At the top: Behind bars, but he still has near-free reign of the U.S. pop charts. Rapper Lil Wayne returns to a familiar position as "I Am Not A Human Being" bolts to No. 1 after falling to No. 16 last week. Sales are up more than 440% to 125,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and give "Human Being" a three-week tally of 259,000 copies.  

"Human Being" was released three weeks ago to digital outlets, but last week retailers were given the green light to sell the more ol'-fashioned compact disc edition, one that came with more tracks than were initially available digitally. Fans appeared willing to wait for the expanded physical edition.

The download was sold at close to the same price as the CD -- around the standard $9.99 at most outlets -- and lacked a sizable portion of the content. In two weeks, fans purchased about 133,000 downloads, just a little more than what the CD sold in one week of release.

"Human Being" is not being classified as a direct follow-up to Lil Wayne's blockbuster "Tha Carter III," and sales expectations are down to more realistic heights for "Human Being." Earlier this year, Lil Wayne issued a rock-influenced album in "Rebirth," which was lukewarmly received by fans. So far, the album, released in February, has sold 678,000 copies.

A Pop & Hiss look at what's selling -- and what isn't.

At the top: The U.S. pop charts have had an influx of country the last two weeks, as Toby Keith's "Bullets in the Gun" is the second-straight Nashville representative to lead the tally. "Bullets" hits with about 71,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan, a celebratory landing that comes with an asterisk. 

The number, according to Billboard, is the lowest-ever debut for a No. 1 album since SoundScan began tracking data in 1991. While there have been smaller sales tallies posted by albums that rose to the pole position -- including 60,000 copies sold by Justin Bieber's "My World 2.0" earlier this year -- Keith's figure is a new low for an album that debuted in the top spot. 

The Billboard archives reveal that Keith's 2009 effort entered at No. 3 with 90,000 copies sold. His latest sells just a few thousand more than Kenny Chesney's "Hemingway's Whiskey," which in its second week moves down to No. 2. The latter's two-week sales total now stands at 249,000.  

Move over Beatles, and make way for the cast of “Glee.” The hit TV show has now produced more songs that have charted on the Billboard Hot 100 than the Fab Four throughout its career.

The Beatles placed 71 titles in the Hot 100 from their first appearance in 1964 with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” through “Real Love” in 1996. But it’s only taken the karaoke-minded cast members of “Glee” a bit more than 16 months to put 75 songs onto the same chart.

Because of the sheer quantity of “Glee” releases -- five or six songs are typically made available for downloading after each week’s episode -- the number of potential charting songs from the show has rapidly outstripped releases by conventional bands or solo acts.

That doesn’t, however, mean the “Glee” singers have surpassed the Beatles’ sales. In the era of eroding record sales, it often takes far lower sales figures to make the Hot 100 today than it did in decades past.  Total download sales of the “Glee” titles are at 11.5 million, according to Billboard.

Country good ol' boys Zac Brown Band and slick pop band Maroon 5 battled for the top spot on this week's pop chart, a bout between two former best new artist Grammy winners. The trophy, in this case, signifies each act's crossover appeal. The Zac Brown Band makes a backwoods country sound safe for pregame tailgates, and Maroon 5 dabbles in funk and soul, but never enough to dirty their designer look.

With "You Get What You Give," the Zac Brown Band follows its major label breakthrough, 2008's "The Foundation," with a No. 1 album. The Atlantic Records album sold 153,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving the fast-rising country stars their first ever chart-topper on the pop tally. The first-week sales are just a small dent in the total sales notched thus far by "The Foundation," an album that this week sits at No. 22 and to date has sold just under 2.3 million copies. 

While Maroon 5 still scored a top 5 album, the news isn't quite as good for the Adam Levine-led slicksters. The act's "Hands All Over" lands with significantly less pop than its 2007 effort "It Won't Be Soon Before Long," the latter of which bowed with 429,000 copies sold, according to the Billboard archives. By comparison, "Hands All Over," despite its provocative cover, muscles 142,000 copies sold.

Last week's No. 1, Linkin Park's "Thousand Suns," dips more than 70%, selling a little less than 70,000 in its second week. That gives the Agoura Hills rockers a two-week total of 311,000 copies sold. Its last, 2007's "Minutes to Midnight," sold more than 600,000 copies in its first week.

Other notes from this week's pop chart:

Linkin Park, the hard rock pride of Agoura Hills, ushers in the music industry's busy fall and winter release schedule, leading a charge of six new albums into the top 10 of the U.S. pop chart. The act's "Thousand Suns," which showcases a moodier, gentler and more contemplative Linkin Park, sold 241,000 copies in its debut week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. 

Though Linkin Park has no doubt successfully shifted out of the rap/rock-metal scene of the mid- to late '90s, becoming one of the few hybrid acts from the era to demonstrate some career longevity, it isn't immune to the general industry downturn facing the music biz. The band's 2007 effort, "Minutes to Midnight," bowed with a much-mightier 623,000 copies, according to the Billboard archives. This could be a transitionary moment for the band, as initial fan reaction to the less hard-hitting sound appears to be mixed. 

Nevertheless, Linkin Park still outsold the latest from R&B artist Trey Songz, icon Robert Plant, still-rising country star Jamey Johnson and Weezer, who jumped from the Universal Music Group empire to locals Epitaph Records. The fourth effort from Trey Songz, "Passion, Pain & Pleasure," narrowly missed the top spot, selling 240,000 copies in its first week. That's actually a career-best for Trey Songz, who Billboard notes has never sold more than 131,000 albums in a single week. 

Further down, mainstream country's rougher-and-tougher Johnson entered at No. 4 with "The Guitar Song," an album that sold 63,000 copies, while Plant's "Band of Joy," which continues his atmospheric explorations into the American songbook, bowed at No. 5 with with 49,000 copies.

Weezer's "Hurley" didn't arrive with quite the same fanfare as last year's "Raditude," which saw the band selling Snuggies and collaborating with Lil Wayne, yet it did see the act taking greater ownership of its career. For the album, Weezer started its own W Records and licensed the effort to Silver Lake's Epitaph. The independent move still gives the band a top 10 album, as "Hurley" opened with 45,000 copies sold. That is, however, a little less than "Raditude's" debut, as that effort bowed with 66,000 copies sold.

Other notes from this week's chart:

For those watching the charts of late, the news has been somewhat grim, although that's as expected. Before the onslaught of fall and holiday releases begins, sales have been relatively slow at the top of the chart. Couple that with a perennially depressed music climate; -- industry trade Billboard has had to report for the third time this year that sales have hit a record low.

With 4.83 million total sales last week, Billboard notes that the week ending Sept. 12 was the slowest ever in the SoundScan era. That beats the record low of 4.95 million set earlier this summer. Now, one of the largest outlets for major-label product -- and one of the industry leaders in driving the price of the CD below $9.99 -- has declared that it will continue its trend of devoting less floor space to CDs. 

The news was somewhat expected, as stories out of this year's National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers trade convention continued to speculate that mass retailers would further curtail their music offerings. On Wednesday, Billboard's Glenn Peoples pointed to an Investors.com story that referred to a recent Best Buy investors call in which Best Buy executive Brian Dunn was quoted as saying the "CD section in particular will shrink in space allotment" in favor of higher-margin items.

As first reported last night by indie rockers Spoon, the Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" has debuted at No. 1 atop Billboard's charts. In its first week of release, the latest from the Canadian orchestral pop outfit sold 156,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, narrowly edging out Eminem's "Recovery," at No. 2 with 152,000 copies sold. 

The achievement is the first-ever No. 1 album for a Merge Records release on the U.S. pop chart. Founded in the late '80s by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan of indie band Superchunk, Merge has won a reputation for releasing quality, left-of-center pop acts. In addition to the Arcade Fire, the label has had solid sales successes with minimalist art-rockers Spoon, Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward's vintage pop project She & Him and the more eccentric Magnetic Fields -- but never a No. 1 album.

The Arcade Fire came close to the top spot with 2007's "Neon Bible," an album that opened at No. 2 with 92,000 copies sold. The top-selling album that week was Notorious B.I.G.'s "Greatest Hits," which opened with 99,000 copies sold. 

Though interest in the band continues to grow, sales of "The Suburbs" were helped no doubt by Amazon.com discounting the album to $3.99 for its entire first week of release. Comparatively, the album was selling for the typical $9.99 on Apple's iTunes store. Although SoundScan doesn't break down digital sales by retailer, a whopping 97,000 digital copies of "The Suburbs" were purchased, according to Billboard. 

For some perspective, only 59,000 physical copies of "The Suburbs" were sold, less than the total first week sales of the band's "Neon Bible." Digital sales accounted for 62% of first-week purchases of "The Suburbs." Though digital album sales continue to grow, that's way ahead of the industry pace. Last month, Nielsen SoundScan reported that digital sales account for 27.4% of all album purchases, with the bulk of sales still coming from the declining CD market. 

The weekly numbers from Nielsen SoundScan aren't given the official unveiling until Wednesday morning, but perhaps Chapel Hill, N.C.'s Merge Records can be forgiven for not being totally hip to music industry embargoes. After all, it's not often the indie label founded by Superchunk's Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan has the No. 1 album in the U.S. Heck, never mind often -- the label has never topped the U.S. pop charts before. 

But despite a valiant effort from Eminem, the adventurous orchestral pop act Arcade Fire will find itself at No. 1 first thing Wednesday morning -- errrr, probably, and most assuredly definitely, but Nielsen SoundScan isn't talking. 

Yet if Merge and its close-knit family of bands is to be believed, the Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" sold 156,000 copies in the U.S., according to Spoon's official Twitter page. Yes, Spoon, the Austin, Texas-bred minimalist art-rockers, are the ones who broke the news of Arcade Fire's first-week sales. 

The 156,000 number -- should it hold -- rockets passed the first-week sales of the band's "Neon Bible," which bowed with 92,000 copies sold back in March of 2007. "Neon Bible" missed the No. 1 spot, albeit narrowly. The top-selling album that week was Notorious B.I.G.'s "Greatest Hits," which opened with 99,000 copies sold. 

"The Suburbs" has been one of the year's most hotly anticipated indie releases, and tracks began hitting the Web back in May. The album received three-and-a-half (out of four) stars from the Times, and sales were no doubt helped by an extremely low digital price from Amazon.com. The retailer sold a full download of the album for $3.99.

Such fire sales are not new for Amazon. U2's "No Line on the Horizon," for instance, was discounted to $3.99 during its first week of release, and Grizzly Bear's "Veckatimest" posted high digital sales numbers after being given the nice price of $3.99 in its first week, with 13,000 of its debut-week sales of 33,000 coming from the digital marketplace. Yet it was rare to see the retailer carry the low price for the entire first week of release, as Amazon's $3.99 promos more typically last for 24 hours. The album is now selling for $7.99.

Also of note, the Arcade Fire were selling the download for $7.99. The download edition from the band came complete with "synchronized artwork." The visuals are synced to the songs, creating a sort of moving picture book for computers and portable devices. 

-- Todd Martens

Photos: Top, the Arcade Fire perform at Lollapalooza in Chicago, 2010. Credit: Associated Press. Middle: A screenshot of Spoon's official Twitter page. 

Huntington Beach's Avenged Sevenfold confronted the unexpected passing last year of drummer James "The Rev" Sullivan on its recently released "Nightmare." The darkly personal hard rock song cycle has been embraced by fans, as "Nightmare" has given the locals its best-ever sales week on the U.S. pop charts. "Nightmare" lands at No. 1 this week, having sold 162,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, to hold off another strong sales showing from Eminem's "Recovery."

Avenged Sevenfold has been on the upward trajectory since jumping to Warner Bros. in the mid-2000s, and it is one of the rare bands that continues to see sales increases with each album. "Nightmare" marks Avenged Sevenfold's first album since 2007's self-titled Warner Bros. effort, the act's second for the major, which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 with 94,000 copies sold in its first week.That represented a major boost for the act. It's 2005 collection, "City of Evil," entered the chart at No. 30, with fewer than 35,000 first week sales. 

Avenged Sevenfold isn't the only SoCal group to post an impressive showing on this week's sales chart. Retro-pop act Best Coast, the indie faves of the moment, enter at No. 36 with "Crazy for You," an album that sold 10,000 copies in its debut week. The buzz on Best Coast's '50's-meets-Ramones-inspired sound began at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, in March, and has only increased in the weeks since.

With 2010 reaching its halfway mark, U.S. album sales are again facing another double-digit decline. Yet amid the harsh climate, Eminem's "Recovery" has managed to top 1 million in sales after adding an additional 313,000 copies sold to its tally this week. "Recovery" is one of four albums released in 2010 to sell more than 1 million copies through the first half of the year, according to mid-year data released today from Nielsen SoundScan.

But while there's good news from Eminem and country trio Lady Antebellum, overall album sales are down 11%, compared with the first half of 2009. There is growth in the digital sector, but evidence that it's slowing. Digital album sales are up 13.7% compared with the same period last year, while sales of digital tracks are flat. Both finished 2009 on an upswing, with digital album sales ending last year up 16.1% and digital track sales wrapping 2009 up 8.3%.

Yet digital album sales were stronger in the first quarter of 2010, up nearly 16% from last year's first quarter, and a busy fall and winter release schedule can certainly put 2010 on par. Digital albums now account for 27.4% of all album purchases, up from 21.5% at this time last year.

Canadian soap opera-star-turned rapper Drake titled his 2009 debut EP "So Far Gone." He's proving to be anything but, as the young star's full-length entrée "Thank Me Later" entered the U.S. pop chart at No. 1, tallying first-week sales of 447,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That number is good enough to give Drake 2010's third-highest debut, placing him behind first-week totals from the likes of Sade and Lady Antebellum. Sade's "Soldier of Love" moved 502,000 copies in its first week, and Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" posted an initial showing of 481,000 copies. 

There was some speculation by the media that Drake would have a massive, Lil Wayne-type debut, including a leading MTV headline that proclaimed Drake could sell 1 million. Yet Drake's total still builds mightily on last year's "So Far Gone," which entered at No. 6 with 73,000 copies sold. To date, the latter has moved 485,000 copies, and it rests this week at No. 7.

Entering at No 2 is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Mojo," which received a heavy boost from a ticket promotion. Those who purchased tickets to Petty's summer tour were offered a chance to download the artist's first album with the Heartbreakers since 2002's "The Last DJ," and it helped give "Mojo" a solid first week of 125,000 copies sold.

Downloading the album was a relatively easy process, as ticket buyers were guided via e-mail to a website to redeem the album on its day of release."We've gone back and forth on various scenarios," said Billboard's director of charts Silvio Pietroluongo about the decision to include the concert-related downloads in the first week sales tally."In the move to digital, we've OK'd a bundle where you receive a redemption code, so the consumer still has to make an active decision and download it ... You'd be surprised at what the redemption percentage was, and this one was very high."

Consumers, apparently, wanted another version of "Bohemian Rhapsody," this one sung by the Broadway-ready cast of the Fox hit "Glee." Timed for release with last week's season finale, the six-track EP "Journey to the Regionals," the latest in a series of cash-in "Glee" products, debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop chart, which is published by industry trade Billboard Magazine.

The set also contains choir-backed renditions of "Over the Rainbow" and yet another take on Journey's jukebox anthem "Don't Stop Believin'." In its first week of release, the collection sold 152,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. There's more "Glee" in the top 10, as the cross-media hit also owns the No. 7 position on the tally with "Glee: The Music, Volume 3." That album has sold more than 280,000 copies. 

The success of the "Glee" EP will no doubt be used by the media as evidence of a sort of pop-culture changing of the guard. "Glee" keeps the latest companion to vampire soap opera "Twilight," the soundtrack to this summer's "Eclipse," outside of the No. 1 position. That set, featuring the likes of Metric and L.A.'s Beck, debuts with 144,000 copies sold.

Yet bet on "Eclipse" to be a sales force throughout the summer. In its first full week of release, the soundtrack to "New Moon" sold 153,000 copies, and it moved more than 260,000 copies in 10 days (the album was released off-cycle on a Friday, and Nielsen SoundScan tracks data through the end of business on Sunday). "New Moon" has sold more than 1.1 million copies, and the soundtrack to the first installment of the undead romance saga has sold more than 2.5 million copies.