Let's dispense with the obvious: Adele is No. 1 again this week on the Billboard albums chart, her 17th at the top, which is the most weeks since The Bodyguard soundtrack spent 20 weeks in the driver's seat in 1993. But for the sake of making writing about the albums chart slightly more interesting, we're already looking ahead to next week's chart, where Adele faces some competition. Tim McGraw's yacht-rockin' new album Emotional Traffic could definitely challenge 21, as could 100 Proof, the latest from walking Hee-Haw sketch Kellie Pickler. Then again, maybe Adele will get a pre-Valentine's Day bounce from lonely single people. At some point, though, we're going to run out of new buyers for this thing.
In the meantime, Adele keeps cleaning up, selling more than 35,000 records more than the No. 2 release, Kidz Bop 21. Also debuting this week is yet another high-charting Christian album, Identity by James Fortune & FIYA, which sold 18,000 copies and lands at No 7. (Christian rock outfit David Crowder Band landed in the Top 10 last week, and Casting Crowns debuted at No. 2 back in October.) While it's not a debut, Toby Keith's Clancy's Tavern surged 14 spots up to No. 8, selling 17,000 copies thanks to Target lowering the price to just $4.99 last week.
The rest of the Top 10 includes: The Black Keys' El Camino (No. 3, 29,000), Drake's Take Care (No. 4, 29,000, just a couple hundred copies less than El Camino), Rihanna's Talk That Talk (No. 5, 20,000), Young Jeezy's TM103: Hustlerz Ambition (No. 6, 19,000), Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto (No. 9, 17,000), and Nickelback's Here And Now (No. 10, 17,000).
Over on the digital songs chart, electro-pop star/scourge David Guetta scores his first No. 1 ever with "Turn Me On," up from No. 7, with 198,000 downloads. Adele's "Set Fire To The Rain" slips down to No. 2 with 185,000. The rest of the Top 10 includes: Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" (No. 3, 175,000), Tyga's "Rack City" (No. 4, 148,000), Flo Rida's "Good Feeling" (No. 5, 142,000), Rihanna's "We Found Love" (No. 6, 140,000), LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It" (No. 7, 134,000), Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa's "Young, Wild & Free" (No. 8, 134,000) Jessie J's "Domino" (No. 9, 122,000), Katy Perry's "The One That Got Away" (No. 10, 117,000). [via Billboard]