US album sales have fallen for the third week in a row, to a new low, with SoundScan (which has logged the market since 1991) reporting just 5.9m units sold last week, which represents a decline of 5.7% week-on-week, and 15.4% below same week 2008 sales of 7m.
The top of the chart is where the deepening recession hits hardest , with country singer Taylor Swift’s Fearless holds on to the top spot for a seventh straight week, albeit with sales of just 63,000, which is the fourth lowest number one tally of the SoundScan era.
It is also the first album to spend more than six weeks at number one since 2004, when Usher’s Confessions spent a total of nine weeks there.
There were16 new entries to the Top 200, but only one to dent the Top 10, the soundtrack to the new Notorious B.I.G. biopic, "Notorious", with sales of 43,000, it entered at number four. The album itself doesn’t quite qualify as a Biggie chart entry, as two of its 17 tracks are by other acts. Notorious is one of four soundtrack albums in the Top 20, the others being: Twilight , dropping from 5th to 6th on its 10th week in the Top 10; Mamma Mia, down from11th to 15th and Slumdog Millionaire, which leaps up from 55th place to16th following its Golden Globe success.
Still the top British act on the chart, is Coldplay , with Viva La Vida Or Death & All His Friends slipping 31-34 but maintaining its lead over Seal’s Soul (down 39-43) and Adele’s 19 (34-44). Leona Lewis’ former number one album Spirit joins them in the Top 50, climbing 57-49.
The Fireman’s Electric Arguments album Paul McCartney new project , has responded well as a result of Macca giving TV and radio interviews, climbing from 184 to 166 to 91 in the last fortnight. Although the album debuted and peaked at number 67 eight weeks ago.
Julia Fischer, theGerman violinist’s Bach Concertos album debuts at number 143, and also credits The Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields, who are arguably the UK’s leading chamber orchestra. This marks their first credited appearance on the chart, although they lent their talents to the chart-topping Titanic soundtrack, amongst others, and are regular visitors to the Classical chart.
The sale of singles appears to be holding up better than albums but it’s still a fairly quiet period, with Lady GaGa’s Just Dance, despite suffering a 10% dip in downloads to 192,000, continuing to top the Hot 100 .
The All American Rejects and their song Get You Hell, jumped from 10th to 6th behind a completely stationary top five, thanks to both increasing airplay and download sales 12% higher week-on-week at 169,000. It becomes the highest charting single to date for the Oklahoma band, simultaneously eclipsing their 2005 number nine hit Dirty Little Secret and It Ends Tonight (number eight in 2006).
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