Scanning Soundscan - 6/30

The year is halfway over and Eminem leads the pack this week with the highest sales numbers of 2010. I have never cared for him and honestly thought this might be the record that would show disappointing numbers. That was not even close to being the case as Recovery becomes his sixth #1 debut on the Billboard charts, selling over 741,000 copies. In a reversal of most recent sales trends, that is a significant improvement over his last album which topped the charts with 608k in 2009.

Other debuts in the Top 10 include Miley Cyrus at #3 (with 102k) and, somehow, Ozzy Osbourne at #4. I know it isn’t exactly my wheelhouse, but I’ve not seen any promotion of this record and was unaware of its existence. It debuted with sales of over 81k.

I was expecting big things for The Roots with their outstanding comeback How I Got Over. While they’ve never really gotten the promotion or radio airplay that they deserve, their new gig on Jimmy Fallon’s show has created awareness for them with an audience that maybe had never listened to their music before. I thought that would easily give them their highest ever sales figures, but that was not quite the case.

It will be interesting to see if this record has more longevity than previous efforts due to their increased visibility, but How I Got Over starts out on the charts at #6 with sales of 51k (about 21,500 of those sales were digital and the vinyl edition isn’t out until next Tuesday). By contrast, 2008’s Rising Down also bowed at #6 and saw sales of 54k in its first week.

Outside of the Top 10, there were a few notable debuts:

* Sia’s terrific 4th album, We Are Born, hit #37 with first week sales of 11k It’s worth noting that close to 8k of that figure were digital sales.
* Toronto indie rockers Stars score the #66 spot on the charts with 7k for their 5th album The Five Ghosts. This is their first release in the U.S. through Vagrant Records.
* Electronic pioneers The Chemical Brothers released their 7th album Further to very little fanfare in the U.S. While it is their best effort in years, it languishes with a #147 debut on the charts and saw sales under 4k. It sold a whopping 126 of those copies on vinyl.
* The solo debut from Kele (of Bloc Party) didn’t hit the Top 200, but places at #8 on the Heatseekers chart with sales of about 2,000 copies.

Lastly, you know it’s a slow week for vinyl releases when the #1 title on the LP chart is Abbey Road.