Image Credit: Gari Lamar Askew
Despite John Mayer’s throat granuloma, which has kept him from singing — and promoting his new material — recently, the hat-loving guitar-maestro earned his third number-one album this week with Born And Raised, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 today with sales of 219,000.
Other new entries on this week’s chart come from Slash, MercyMe, and American Idol contestants Phillip Phillips (already!), Kris Allen, and Haley Reinhart.
Check out the Top 10 below:
1. John Mayer, Born And Raised – 219,000
The country-influenced, ’70s-tinged album, Mayer’s fifth, became his third number one debut after 2009′s Battle Studies, which sold 289,000 in its first frame, and 2003′s Heavier Things, which started with 317,000. Mayer’s debut Room For Squares peaked at number 9 in 2001, and his 2006 album Continuum shifted 300,000 copies — enough for a number 2 debut.
2. Adele, 21 – 56,000
She’s up to 9.2 million copies total after 66 weeks on the chart. That means Adele’s sophomore set has sold an average of over 139,000 units every week for the last 15 months. Take a moment to absorb that information.
3. Carrie Underwood, Blown Away – 45,000
Following a performance of its theatrical title track on last Sunday night’s Billboard Music Awards and an appearance at the American Idol finale, the country vixen’s fourth album achieved a nice 18 percent drop, and after four weeks, Underwood’s set has sold 486,000 copies. Of course, her 2007 disc Carnival Ride sold 527,000 copies in its first week, but that was five years ago — it’s a different industry these days. (Unless, of course, you’re Adele.)
4. Slash, Apocalyptic Love – 38,000
The ex Guns N’ Roses guitarist’s second solo album started off one spot lower than his self-titled 2010 release, which debuted in third place with sales of 60,000.
5. One Direction, Up All Night – 37,000
Simon Cowell’s British fivesome increased 9 percent and jumped 10-5 this week, which means that Up All Night has sold approximately 697,000 copies. As sophomore single “One Thing” continues its chart ascent, sales should remain strong throughout the summer.
6. Lionel Richie, Tuskegee – 33,000
He may have dropped out of Duets (the show’s premiere helped Kelly Clarkson’s Stronger increase 45 percent this week), but Richie’s country collaboration album has still sold an impressive 823,000 total copies.
7. MercyMe, The Hurt & The Healer – 33,000
The “I Can Only Imagine” Christian band earned their second Top 10 album with The Hurt & The Healer, though it got off to a slower start than the band’s 2010 effort The Generous Mr. Lovewell, which sold 88,000 copies in its first week. Healer was bolstered by the album’s title track, which has so far peaked at number 3 on the Christian Songs chart.
8. Sara Bareilles, Once Upon Another Time – 31,000
The piano-playing chanteuse, who served as a judge on the third (and alas, final) season of The Sing-Off, released a five-song EP and notched an eighth-place debut. Not bad at all, considering she hasn’t had a significant Hot 100 hit since her ubiquitous breakout smash “Love Song.”
9. Various Artists, Now 42 – 31,000
Songs like “Good Feeling” by Flo Rida and “Brokenhearted” by Karmin have helped the compilation album sell 232,000 total so far.
10. Norah Jones, Little Broken Hearts – 28,000
After 4 weeks on the chart, the Danger Mouse-produced album has now sold 243,000 copies.
And then there are a whole lot of American Idol alums (other than Carrie Underwood) to talk about: Season 8 runner up Adam Lambert’s second set Trespassing, which topped the album chart last week, dropped by 71 percent to 22,000 this week — dropping him down to 12th place. Of course, that was still more than enough for Lambert to beat out Season 8 winner, Kris Allen, whose second album Thank You Camellia started out at number 20 with sales of 17,000. (Allen’s self-titled debut started off with 80,000 in 2009).
Meanwhile, Season 10′s Haley Reinhart, who finished in third place, achieved a 17th-place start after selling 20,000 units of her debut album Listen Up!. Ahead of all of them, though, was this year’s Idol winner, Phillip Phillips, whose iTunes-only compilation album Journey to the Finale was downloaded 24,000 times. His runner up, Jessica Sanchez, managed to sell 4,000 copies of her own Journey to the Finale compilation.
More on EW.com:
Florence + the Machine gets David LaChapelle for new ‘Spectrum’ video: Watch it here
Jason Mraz gets emotional on ‘VH1 Storytellers’: Watch the sneak peek here — EXCLUSIVE
Jay-Z and Kanye West’s ‘No Church in the Wild’ video: Watch it here
