SoundScanner: The Civil Wars Land Their First Number One Album
The Civil Wars may be in a civil war of their own, but that didn't stop them from topping this week's Nielsen SoundScan sales charts. Meanwhile, those unstoppable Now collections continue to sell, as does "Blurred Lines." #SoundScanner's look at the week in sales:
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CIVIL WARS REIGN: Troubled Nashville duo The Civil Wars score their first No. 1 album this week with their self-titled second album. The set sold 116,000 copies its first week in stores, a record high for the You Oughta Know alums, whose previous album Barton Hollow peaked at No. 10 following the band's celebrated performance on the 2012 Grammy Awards telecast. The Civil Wars officially went on hiatus late last year, citing "internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition." (How very Civil War of them.) Hopefully they were at least able to toast to their chart success. (SEE ALSO: INTERVIEW: The Civil Wars’ Joy Williams Discusses New Album And Band Hiatus)
'NOW' NABS RUNNER-UP SPOT: In a world of digital streaming, why do they keep releasing Now That's What I Call Music compilations? Because they keep selling, that's why. This week, Now 47—which features hits by Bruno Mars, Anna Kendrick and Imagine Dragons—debuts at No. 2 with 82,000 sales, a few ticks below the 91,000 Now 46 kicked off with in May. Also making Top 10 debuts this week are English metalheads Asking Alexandria (No. 6, 38,000) and gospel singer Tye Tribbett (No. 9, 30,000), while last week's No. 1, Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines, dips to No. 3 on a 63 percent sales slide. Thicke's album has sold 242,000 copies its first two weeks in stores.
YEEZY SEASON FORECAST CALLS FOR GOLD SKIES: Kanye West's Yeezus is the rapper's slowest-selling album to date, but this week—the album's 8th week in stores—the confrontational set finally crosses the 500,000 sales marker. Yeezus is No. 41 on this week's chart, down 10 spots from last week, and its 7,300 sales this week bring its total sales to 504,000 copies. (Worth noting: 327,000 of those sales, or 65 percent, came in the ablum's first week.) Meanwhile, J. Cole's Born Sinner, released the same week as Yeezus, is at No. 22 this week and has sold 557,000 copies to date.
[Photo Credit: VH1/Colin Gray]
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'BLURRED LINES' STAYS ON TOP: Face it, we live in a "Blurred Lines" nation. Robin Thicke's summer smash captures the top spot on the Digital Songs chart yet again this week, moving an additional 346,000 copies (down 14 percent from last week) and bringing its total sales to 4.6 million copies. "Blurred Lines" more than doubled the sales of the week's second place finisher, Jay Z and Justin Timberlake's "Holy Grail," whose 166,000 sales are up 2 percent from last week. Elsewhere in the Top 10, Drake's "Hold On, We're Going Home"—which sounds like a lost Phil Collins song from the mid-1980s—debuts at No. 8 with 109,000 first-week sales. (SEE ALSO: Robin Thicke On His Controversial “Blurred Lines” Video: ‘I Just Wanted To Break Every Rule’)
TAMELA MANN'S 'DAYS' OF GLORY: Gospel singer Tamela Mann's third album, Best Days, celebrates one year on the Top Current Albums chart this week. The set is at No. 71 this week, and is just 85 copies away from hitting 300,000 sales. Best Days debuted at No. 14 and sold 17,000 copies its first week, and has sold steadily since – a study in slow and steady chart perseverance.