April 26, 2006

Move over, big-hat wearin’ twangers. After taking a long winter’s nap, the rock & roll contingent will be heard from again on next week’s Top 50 Albums chart.
Hard-rock veterans Godsmack will almost certainly lock down #1 with their Universal Republic release, which appears headed toward 225k-240k. This will give Universal Republic its third chart-topping bow in the last four months, including Prince and Jack Johnson's Curious George soundtrack. Not a bad count for Monte and company.

The second-highest debut, which will be more than enough for #2 on the chart, belongs to Taking Back Sunday (Warner Bros.), which is on a pace to rack up 175k-185k.

Next in line is Bruce Springsteen’s spirited collection of Pete Seeger classics, which should total 140k-150k, with help from iTunes, where it’s currently #1, and Starbucks. That'll put the Boss in the Top 5, with a real shot at #3. Columbia deserves big props for pushing all the right buttons in its nontraditional marketing campaign and maximizing the potential of this offbeat project.

Rounding out the guitar-wielding foursome are pop-rock stalwarts the Goo Goo Dolls (WB), which should wind up in the neighborhood of 65k-70k, well behind Avant (Geffen) at 125k-130k, and the sophomore effort from Rihanna (Def Jam/IDJ), which should do around 100k, give or take 5k.

Gospel act Mercy Me (Columbia) is trending toward 25k at normal retail, but the X factor here is Christian bookstores, which could register enough additional sales to more than double that number.

With no significant debuts hitting stores on the Tuesday after Easter, album sales were down by nearly a quarter from the previous week, and off around 10% from same week last year. Year-to-date sales are running 1-2% behind 2005.

Tbs

Godsmack?

Rihanna 100k? It's a step up from her last debut but still...hopefully she can manage like at least 120k by the end of the week.

I was hoping TBS would overtake Godsmack.

Ah well. ~_~

Didn't Rihanna's last album debut at like 95-100k as well?

And wow for TBS. I know it's kinda expected, but still.
I'm glad.

the new springsteen album=one of the best of the year so far.

glad it's selling well.

How can 225-240k people be so dumb? >_<

Godsmack is so f.ucking gay. How many copies did a certain someone in here buy!

hahaha @ Rihanna...

the song "SOS" will and has blown up, that's undeniable, but at least this album proves she doesn't have legs... and perhaps rush releasing an album about 8 months after your first light-selling CD wasn't the best idea! I guess flash in the pan artists need to get while the gettin's good...

Glad to see Rock is doing well.. with upcoming releases such as Tool, RHCP, 3DG, and others, i'm sure rock will be doing well in the summer.

It debuted with 69k

That's kinky. :banana8: :hitit:

Rihanna had a solid first week...she will go platinum here and sell over 2 million internationally...3 million all together

You don't much about international sales, do you?

For someone who acts like they know it all, I'm surprised you don't know of HDD, the source of the article . It's also a great site to go to for predictions and estimated sales before Soundscan releases them officially every week.

sales sucks nowday. i hope rihanna will flop next week.

LOL. You have quite the ego for just another member of ATRL.

It wasn't a compliment, HDD isn't a "game", and you really need to lighten up a bit.

who are you

I expected Top 3 for Rihanna, hands down. That's strange.