It's another big week on the Billboard 200, as if the music industry is leading up to Taylor Swift's inevitable release of 1989 with a series of pre-parties. Swift may not be country music anymore but the genre stepped up again this week.
Following Blake Shelton's no. 1 debut last week, Jason Aldean took the torch and sold even more copies of his own Old Boots, New Dirt, topping the charts with the third highest debut of 2014. The album moved 278,000 copies, which is less than only Coldplay and fellow countryman Eric Church, respectively. As we've said before, the country music genre has the most loyal fans in music, especially when it comes to actually purchasing albums.
Hozier might be a new name for many, but many a wife/girlfriend has taken to crushing on him in recent weeks and that helped his self-titled debut open at no. 2 with 58,000 copies sold (that explanation comes from personal experience...we're apparently not as soulful as he).
The duets trend remains steady as both Barbra Streisand and the Lady Gaga/Tony Bennett collaboration retain their respective spots at nos. 3 and 4. Streisand's Partners sold an additional 49,000 copies and the latter's Cheek To Cheek sold 37,000 units.
Weezer gets the new albums rolling again with Everything Will Be Alright in The End, which placed at no. 5 with 34,000 copies. That barely edged last week's no. 1, Shelton, who came in at no. 6 with Bringing Back The Sunshine.
Stevie Nicks comes in at no. 7 with an archival set, 24 Karat Gold: Songs From The Vault, which sold 33,000 copies (and continued this week's unusual streak of lengthy album titles). Alex & Sierra, the winners of The X Factor Season 3 (U.S. version), take no. 8 spot with It's About Us, which sold 27,000 copies (the highest total, to date, from an actual winner of the show). Keyshia Cole is the last debut in the Top 10 this week as her Point of No Return brought in 25,000 copies. All six of her albums have placed in the Top 10 but that streak may be short based on this album's results.
Sam Smith makes his return to the Top 10 this week with In The Lonely Hour. The album only came up from no. 12 but it still marks the first time in six weeks that he's been on this list. The record sold an additional 24,000 copies.
