The soundtrack to the Disney smash Frozen returns to No. 1 on this week’s SoundScan sales chart, ending Eric Church’s one week reign at the top. Meanwhile, Lorde hits a sales milestone even as overall album sales suffer. Here’s a look at this week’s sales news:
Frozen back on top: The soundtrack to Frozen snowballs back to the top spot on this week’s Top Current Albums chart, adding 89,000 sales to its total and edging out Eric Church’s The Outsiders by 15,000 sales. The Frozen soundtrack has now sold 1.14 million copies. The Outsiders slips to No. 2 on a 74 percent decline, a harsher-than-average second week fall for the country bad boy. After two weeks, Church’s album has sold 362,000 copies.
Cole Swindell debuts: Georgia-born country singer Cole Swindell, who scored a No. 1 country hit with “Chillin’ It,” debuts at No. 3 this week with his self-titled debut album. The album sold 63,000 copies its first week. The week’s next highest debut comes from Swindell’s fellow Georgians Issues, the metalcore rockers who open at No. 9 with their self-titled debut, which sold 22,000 copies its first week. Meanwhile, New York duo Phantogram just misses the Top 10, opening at No. 11 with their second album Voices. It sold 21,000 copies; just 110 sales separated it from this week’s No. 10 album, Toni Braxton and Babyface’s “Love, Marriage & Divorce.” And last year’s American Idol winner Candice Glover arrives at No. 14 with her debut album Music Speaks, which sold 19,000 copies, the weakest first-week sales for an Idol winner to-date.
Album sales plunge: Much like the United States, album sales are in a deep freeze this week, with only three albums in this week’s Top 50 experiencing sales gains over last week. Nearly every other album fell by a double digit percentage figure, as overall sales are down 23 percent from last week. The exceptions: Arctic Monkeys’ AM (No. 27) is up 2 percent from last week, Jhene Aiko’s Sail Out (No. 32) improves 3 percent and K. Michelle’s Rebellious Soul (No. 46) sees a 19 percent uptick in sales.
Lorde goes platinum: Lorde’s Pure Heroine, No. 6 this week, sold 30,000 copies – enough to send it over the 1 million hump. The album has now sold 1.005 million copies since it was released 21 weeks ago, not bad for someone who was a complete unknown at this time last year. Pure Heroine also launched a pair of platinum-plus singles: “Royals” has sold 5.2 million downloads to date, and “Team” has sold 1.5 million copies.
‘Happy’ explodes: Pharrell Williams’ Despicable 2 theme “Happy” enjoys a second week at No. 1 on this week’s Digital Songs chart, selling an impressive 402,000 copies on a 22 percent sales boost from the week prior. That puts it more than 150,000 downloads ahead of the week’s No. 2 entry, Katy Perry and Juicy J’s “Dark Horse” (down 9 percent from last week). Just 4,000 downloads separate “Dark Horse” from the week’s No. 3 single, Jason DeRulo’s “Talk Dirty,” but it’s going to take a lot to catch “Happy,” which will have the benefit of huge exposure from the Oscars this Sunday. It looks like “Happy,” which has sold 1.7 million downloads to date, will be in the top spot for awhile.
[Photo: Getty Images]