Dave Matthews Band claims the No. 1 spot on this week’s Billboard Top 200 albums chart with its latest, “Away from the World.” The set, DMB’s eighth studio album, sold a healthy 266,000 copies its first week in stores, according to Nielsen SoundScan, proving fans not only follow the band on tour but continue to gobble up its studio material as well.
“Away from the World’s” first week numbers are down from DMB’s previous debuts, which is understandable because all big acts’ numbers are down these days. In 2009, “Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King” opened with 424,000 sales, the group’s fifth consecutive studio album to open with 400,000-plus sales.
Dave Matthews Band’s chart-topper is one of seven new arrivals in the Top 10 this week. Little Big Town opens at No. 2 with “Tornado,” which sold 113,000 copies its first week, up significantly from the 41,000 copies 2010′s “The Reason Why” sold its first week. Bob Dylan lands at No. 3 with “Tempest,” his 35th studio album, while the latest albums from the Avett Brothers and the xx round out the top 5, both netting career-best sales weeks for the groups.
The week’s other Top 10 debuts come from veteran beard rockers ZZ Top (No. 6) and controversial Kicksterter poster child Amanda Palmer (No. 10). Last week’s No. 1 act, Matchbox Twenty, falls to No. 8 on this week’s chart.
Next week, new albums from Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music family, the Killers, Pink, Carly Rae Jepsen and Ben Folds Five look to storm the charts, along with new sets from Band of Horses, Grizzly Bear and the 25th anniversary repackaging of Michael Jackson’s “Bad.” So this week’s new arrivals should enjoy their time in the Top 10 while they can.
Billboard’s Top 10 albums (sales in parentheses, figures according to Nielsen SoundScan)
1. Dave Matthews Band, Away from the World (266,000)
2. Little Big Town, Tornado (113,000)
3. Bob Dylan, Tempest (110,000)
4. The Avett Brothers, The Carpenter (98,000)
5. the xx, Coexist (73,000)
6. ZZ Top, La Futura (31,000)
7. Imagine Dragons, Night Visions (29,000)
8. Matchbox Twenty, North (28,000)
9. Now 43 (24,000)
10. Amanda Palmer, Theatre is Evil (24,000)
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