Arcade Fire lands another No. 1 album this week with Reflektor, while the Duck Dynasty dudes crash the chart with their first (of hopefully many) Christmas album. #SoundScanner has all the week’s sales news ready to roll:
‘Tis the season: As we enter into the ever-joyous Christmas music season, two holiday-themed albums debut inside this week’s Top 5. Kelly Clarkson’s Christmas set Wrapped in Red begins at No. 3 with 70,000, and is followed by Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas, a seasonal offering from A&E’s Duck Dynasty crew (that features collaborations with George Strait, Luke Bryan and Alison Krauss). Duck the Halls sold 69,000 copies, and missed topping Clarkson by around 500 sales. It starts significantly better than Mary J. Blige’s Mary Christmas, which debuted at No. 24 last month with 12,000 sales.
Arcade Fire heats up chart: Canadian collective Arcade Fire debuts at No. 1 on this week’s Nielsen SoundScan Top Current Albums chart, selling 140,000 copies of the James Murphy-produced Reflektor. It’s the group’s second No. 1 set, following 2010’s The Suburbs, which started its chart run with 156,000. The band’s 2007 album Neon Bible, meanwhile, opened at No. 2 and sold 92,000 copies its first week.
Eminem’s ‘Monster’ flies high: Eminem has another No. 1 this week with “The Monster,” his Marshall Mathers LP 2 collaboration with Rihanna that debuts at No. 1 on SoundScan’s Digital Songs chart with 373,000 first-week downloads. That’s the best start of any of Em’s MMLP2 offerings; “Berzerk” came closest, launching with 362,000 sales in September. “Rap God” also topped the Digital Songs chart its first week, selling 270,000 copies its opening frame. All together, Em has three songs in this week’s Top 10 (“Survival” is at No. 6 and “Rap God” is No. 8) and another just outside (“Berzerk” is No. 11 this week). MMLP2 is expected to top next week’s Top Current Albums chart, and is projected to sell between 700,000 and 750,000 its first week, which would give it the year’s second biggest sales start. “The Monster,” meanwhile, holds off One Direction’s “Story of My Life,” which starts at No. 2 with 305,000 downloads.
Drake, Timberlake hit milestones: Drake has another platinum album under his belt; this week, the rapper’s Nothing Was the Same crosses 1 million sales. The album is No. 5 this week, off just 13 percent from last week, and sold 38,000 copies, to bring its total sales to 1.03 million copies. Also crossing a significant sales marker is Justin Timberlake, whose second 20/20 Experience reaches gold status this week. Five weeks into its chart run, the album comes in at No. 13 with 20,000 sales, bringing its total sales to 501,000. Comparatively, Timberlake’s first 20/20 album has sold 2.3 million copies to date and is No. 77 on this week’s chart.
‘Prism’ drops: Katy Perry’s Prism drops one spot to No. 2 this week, sliding 68 percent its second week. That’s a better hold than Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz, which fell 73 percent its second week. Lorde’s Pure Heroine, meanwhile, held better than both, slipping just 51 percent its second week. This week, Pure Heroine is at No. 8 with 314,000 sales to date, while Bangerz is at No. 9 and has sold 419,000 copies so far. Prism, meanwhile, has sold 378,000 copies in two weeks.