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Who Charted? Cat Power and Matchbox Twenty Are the Greatest

Cat Power / Photo by Stefano Giovannini

First! Can we redact that exclamation point? Let’s break out the streamers for Matchbox Twenty who, after 17 years of delivering gruff-guy anthems for brokenhearted post-grunge adults (and, for at least one year, teens) who don’t know any better, have scored their very first No. 1 album with North. The Orlando-bred alt-rockers’ fifth LP came in at 95,000 sold (via Nielson SoundScan) most likely because they cater to those who still physically purchase music (which is to say, oldish people). Of course, the “Push” could’ve come from the decade-wide gap between long-players — they’re finally “Back 2 Good” — but we kinda doubt that the “Real World” was waiting with bated breath that entire time. I mean, that would be a really “Long Day.” Like, “3 A.M.” long. Also: “Supernatural.”

2 Thru 10: Vegas’ other epic dudes of “indie” Imagine Dragons racked up a No. 2 for their debut Night Visions. The album sold 83K, a whopping 90 percent of which was via digital no doubt thanks to a $5 deal at Amazon, and iTunes’ Complete My Album feature (allowing fans who’d already purchased the Continued Silence EP to pay only for the songs they didn’t already have). At No. 3 is Gravity (72K) by Houston’s Lecrae, the Christian rapper that you really should hear, as opposed to last week’s chart-topper TobyMac, whose Eyes on It has dropped to No. 8 (26K). Again, the Beelzebub-backed Now 43 comp occupies the No. 4 slot (35K), Carrie Underwood makes a leap from No. 8 to No. 5 with Blown Away (29K), Maroon 5 are still chillin’ at No. 6 with Overexposed (29K), 2 Chainz holds tight to No. 7 with Based on a T.R.U. Story (26K), Trey Songz dips from No. 3 to No. 9 with Chapter V (24K), and our dear beloved Cat Power creeps into the Top 10 for the first time with Sun (23k).

Thinkin Bout Bumps Well, the VMAs did something right. Following Frank Ocean’s intimate fireside performance of “Thinkin Bout You,” the song’s sales jumped a massive 209 percent. That makes him the biggest gainer of the night, so take that Breezy. Contrast this to Pink’s 89 percent sales bump for “Blow Me (One Last Kiss),” and One Direction’s 51 percent rise for “One Thing.” Meanwhile, sales for Ocean’s Channel Orange LP are up 49 percent.

Swift v. Ke$ha, Round Two Taylor Swift is owning the Digital Songs chart for a fourth week with “We Are Never Getting Back Together,” the debut of which robbed two chart records from her human polar opposite, Ke$ha. Those two were duking it out for best-ever selling download by a female artist, as well as the second largest sales overall of a download by any artist, period. This week, Swift lobs another bomb at the Nashville party girl by becoming the first act to simultaneously hold the Nos. 1 and 2 spots therein since Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” and “Blah Blah Blah” did the same in 2010. Swift’s second big-seller is a charity single dubbed “Ronan.” That said, there’s a good chance that Ke$ha is able to hold more positions simultaneously — we’re just not sure there’s a chart for that.