Fall Out Boy Lands Its Third #1 Album

Fall Out Boy lands its third #1 album on the Billboard 200 with American Beauty/American Psycho. The band has reached #1 with three of its last four studio albums, an impressive track record.

The album moved 218K “equivalent units” this week (which includes 192K in actual album sales). (As always, the rest of the tally reflects digital track sales and streaming activity.) That 192K sales tally is the highest for an album by a rock band since May, when Coldplay’s Ghost Stories debuted with sales of 383K.

Fall Out Boy first topped the chart in February 2007 with Infinity on High. It returned to #1 in April 2013 with Save Rock and Roll. All three of these albums spawned top 20 hits on the Hot 100. Infinity on High spawned two: “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” (#2) and “Thnks fr th Mmrs” (#11). Save Rock and Roll gave us “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light ‘Em Up)” (#13). The new album has yielded “Centuries” (#10 and climbing on this week’s chart).

American Beauty/American Psycho is the fourth #1 album with the word “American” in its title. It follows the soundtrack to the Gene Kelly movie An American in Paris (16 weeks on top in 1952), Don McLean’s American Pie (seven weeks in 1972) and Green Day’s American Idiot (three weeks in 2004-‘05).

This is the second week in a row that an album has started with actual album sales north of 190K. Meghan Trainor’s Title debuted last week with 195K. This marks the first time in 10 years that two albums have debuted with sales north of 190K in the month of January, when sales normally slow. In 2005, The Game’s The Documentary and Kenny Chesney’s Be As You Are: Songs From an Old Blue Chair both opened with sales well above that mark.

Save Rock and Roll rebounds from #61 to #49 in its 92nd chart week. It jumps to #1 on Top Catalog Albums, displacing Ed Sheeran’s +.
Taylor Swift’s 1989 holds at #2 for the second week in its 13th week. It’s the first album in more than a decade to spend its first 13 weeks at either #1 or #2. (The previous best showing for the past decade was Swift’s 2012 album, Red, which spent its first 10 weeks in the top two.) 1989 moved 119K “equivalent units” this week (which includes 82K in actual album sales).

Meghan Trainor’s Title drops from #1 to #3 in its second week. The album moved 86K “equivalent units” this week (which includes 54K in actual album sales). The album is on track to enter the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart at #1 next week.

Ed Sheeran’s x holds at #4 for the second week in its 31st week. The album, which debuted at #1 in June, moved 75K units this week (which includes 36K in actual album sales).

Joey Bada$$’s debut album, B4.DA.$$, debuts at #5. The album moved 58K units this week (which includes 54K in actual album sales). The album enters Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums at #1.

Nicki Minaj’s The Pinkprint, which debuted and peaked at #2, holds at #6 in its second week in its sixth week. The album moved 54K units this week (which includes 28K in actual album sales).

The Decemberists’ seventh studio album, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, debuts at #7. It’s the band’s second top 10 album in a row. The band’s last album, The King Is Dead, debuted at #1 in January 2011. The new album moved 51K units this week (which includes 50K in actual album sales).

Marilyn Manson’s ninth studio album, The Pale Emperor, debuts at #8. It’s the band’s eighth top 10 album. The band first cracked the top 10 in October 1996 with its sophomore album, Antichrist Superstar. The new album moved 51K units this week (which includes 49K in actual album sales).

Sam Smith’s In the Lonely Hour, which has climbed as high as #2, drops from #7 to #9 in its 32nd week. The album moved 50K units this week (which includes 30K in actual album sales). Smith is likely to sweep the Grammys on Feb. 8. He’s all but certain to take the award for Best New Artist. As it happens, we have four Best New Artist “losers” in this week’s top 10. Fall Out Boy lost to John Legend, Taylor Swift lost to Amy Winehouse, Ed Sheeran lost to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and Nicki Minaj lost to Bon Iver.

Mark Ronson’s Uptown Special drops from #5 to #10 in its second week. The album moved 49K units this week (which includes a mere 10K in actual album sales). The album ranks #31 on the chart that measures strictly album sales. The album enters the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart at #1. It’s Ronson’s first #1 album in the country of his birth. 2007’s Version and 2010’s Record Collection both peaked at #2.

Grammy Nominees 2015 debuts at #12. It’s the first Grammy Nominees volume in nine years not to debut in the top 10. (It would have debuted at #7 if the chart was still based strictly on album sales.) The album may still make the top 10 on the new hybrid chart: The Feb. 8 telecast will be a 3-1/2 hour promotion for the album. The album includes tracks by four artists who have albums of their own in this week’s top 10: Taylor Swift, Meghan Trainor, Ed Sheeran, and Sam Smith.

Lupe Fiasco’s fifth studio album, Tetsuo & Youth, debuts at #14. All five of his albums have made the top 15.

Sam Hunt’s first full-length album, Montevallo, which debuted and peaked at #3 in November, drops from #13 to #17 its 13th week. It logs its fourth week at #1 on Top Country Albums. That’s the longest run at #1 on this chart for a debut album by a male solo artist since Scotty McCreery’s Clear as Day spent six weeks on top in 2011.

Bjork’s ninth studio album, Vulnicura, debuts at #20. It’s her fourth top 20 album. All nine of Bjork’s studio albums have had one-word titles. A record? Not quite. All 12 of Pet Shop Boys’ studio albums have had one-word titles. Succinct. (Hey, either one of them can feel free to use that as a title.)

Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix, Vol. 1, which spent two weeks at #1 in August, drops from #14 to #21 in its 27th week. This ends a 61-week streak in which at least one soundtrack has appeared in the top 20. Guardians holds at #1 on Top Soundtracks for the 17th week.

Coming Attractions: Look for Ne-Yo’s Non-Fiction and Charlie Wilson’s Forever Charlie to be next week’s top new entries.

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