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Lana Del Rey Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart, Tyler, The Creator and Meek Mill Bow at Nos. 2 & 3
Plus, Linkin Park’s ‘One More Light’ leaps 17-4 and ‘Hybrid Theory’ bounds 27-8, and top 10 debuts for the ‘Descendants 2’ soundtrack and Romeo Santos.
Lana Del Rey scores her second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as Lust for Life bows atop the Aug. 12-dated tally. The set, which was released on July 21 through Polydor/Interscope Records, earned 107,000 equivalent album units in the week ending July 27, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 80,000 were in traditional album sales.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new Aug. 12-dated chart (where Del Rey debuts at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s websites later in the day on Aug. 2.
Following closely behind Del Rey are Tyler, The Creator’s Flower Boy and Meek Mill’s Wins and Losses, as they debut at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively. Flower Boy earned 106,000 units (with 70,000 in album sales), while Wins and Losses tallied 102,000 units (with 37,000 in album sales). Industry forecasters expected a close race among the three albums, with any of them potentially finishing on top. All three albums actually performed better than expected.
As earlier reported, the release of Billboard‘s Aug. 12-dated charts were delayed. A top-tier data provider encountered technical issues, initially preventing the delivery of its data to Nielsen Music (which provides the sales, streaming and airplay information for Billboard‘s charts). However, the provider was ultimately able to resolve the issue, and deliver the missing information to Nielsen Music. Billboard‘s charts were then completed using the data.
With the entire top three debuting titles, it’s only the second time in 2017 that the top three are all new arrivals. It previously happened on the Feb. 18-dated chart, when Migos’ Culture, Brantley Gilbert’s The Devil Don’t Sleep and Kehlani’s SweetSexySavage bowed at Nos. 1-3, respectively.
Further, this week marks the first time in 2017 where the top three albums are debuts that each earned more than 100,000 units. It last occurred on the Dec. 10, 2016-dated list, when Metallica’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct debuted at No. 1 with 291,000 units, followed by Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic at No. 2 (231,000) and Miranda Lambert’s The Weight of These Wings at No. 3 (133,000).
Del Rey previously led the list with her second full-length studio album, Ultraviolence, which premiered atop the chart in 2014. Overall, Lust for Life is Del Rey’s fifth top 10-charting album — the singer/songwriter also visited the region with her full-length debut, Born to Die (No. 2 in 2012), the Paradise EP (No. 10, 2012) and her previous studio set, Honeymoon (No. 2, 2015). Honeymoon launched with 116,000 units (of which 105,000 were in traditional album sales).
Lust for Life is the second No. 1 for Interscope Records in 2017, following Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN., which ruled for three weeks in May.
As for Tyler, The Creator, Flower Boy is his highest charting album yet, and fourth top 10 set overall. It follows 2015’s Cherry Bomb (which debuted and peaked at No. 4 with 58,000 units – of which 51,000 were album sales), 2013’s Wolf (No. 3) and 2011’s Goblin (No. 5).
Meanwhile, Meek Mill’s latest effort lands the rapper his fourth top 10 album. He first hit the top 10 with Dreams and Nightmares (No. 2 in 2012) and followed with the chart-topping Dreams Worth More Than Money (2015) and last year’s DC4 (No. 3 debut and peak). The latter set started with 87,000 units (of which 45,000 were in traditional album sales).
Back on the new Billboard 200, Linkin Park’s One More Light, which debuted at No. 1 on the June 10-dated list, surges from No. 17 to No. 4 with 50,000 units (up 122 percent). The album sold 32,000 copies (up 76 percent). It’s the first of two Linkin Park albums in the top 10, as the band’s debut effort Hybrid Theory climbs from No. 27 to No. 8 with 41,000 units (up 177 percent) and 19,000 copies sold (up 141 percent). Both albums rise following the first full tracking week of activity after the death of the group’s singer Chester Bennington, on July 20.
Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. falls out of the top three for the first time in its 15 weeks on the chart, as it slips from No. 2 to No. 5 with 48,000 units (down 13 percent).
The Descendants 2 soundtrack starts at No. 6 with 46,000 units (35,000 in traditional album sales). Descendants 2 is the companion album to the Disney Channel TV movie of the same name, which premiered on the network on July 21. The film and album follow the 2015 TV movie Descendants and its chart-topping soundtrack (42,000 units earned in its first week, of which 30,000 were in traditional album sales).
Descendants 2 is the 11th soundtrack to visit the top 10 in 2017 – including four titles that initially reached the region in 2016 or earlier (Suicide Squad: The Album, Trolls, Moana and Purple Rain). Comparatively, in all of 2016, there were six soundtracks that were in the top 10.
Descendants 2 was released on Walt Disney Records, and is Disney Music Group’s fourth top 10-charting soundtrack in 2017, following Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2 (No. 4), the 2017 soundtrack to Beauty and the Beast (No. 3) and Moana (No. 2).
After two weeks atop the Billboard 200, JAY-Z’s 4:44 falls from No. 1 to No. 7 in its third week on the list, with 45,000 units (down 48 percent).
DJ Khaled’s Grateful, which spent two weeks atop the chart, falls 4-9 in its fifth week on the list, earning a little more than 36,000 units (down 15 percent).
Closing out the top 10 is the fifth and final debut in the region: Romeo Santos’ Golden, which launches at No. 10 with 36,000 units (26,000 in album sales). It’s the first album by a Latin artist to reach the top 10 on the Billboard 200 in more than three years. Santana’s Corazon was the last Latin album by an artist to visit the top 10, as it spent one week in the region, debuting and peaking at No. 9 on the May 24, 2014-dated tally.
Golden is the third top 10 effort for Santos, after Formula: Vol. 2, which hit No. 4 in March of 2014; and Formula: Vol. 1, which reached No. 9 in 2011.
Source: billboard.com