Katie Hasty, N.Y.
For the first time in 30 years, Bob Dylan tops The Billboard 200 with "Modern Times." Not only is it the legendary songwriter's first album to reach the throne since "Desire" in 1976, it's also his highest debuting album and his best sales week since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991. The Columbia set moved 192,000 copies in the United States in its first week.
"Modern Times" is Dylan's third consecutive top 10 studio set, following 1997's "Time Out of Mind" and 2001's "Love & Theft." Aside from "Desire" and "Modern Times," only two other Dylan albums assumed the plateau on the chart: 1974's "Planet Waves" and the 1975 classic "Blood on the Tracks."
After crowning The Billboard 200 last week, Danity Kane slips to No. 2 with 117,000 copies, a sales hit of 50%.
Young Dro's major label debut, "Best Thang Smokin'," bows at No. 3 with 104,000. With help from his smash hit "Shoulder Lean" (featuring T.I.), the Grand Hustle/Atlantic release also overtakes OutKast's soundtrack to "Idlewild" (LaFace) at No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
Christina Aguilera's RCA album "Back to Basics" slips 3-4 on the big chart with 101,000, a sales decline of 25%. Jessica Simpson's "A Public Affair" (Epic) enters the chart at No. 5, selling only a couple hundred albums fewer than "Back to Basics" with 101,000. Her last album, 2003's "In This Skin," originally peaked at No. 10 but hit No. 2 after a 2004 re-release.
The Disney soundtrack to "The Cheetah Girls 2" falls 5-6 with 80,000 (-1%) while "Idlewild" also slips, moving 2-7 with 78,000 (-60%).
Method Man scores his fifth consecutive top 10 debut, as "4:21 ... The Day After" (Def Jam) lands at No. 8 with 62,000 units. Another Def Jam effort follows at No. 9 in the form of the Roots' "Game Theory," which moved 61,000.
In its 48th week on the chart, Nickelback's "All the Right Reasons" (Roadrunner) re-enters the top tier, moving 12-10 with 60,000.
Other big debuts this week include Too Short's Jive release "Blow the Whistle" (No. 14, 40,000), Ray Lamontagne's sophomore RCA set, "Till the Sun Turns Black" (No. 28, 28,000), Crossfade's sophomore Columbia effort, "Falling Away" (No. 30, 28,000) and Hatebreed's first Roadrunner album, "Supremacy" (No. 31, 27,000).
The Toby Keith-led "Broken Bridges" soundtrack, released on his Show Dog label, opens at No. 36, followed by the Atlantic debut of reggaeton star Tego Calderon, "The Underdog/El Subestimado," at No. 43. Singer/songwriter Pete Yorn bows at a disappointing No. 50 with the Columbia album "Nightcrawler"; its predecessor, 2003's "Day I Forgot," debuted at No. 18.
Indie veteran M. Ward makes his Billboard 200 debut with the Merge album "Post-War" at No. 146. The set opened last week at No. 21 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart but enjoyed a 100% sales increase in its second week at nearly 5,800 copies.
At 9.39 million units, overall CD sales are down 1.5% from last week's count and down 10% compared to the same week a year ago. Sales for 2006 are down 6% compared to 2005 at 354 million units.
