Usher looks, finds himself at No. 1

Usher has reached the climax of the Billboard charts this week with his latest album, “Looking 4 Myself.” The set, Ursh’s 7th studio album, sold 128,000 copies its first week in stores, marking Mr. Raymond’s fourth time atop the Billboard 200, Billboard reports.

Yet “Looking 4 Myself” falls far shy of Usher’s previous studio sets, including “Raymond vs. Raymond” (329,000 first-week sales), “Here I Stand” (433,000), “Confessions” (1.096 million) and “8701″ (210,000). You have to go all the way back to 1997′s “My Way,” which started with 67,000 sales, to find a slower-selling Usher release.

Why so slow? It’s tough to say; lead single “Climax” has reached 20 million views on YouTube and is a smash, follow-ups “Scream” and “Lemme See” have had good starts, and the album received glowing reviews. Blame general sales fatigue, I guess, or people streaming albums instead of buying them. Or throw that out the window, depending on how Justin Bieber’s “Believe” does this week.

A chart position down but a world away from Usher, Rush lands at No. 2 with its latest album, “Clockwork Angels.” Adele, who topped last week’s chart with her irrepressible “21″ falls to No. 3, while Josh Turner and Ed Sheeran round out the top 5. A bit further down, Waka Flocka Flame’s “Triple F Life” starts at No. 10.

Next week the Bieber avalanche arrives, along with new sets from the Smashing Pumpkins and Fiona Apple.

Billboard’s Top 10 albums (sales in parentheses, figures according to Nielsen SoundScan)

1. Usher, Looking 4 Myself (128,000)

2. Rush, Clockwork Angels (103,000)

3. Adele, 21 (63,000)

4. Josh Turner, Punching Bag (45,000)

5. Ed Sheeran, + (42,000)

6. One Direction, Up All Night (39,000)

7. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Americana (37,000)

8. Alan Jackson, Thirty Miles West (37,000)

9. Various artists, Rock of Ages Soundtrack (36,000)

10. Waka Flocka Flame, Triple F Life (33,000)