On the latest Billboard 200 albums chart (dated July 8), Lorde claimed her first No. 1 with her second-full length effort, Melodrama. The set earned 109,000 equivalent album units in the week ending June 22 according to Nielsen Music, of which 82,000 were in traditional album sales. Five more albums arrived in the top 10: 2 Chainz’s Pretty Girls Like Trap Music (No. 2), Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit’s The Nashville Sound (No. 4), Nickelback’s Feed the Machine (No. 5), Young Thug’s Beautiful Thugger Girls (No. 8) and Fleet Foxes’ Crack-Up (No. 9).
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the week’s most popular albums based on their overall consumption. That overall unit figure combines pure album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).
Now, let’s take a closer look at some of the action on the latest Billboard 200 chart:
— Katy Perry, Witness – No. 13 — Witness tumbles from No. 1 to No. 13, marking the fourth album in 2017 to fall from a No. 1 debut straight out of the top 10 in its second week on the list. It follows Bryson Tiller’s True to Self (which fell 1-13 on the June 24-dated list), Linkin Park’s One More Light (1-30; June 17) and Logic’s Everybody (1-11; June 3).
Witness earned 28,000 equivalent album units in its second week (down 85 percent), with 18,000 of that sum in traditional album sales (down 88.80 percent). That steep sales decline is owed how Witness’ first week sales figure was amplified by a concert ticket/album sale redemption promotion with her upcoming tour. Linkin Park’s One More Light also took a big second-week sales tumble (falling 89.64 percent) due to a big debut that was encouraged by a ticket/album redemption offer.
— Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2: Awesome Mix, Vol. 2 - No. 19 — Sale pricing and promotion at digital retail prompts the album’s gain of 44 percent in units for the week (rising to 22,000), nearly all from traditional album sales. The set moves 37-19 on the list. On the Digital Albums chart, the soundtrack rises 13-6 with 12,000 digital album sold – up 122 percent.
— Big Boi, Boomiverse - No. 29 — Big Boi returns with his third charting solo effort, as Boomiverse bows at No. 29 with 19,000 units (13,000 in traditional album sales). He last charted in 2012 with Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors, which debuted and peaked at No. 34. His solo debut, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, debuted and peaked at No. 3 in 2010. OutKast, comprising Big Boi and Andre 3000, has notched seven entries on the chart. Of those, five reached the top 10, including one No. 1 (Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2003) and four No. 2-peaking sets: the Idlewild soundtrack (2006), Stankonia (2000), Aquemini (1998) and ATliens (1996).
— 2Pac, Greatest Hits - No. 31 — 2Pac is back in the top 40 of the chart for the first time in more than 10 years, as his Greatest Hits album vaults 73-31 with 18,000 units earned (up 101 percent). The album sold 5,000 copies in the latest tracking week (up 65 percent). The rise comes courtesy of publicity and promotion driven by the new biographical film about his life, All Eyez On Me, which was released in U.S. theaters on June 16. 2Pac was last inside the top 40 back in December of 2006, when his then-new album Pac’s Life spent its second of two weeks within the region. The set debuted at No. 9 on the Dec. 9, 2006-dated list, and fell to No. 30 in its second week.
Greatest Hits is 2Pac’s best-selling album in the Nielsen Music era (1991-present), with 5.33 million copies sold in the U.S. It peaked at No. 3 in January of 1999, and has spent 196 weeks on the chart (his longest-charting album).
— Styx, The Mission – No. 45 —Styx scores its 20th charting album on the Billboard 200 as The Mission launches at No. 45. The set — the band’s first studio album since 2005 — earned 13,000 units in its debut frame, of which nearly all were in traditional album sales. The Mission also marks the band’s highest charting album since 1984, when Caught In the Act – Live peaked at No. 31 on the list dated May 19 of that year. Further, The Mission is the group’s highest charting studio album since 1983, when Kilroy Was Here reached No. 3. (That latter album was is home to a pair of top 10-charting hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100: “Mr. Roboto” and “Don’t Let It End.”)
— Cheap Trick, We’re All Alright! – No. 63 — 2017 marks Cheap Trick’s 40thanniversary on Billboard’s charts, as the band made its chart debut on the Billboard 200 dated Sept. 24, 1977 with In Color. The album bowed at No. 149 and later peaked at No. 73. Now, nearly 40 years later, the band collects its 21stchart hit with We’re All Alright!, arriving at No. 63 with 10,000 units (nearly all from traditional album sales).
