Robin Thicke Breaks Down Blurred Lines Track-By-Track)
FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, MORE START HIGH: Thicke's chart triumph blurs the lines for L.A. rock band Five Finger Death Punch, who land at a career best No. 2 with their fourth album, The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Vol. 1 (Vol. 2 is due out later this year, aren't we all lucky). The set sold a very respectable 113,000 copies its first week. Juggalo-approved Kansas City rapper Tech N9ne drops in at No. 4 with his latest, Something Else, which shares a title with a previous Robin Thicke album and sold 58,000 copies its first frame. The latest from the Backstreet Boys (No. 5, 48,000) and the debut album from X Factor bros Emblem 3 (No. 7, 46,000) round out the week's top debuts.
GOMEZ SLIPS: Last week's No. 1 album, Selena Gomez' Stars Dance, falls to No. 8 this week. The album sold 31,000 copies its second week, down 68 percent from last week's debut, bringing its two-week total to 128,000. Gomez' last album, 2011's When the Sun Goes Down, slid 43 percent in its second week, where it rose one spot on the chart from No. 4 to No. 3 with 44,000 sales. But Stars is still pacing ahead of Sun, which sold 122,000 copies its first two weeks on the charts.
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AVICII 'WAKES UP' WITH A HIT: On the Digital Songs chart, Swedish EDM star Avicii proves there's life after "Levels" with "Wake Me Up," which rises 23 spots to No. 9 on an 88 percent sales surge, logging 100,000 sales. Credit the song's video, which was released July 29 and has quickly racked up more than 14 million YouTube views. Avicii's debut album True is due out next month. Elsewhere on the Digital Songs chart, last week's champ, One Direction's "Best Song Ever," tumbles 11 spots to No. 12 on a 72 percent sales slide.
LUKE BRYAN'S 'TANLINES' NOT FADING: Country star Luke Bryan is set to make a big splash on the charts when his latest set Crash My Party is released next week, but he's still going strong with his 2011 album Tailgates & Tanlines, which turns 2-years-old this week. The set debuted in the runner-up position, behind Jay Z and Kanye West's Watch the Throne, and has gone on to sell 2.08 million copies. It's at No. 57 on this week's chart, while his Spring Break… Here to Party compilation – which debuted at No. 1 earlier this year – is at No. 84 this week. Meanwhile Bryan's "Crash My Party" single, No. 18 on this week's Digital Songs chart, has sold 1.2 million copies thus far.