From Rolling Stone
10-08-03
ANDREW DANSBY
The sheer volume of Outkast’s two-CD Speakerboxxx/The Love Below doesn’t seem to be deterring fans, as 235,000 people snapped up the album last week, according to SoundScan, keeping it at Number One for the second straight week and pushing its to-date sales past three-quarters of a million. OutKast’s latest also held off a strong debut by Bad Boy’s Da Band, the P. Diddy proteges from Making the Band, who sold 204,000 copies of Too Hot for TV.
And while sales on this week’s chart weren’t quite as chunky as a week before, they were still plenty robust, with nine albums tallying six-figure sales. Sting’s Sacred Love and Dido’s Life for Rent made strong first-week showings: The former sold 195,000 copies at Number Three, while the latter sold 192,000 copies at Number Four. Martina McBride also debuted in the Top Ten, selling 123,000 copies of Martina at Number Seven.
And other big week one figures were tallied by a broad stylistic array of albums. Bette Midler jumped in at Number Fourteen with Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook, which sold 71,000 copies. Country star Gary Allan’s See If I Care sold 58,000 copies at Number Seventeen. And Ill Nino’s Confession (Number Thirty-seven, 28,000 copies sold), Luis Miguel’s 33 (Number Forty-three, 26,000) and Bonnie Raitt’s Best of Bonnie Raitt (Number Forty-seven, 23,000) repped hard rock, latin pop and blues, respectively.
As for next week’s chart, look for Ludacris to shake things up a bit, as his Chicken and Beer arrived in record stores yesterday, and seems a cinch to give the Atlanta-based rapper a Number One.
This week’s Top Ten: Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below; Bad Boy’s Da Band’s Too Hot for TV; Sting’s Sacred Love; Dido’s Life for Rent; Dave Matthews’ Some Devil; Limp Bizkit’s Results May Vary; Martina McBride’s Martina; R. Kelly’s The R in R&B: Vol. 1; Nickelback’s The Long Road; Obie Trice’s Cheers.
ANDREW DANSBY
