It's been a long winter for everyone, but things have been especially cold on the Billboard 200, where Frozen has spent 11 weeks on top of the charts. Even Billboard has gotten sick of it, placing a photo of the second-place finisher to mix things up a bit.
Still, you have to give credit where credit is due. Frozen sold another 115,000 copies, which pushed it over the 2 million copy sales mark for 2014. The compilation has sold near 2.5 million since its November release but it's truly dominated the first four months of 2014. The second best seller has been Beyoncé's self-titled album, which has sold 648,000 copies thus far this year. It took until June during 2013 for an album (Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience) to move a million.
The more entertaining sales battle this week happened in the hip-hop world, with two performers elbowing for the no. 2 spot. Future outmuscled Iggy Azalea in the end, but only just. The rapper sold 53,000 copies of Honest, which was barely a thousand more than Azalea's The New Classic, which sold 52,000 copies. The difference-maker was the physical format: Although Future sold a thousand more than Azalea overall, he moved 16,000 more CD copies of his album than Azalea did with hers.
The overall low sales week allowed Pharrell Williams to climb a few spots, even if G I R L sold fewer albums than last week. The R&B star moved 21,000 copies of his album. He was followed by another R&B headliner, as August Alsina stuck around for another week, selling 20,000 copies of Testimony.
Neon Trees saw its highest Billboard debut ever, as Pop Psychology came in at no. 6. But again, it was only because of the low sales week. The 19,000 copies the album moved was in fact identical to the total the group sold during the first week of its previous album, Picture Show. Luke Bryan used the lull in sales to keep his long-running album Crash My Party in the Top 10. That album sold just fewer than Neon Trees, but stayed around 19,000.
Nashville is the second soundtrack on the list, as its Nashville: On The Record sold 18,000 copies and came in at no. 8. It's the highest charting place for the television show's four album releases. Lorde and Pure Heroine reached no. 9 in its 30th week on the charts, selling 16,000 copies. The final spot went to Bethel Christian Music, a group representing the church of the same name in Bethel, CA. The album You Make Me Brave: Live At The Civic sold 14,000 copies, which is the lowest total for a Top 10 placer since Nielsen began tracking the numbers in 1991.
