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Jason Aldean Scores Fourth No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart With ‘Rearview Town’
The set is the first country album to reach No. 1 in 2018.
Jason Aldean’s Rearview Town debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, securing the country star his fourth consecutive, chart-topping set and the first country No. 1 in 2018.
Rearview Town, released on April 13 via Macon/Broken Bow Records, launches with 183,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 19, according to Nielsen Music, of which 162,000 were in traditional album sales. The set starts with the biggest week in terms of overall units and album sales for any country title this year.
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 April 28-dated chart (where Aldean bows at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard‘s websites on Tuesday, April 24.
Rearview Town marks Aldean’s fourth consecutive chart entry to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It follows his three previous studio albums: They Don’t Know (2016), Old Boots, New Dirt (2014) and Night Train (2012). Rearview is his seventh top 10 set overall, as he also collected top 10 efforts with My Kinda Party (No. 2 in 2010), Wide Open (No. 4, 2009) and Relentless (No. 4, 2007). Only his self-titled debut album missed the top 10, peaking at No. 27 in 2005. (Aldean has only charted with studio albums; he has yet to visit the list with any compilations, greatest hits, live packages, etc.)
Aldean is just the second country act to send four consecutive studio releases to the top. Rascal Flatts also claimed four No. 1 studio sets in a row between 2004 and 2009: Feels Like Today, Me and My Gang, Still Feels Good and Unstoppable. (Between Still and Unstoppable, the trio clocked a No. 6-peaking set with the best-of package Greatest Hits Volume 1.)
Rearview Town is the first country album to lead the Billboard 200 in 2018, and the first since Luke Bryan’s What Makes You Country topped the Dec. 30, 2017-dated tally.
Aldean’s new set also logs the largest week, both in terms of total units and traditional album sales, for a country title since Kenny Chesney’s live effort Live in No Shoes Nation launched at No. 1 with 219,000 units (of which 217,000 were in album sales) on the Nov. 18, 2017 chart. Like Chesney’s album, Aldean’s release was boosted by sales generated from a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer with his upcoming tour, which starts on May 10.
Aldean also nets the largest week for a country studio album — in units and in sales — since Chris Stapleton’s From A Room: Volume 1, nearly a year ago, when it bowed at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 219,000 units (of which 202,000 were in album sales).
At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy moves down to the runner-up slot after bowing at No. 1 a week earlier. The set earned 129,000 units in its second week, down 49 percent.
Rock band Breaking Benjamin earn its fourth top 10 effort with Ember, as it debuts at No. 3 with 88,000 units (of which 80,000 were in traditional album sales). The band’s last release, 2015’s Dark Before Dawn, opened at No. 1 with 141,000 units (135,000 in album sales), securing the group its first leader on the list. (Like Rearview Town, Ember benefits from a ticket/album sale redemption offer.)
The soundtrack to The Greatest Showman holds at No. 4 with 77,000 – but with a big 53 percent gain, as the album continues to benefit from the hit movie’s DVD and Blu-ray release on April 10. The former No. 1 album sold 54,000 copies in the latest tracking week – up 63 percent.
Singer-songwriter John Prine logs his highest-charting album ever, and first top 10, as The Tree of Forgiveness bows at No. 5 with 54,000 units (53,000 in traditional album sales). The album is his first release album of his own new songs since 2005’s Fair and Square. The new set got a big boost from sales driven by a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer, which helps yield the two-time Grammy Award winner his best sales week since Nielsen Music began tracking sales in 1991. (Prine has been charting on the Billboard 200 since 1972.)
Prine earned his previous best on the Billboard 200 with his last album, 2016’s For Better, Or Worse, which debuted and peaked at No. 30.
The Weeknd’s My Dear Melancholy dips 3-6 with 44,000 units (down 14 percent), XXXTENTACION’s ? slips 5-7 with 40,000 units (down 13 percent), Migos’ Culture II falls 6-8 with 36,000 units (down 3 percent) and Black Panther: The Album descends 7-9 with 34,000 units (down 7 percent).
Pentatonix rounds out the new top 10 with the arrival of its latest release, PTX Presents: Top Pop, Vol. 1. The covers set launches at No. 10 with 34,000 units (29,000 in traditional album sales), which garners the vocal group its eighth top 10 effort. Like Aldean, Breaking Benjamin and Prine, PTX’s sales were also goosed by a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer.
Source: billboard.com