Daft Punk Tops the Album Chart for Second Consecutive Week
French electronic duo Daft Punk hung onto the top of the U.S. chart for a second consecutive week as “Random Access Memories” enjoyed rare sales legs.
The pair’s Columbia album tracked sales of 93,000 in its sophomore week, according to Nielsen SoundScan data for the week ending June 2. It is only the second 2013 release to log more than one week atop the chart; Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience” managed three frames at the apex in March and April. (Mumford & Sons’ 2012 album “Babel” returned to No. 1 for two weeks in February, typically a sluggish month for new releases.)
A couple of veteran acts and one newcomer signed on in the top 10. Alice in Chains’ “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” (Virgin) bowed at No. 2 with 61,000 shifted. Veteran Seattle hard rock act’s comeback set “Black Gives Way to Blue” arrived at No. 5 in 2009, but entered with a bigger one-week total of 126,000.
John Fogerty’s duets album “Wrote a Song For Everyone” (Vanguard) rolled in at No. 3 with 51,000 shifted. It is the former Creedence Clearwater Revival front man’s highest-charting collection since his smash “Centerfield” reached No. 1 in 1985. Heavily promoted set features appearances by Foo Fighters, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Bob Seger and other stars.
Following in the footsteps of fellow English “X Factor” grads One Direction, Little Mix roared onto the chart at No. 4 with the debut album “DNA” (Syco/Columbia), which perched at No. 4 with 50,000 sold out of the box. Like their boy-band precursor, which launched two No. 1 albums in 2012, the femme quartet was synthesized for the U.K. TV sing-off. Album peaked at No. 3 in Blighty late last year.
The holdover release seeing the biggest bounce last week was Blake Shelton’s “Based On a True Story…” (Warner Bros.), which rose 11 slots to No. 5 behind a 42,000-unit week (a 69% gain). The country star was highly visible on NBC’s “Healing in the Heartland,” a charity event benefiting Oklahoma tornado victims.
Other titles hanging in the top 10 included Darius Rucker’s “True Believers” (No. 6, 41,000 sold, down 51%), the “Great Gatsby” soundtrack (No. 7, 36,000, off 33%), Imagine Dragons’ “Night Visions” (No. 8, 33,000, up 22%), Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience” (No. 9, 31,000, off 26%) and Vampire Weekend’s “Modern Vampires of the City” (No. 10, 29,000, down 40%).
Among new titles, the indie-label bow by rockers Queens of the Stone Age stands to make a heavy debut next week.
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