Madonna's candy can do
For Madonna, it's once more with feeling. The Material Gal's final studio recording for Warner Bros., Hard Candy, debuts at #1 on this week's Hits Album Sales chart, with 282k for the critically-acclaimed disc. That was enough to turn back last week's diva, as Mariah Carey's Island/IDJ album E=MC2 dips to #2 after a pair of weeks on top, with 87k.
J Records/Syco Music's U.K. phenom Leona Lewis is #3, with 82k, remaining strong with just a 17% dropoff. Columbia R&B star Lyfe Jennings' Lyfe Change leads a group of four Top 10 newcomers at #4, followed by The Roots' Def Jam/IDJ album Rising Down (#5), Island/IDJ area rockers Def Leppard's Songs From the Sparkle Lounge (#6) and Island/IDJ's Portishead (#7). That gives Island boss Antonio "L.A." Reid, Steve Bartels and the gang four of the Top 7, an impressive showing for sure.
SBMG/Commercial Music Group's Now 27 (#8) and Big Machine/Universal Republic's Taylor Swift (#9) are next, with Reprise's Mudcrutch, the reunion of Tom Petty's original Gainesville, FL, precursor to the Heartbreakers, the other debut at #10.
Columbia rock Hall of Famer Steve Winwood's Nine Lives (#13) is the another chart newcomer, along with Hear Music veteran singer-songwriter Carly Simon's This Kind of Love (#15), Epic indie-rockers Augustana (#20), Jive/ZLG's Lil' Mama (#25), Lyric Street's Phil Stacey (#31), Atlantic's Estelle (#40) and Arista/RMG's Sarah McLachlin Rarities, B-Sides... Vol. 2 compilation (#46).
Epic's Natasha Bedingfield leads a group of returning chart entries, with Pocketful of Sunshine riding an American Idol appearance into a #22 finish. Also re-entering is Atlantic's Gnarls Barkley (#45). Next week, look for Columbia's Neil Diamond to lead a group of new releases that includes RCA's Clay Aiken, 143/Reprise's Josh Groban with a live CD/DVD and Toby Keith's 35 Biggest Hits on Show Dog/Mercury. (Hits Daily Double)
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