Rapper DMX and hard rockers Incubus landed one-two this week atop the SoundScan album charts for the week ended Oct. 29, the last week before the heavy-hitters start flooding the marketplace in time for the holidays.
DMX’s latest for Universal/Def Jam, “Great Depression,” sold 440,000 units in its first week out, topping Incubus’ fourth album, “Morning View” (Epic), which logged 266,000 in sales.
The Dave Matthews Band’s live disc, “Live in Chicago 12-19-98 at the United Center” (RCA) was the only other debut to crack the top 10, landing at No. 6 on sales of nearly 131,000. Last week’s No. 1, Columbia’s various artists collection “God Bless America,” dipped to No. 4, selling 147,000 copies.
Enya’s “Day Without Rain” at No. 3 and Linkin Park’s “Hybrid Theory” at No. 8 continued to spell good things for Warner Bros. as both discs maintain steady sales a year after their releases.
Alicia Keys’ “Songs in A Minor” slipped out of the top 10 for the first time in its 18-week chart history, moving to No. 12 on sales of 85,000. Her J Records debut has now crossed the three-million threshhold.
Next week’s top two should be Michael Jackson’s “Invincible” (Epic) and the Backstreet Boys’ “Greatest Hits: Vol. 1” (Jive). Both were released Tuesday and are expected to top the 300,000 mark in sales.
Among other significant debuts this week were Reba McEntire’s “Vol. 3 Greatest Hits” (MCA Nashville), which sold nearly 60,000 copies to hit No. 18; and Bush’s “Golden State” (Atlantic) at No. 22 (55,000 sold). Snoop Doggy Dogg’s “Death Row’s Greatest Hits,” Enigma’s “LSD – Love, Sensuality & Devotion” and the “Now Christmas!” compilation filled up spots 28-30 on sales of about 41,000 each.
Among the 19 other debuts in the top 200 were Dilated Peoples’ “Expansion Team” (No. 36), C-Murder’s “C-P-3.com” (45), the Cranberries’ “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee” (46), Boney James’ “Ride” (82) and Carole King’s return to the studio, “Love Makes the World” (158). Harry Connick Jr.’s two new Columbia albums did about the same business: “Songs I Heard” sold 15,000 to land at No. 88, and “30” almost reached 14,000 to land at No. 94.
The original cast album for the Broadway tuner based on Abba songs, “Mamma Mia!” (Decca), sold 7,500 copies, good for No. 169; Universal re-released eight original Abba albums two weeks ago.