Kanye West outperforms Guns N' Roses on album chart
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NEW YORK (Billboard) - Kanye West has earned his third straight No. 1 on the U.S. pop album chart with the debut of "808s & Heartbreak," while Guns N' Roses' first album in 17 years took third place.
West's Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam set moved 450,000 copies in the U.S. during the week ended November 30, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the rapper's lowest debut sales figure since his first album, "The College Dropout," bowed with 441,000 in 2004.
His last release, 2007's "Graduation," began with 957,000 at No. 1, and sophomore set "Late Registration" checked in with 860,000 at No. 1 in 2005.
With the help of Thanksgiving sale prices and a performance from the singer at the November 23 American Music Awards, sales for teenage country star Taylor Swift's "Fearless" increased 23 percent to 267,000, pushing the set up from No. 4 to No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
At No. 3 with 261,000 was Guns N' Roses' Best Buy exclusive "Chinese Democracy," the first studio album of original material from the group since 1991. GNR's last studio efforts, "Use Your Illusion I" and "Use Your Illusion II," debuted at Nos. 2 and 1, respectively, with sales of 685,000 and 770,000 after being released on the same day in 1991.
Since then, the rock act has charted with a covers set (1993's "The Spaghetti Incident?" with a 190,000 debut), a live effort (1999's "Live Era '87-'93;" 60,000) and a 2004 "Greatest Hits" package (169,000).
Beyonce's "I Am ... Sasha Fierce" declined by 47 percent in its second week, dropping from the top spot to No. 4 with 257,000. Debuting right behind at No. 5 was Ludacris' "Theater of the Mind" with 213,000. That marks the first time an album by the rapper debuted anywhere but No. 1 since 2001's "Word of Mouf" bowed and peaked at No. 3.
The Killers' third album, "Day & Age" entered the chart at No. 6 with 193,000.
After debuting at No. 2 last week, Nickelback's "Dark Horse" slipped to No. 7 on a 46 percent decline to 178,000. The soundtrack to the runaway hit film "Twilight" fell from No. 6 to No. 8 with 162,000 (a 29 percent gain) while the "Now 29" hits compilation earned a 26 percent sales increase to 145,000, slipping two rungs to No. 9.
"American Idol" champ David Cook's self-titled debut rounded out the top tier, descending from No. 3 to No. 10 with 112,000 (a 60 percent drop).
Other debuts during the week included Barry Manilow's "Greatest Songs of the Eighties" at No. 14 with 78,000, the Coldplay EP "Prospekt's March" at No. 15 with 77,000, Trace Adkins' "X: Ten" at No. 32 with 37,000, Jeremy Camp's "Speaking Louder Than Words" at No. 38 with 32,000 and Linkin Park's "Road to Revolution" at No. 41 with 31,000.
At 12.15 million units, sales were up 29 percent compared with the previous week's sum, but down 0.7 percent from the year-earlier period.
Reuters/Billboard
