This week's albums chart wasn't too much of a shakeup from the Billboard 200, except that all of the records that dropped in the Top 10 of the latter managed to move up a few places on the former. Breaking Benjamin, Tori Kelly and Kacey Musgraves took the top three spots, respectively, once again.
Benjamin's topping the Billboard 200 was certainly fueled more by album sales than streams and singles, as the group's Dark Before Dawn sold nearly 141,000 copies...almost all of the band's haul this week. Kelly relied more heavily upon streams for sales of her Unbreakable. although her 65,000 tally is nothing to scoff at, she moved an additional 10,000 equivalent copies via digital means. Musgraves is in the same boat, selling 53,500 copies of Pageant Material.
James Taylor was the only returning performer to crack the Top 5, as his Before This World (last week's no. 1) dropped to no. 4 with 50,000 in sales. One more debut rounds out the first five places as Leon Bridges' Coming Home moved 36,500 copies.
Taylor Swift is bound to see a boost to 1989 on the Billboard 200 as she's finally made it available for streaming via Apple Music. That said, she's not doing too badly in terms of pure record sales either. The album pushed another 29,000 copies last week and took no. 6. That preceded the last new album in the Top 10 this week, as the soundtrack to Teen Beach 2 moved 21,000 copies.
Ed Sheeran stayed in the Top 10 for another week with x, which sold another 17,500 copies and took no. 8 overall. Two albums returned to the Top 10 thanks to relatively low sales, as Sam Hunt's Montevallo took the no. 9 spot by selling 14,500 copies. Florence + The Machine bounce back with How Big How Blue How Beautiful, which rounded out the list with another 13,000 copies moved.
