John Mayer's "Battle" wins top spot on album chart

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - John Mayer brought home his second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart Wednesday, while Norah Jones grabbed the No. 3 rung.

Mayer's "Battle Studies" bowed with 286,000 copies sold during the week ended November 22, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The singer-songwriter's first chart-topper was "Heavier Things" in 2003, which debuted with sales of 317,000. Mayer's last studio set, "Continuum," entered the chart at No. 2 with 300,000 in 2006.

"Battle Studies" led a pre-Thanksgiving parade of new albums onto the list, including debuts of Jones' "The Fall" (180,000), Casting Crowns' "Until the Whole World Hears" (No. 4 with 167,000, the group's best sales week ever) and 50 Cent's "Before I Self Destruct" (No. 5 with 160,000, the rapper's fourth top 10 set).

Mayer posted the third-best sales week for a digital set this year -- 129,000 downloads. Earlier in 2009, U2's "No Line on the Horizon" arrived with 155,000 downloads and Dave Matthews Band's "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King" launched with 134,000 downloads. "Battle Studies" is only the 12th album to sell at least 100,000 downloads in one week since SoundScan began tracking digital album sales in 2005.

Jones' fourth studio set, "The Fall," followed three straight No. 1s for the singer. Her last release, "Not Too Late," debuted atop the list with 405,000 in February 2007.

Fifteen-year old Justin Bieber arrived at No. 6 with his economically priced seven-song EP "My World," selling 137,000 copies in its first week. A couple of steps down, just outside the top 10, was "American Idol" winner Kris Allen with his self-titled debut, starting at No. 11 with 80,000 copies.

Back in the top 10 this week, Andrea Bocelli's "My Christmas" surged at No. 2 with 185,000, while Michael Jackson's "This Is It" slid from No. 4 to No. 7 with 96,000. The "New Moon" soundtrack moved up two rungs to No. 8 with 93,000. Rounding out the holdovers in the top 10, Carrie Underwood's "Play On" dropped from No. 3 to No. 9 with 86,000, and Taylor Swift's "Fearless" fell five spots to No. 10 with 84,000.

Rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures (consisting of Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones) flew in at No. 12 with its self-titled first offering (70,000), while Leona Lewis' sophomore album "Echo" sang out at No. 13 with 67,000. Her debut set, "Spirit," opened at No. 1 with 205,000 copies in April of 2008.

Paul McCartney's live set, "Good Evening New York City," rounded out the debuts in the top 20, entering at No. 16 with 55,000. It's McCartney's eighth non-Beatles live album to chart.

Mayer likely will relinquish the Billboard 200 throne next week, as Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream" album is set to debut in the top slot. Industry sources said that the set could sell as much as 600,000 copies by week's end on Sunday (November 29) night. It even has a chance of netting the best sales week of the year for an album, a title held by the debut of Eminem's "Relapse" with 608,000.

Overall album sales for the week totaled 7.98 million units, up 13 percent from the previous week and down 16 percent from the year-earlier period. Year-to-date album sales stand at 309.5 million, down 13 percent from the total at this point in 2008.