Fourth season “American Idol” champ Carrie Underwood is a force of nature on this week’s Billboard Top 200 albums chart, as her fourth album “Blown Away” debuts at No. 1 after selling 267,000 copies its first week in stores, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Underwood’s start doesn’t measure up to her previous sets “Some Hearts” (315,000), “Carnival Ride” (527,000) or “Play On” (318,000), but she more than doubles second placer Norah Jones, who opens with 110,000 sales with her latest album, “… Little Broken Hearts.” The latest “Now” compilation — “Now 42,” if you’re counting at home — enters at No. 3, because 95,000 people couldn’t find another way to hear hits by Bruno Mars, Flo Rida and Taylor Swift. (“If only they were on one compact disc! Wait… THEY ARE?” That is what people buying “Now 42″ said.)
“Now 42′s” No. 3 debut pushes Adele’s “21″ outside of the top 3, where it has been firmly lodged since before Christmas. That Adele just can’t seem to catch a break these days. Meanwhile, B.o.B drops in at No. 5 with “Strange Clouds”; his last album, “The Adventures of Bobby Ray,” opened at No. 1 way way way way way way back in 2010. (It was a different time.)
Last week’s No. 1, Jack White’s “Blunderbuss,” blunderbusses all the way down to No. 7, one spot below Lionel Richie’s “Tuskegee.” A few slots lower, one-time controversy magnet Marilyn Manson debuts at No. 10 with his latest, “Born Villain.”
Last week’s death of Beastie Boys’ MCA fuels sales of several Beastie Boys sets, led by “Licensed to Ill,” which lands at No. 18 with 19,000 sales, Billboard reports.
Billboard’s Top 10 albums (sales in parentheses, figures according to Nielsen SoundScan)
1. Carrie Underwood, Blown Away (267,000)
2. Norah Jones, … Little Broken Hearts (110,000)
3. Various artists, Now 42 (95,000)
4. Adele, 21 (77,000)
5. B.o.B, Strange Clouds (76,000)
6. Lionel Richie, Tuskegee (64,000)
7. Jack White, Blunderbuss (56,000)
8. One Direction, Up All Night (45,000)
9. Various artists, The Music of Smash (39,000)
10. Marilyn Manson, Born Villain (38,000)
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