First! We were happy to learn the last week’s chart-topping adult contemp alt-bros Matchbox Twenty were pushed off of the throne… until we saw who was responsible: Dave Matthews Band. The impossibly unstoppably dominant world-funk jammers debuted at No. 1 for a record-setting six times in a row thanks to their new long-player, Away From the World. Haters can take solace in the fact that the album’s sales weren’texactly a windfall at 266,000 (via Nielson SoundScan) considering 2009’s ridiculously named Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King did 424K. Ugh, college towns.
2 Thru 10: Better news down here. MB20’s North took a deep sales dive from 95K to 28K, so consider them Back 2 Bad, and that unholy Now 43 comp is finally slinking toward the exit, falling from No. 4 to No. 9 (24K). Also, DMB were part of some more heartening history-making: The entire top six is populated by debuts for the second time ever. (Last was in 2003, and included Matthews’ Some Devil solo LP — some devil indeed.) No. 2 is country quartet Little Big Town with Tornado (113K). Bob Dylan debuts in the Top 10 for the fifth time in a row with his SPIN Essential Tempest at No. 3 (110K). No. 4 goes to Avett Brothers and The Carpenter (98K) — did the Gap commercial help ’em leap that commercial gap? Best of all, No. 5 goes to Coexist (73K) by the xx, whose self-titled 2010 debut only climbed as high as 92 (the trio took No. 1 in the U.K. this week, too). And then there’s ZZ Top’s La Futura at No. 6 (31K). What? Imagine Dragons slipped to No. 7 with Night Visions (29K) and Amanda Palmer debuted at No. 10 with her Kickstarted Theatre is Evil (24K). Take that, Albini.
A Whiter Shade of Pale: This week’s Top 10 is one of least diverse we’ve seen this year, and what’s this at the top of the Classical Albums Chart… Fifty Shades of Grey – The Classical Album. The disc, which consists of the songs that inspired EL James as she wrote her soft-bondage masterpiece, cracked the Billboard 200 at No. 22, as well.
Tally Ho! Turns out coming to America still pays off. As he gallops through the morning shows (Today), afternoon appetizers (Ellen) and evening entertainments (Saturday Night Live) of America, South Korean viral phenom PSY continues to rack up YouTube hits (220M now) and song sales for “Gangnam Style.” The track jumped from No. 24 to No. 4 on Digital Songs with 188K binary units moved.
