Despite a five-year break from the music scene and some major personnel changes, goth rockers Evanescence returned to the top of the Billboard 200 chart today with their self-titled third album, which sold 127,000 copies in its first week.
Though that number is far less than Evanescence’s last album, The Open Door, which debuted at No. 1 in 2006 with 447,000 copies sold, it is impressive that the Amy Lee-led band managed to move that many discs without a smash single like “My Immortal” or “Bring Me To Life.” Their current single, “What You Want” sits at number 13 on the Rock Songs chart.
Another rock band enjoyed a strong debut this week: L.A.’s Five Finger Death Punch started off at No. 3 (behind the indomitable Adele, whose 21 is STILL holding strong at No. 2) with 91,000 copies of their album, American Capitalist, sold. That’s a big jump from their 2009 record, War Is the Answer, which debuted at No. 7 with 44,000.
Last week’s chart champ, Scotty McCreery’s Clear As Day, slipped down into fourth place after a 55 percent drop to 88,000, giving him a two-week total of 285,000. Meanwhile, his runner-up, Lauren Alaina, got off to a pretty good start herself with 69,000 copies of her disc Wildflower sold in its debut week.
Ryan Adams’ Ashes and Fire and Martina McBride’s Eleven debuted with 49,000 and 40,000, respectively. Joe Jonas wasn’t as lucky. Without his brothers beside him, the “Just In Love” singer started at No. 15 with only 18,000 copies. Check out the top ten below: READ FULL STORY »
Coldplay’s music may not be for everybody (“We’re as hated as a band can be,” according to frontman Chris Martin in the story in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly), but their music videos tend to be universally transcendent.
Jay-Z and Kanye West are about to embark on their big Watch the Throne tour, but the next place you can see Jay-Z (well, outside of 
