Usher Retakes Album Chart Peak (original) (raw)

Usher reclaims his throne atop The Billboard 200 after one week at No. 2 as “Confessions” sells 267,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This is the sixth week in the No. 1 position for the LaFace/Zomba set.

D12 drops to No. 2 with Shady/Interscope’s “D12 World.” Though the Detroit rappers enjoyed an impressive bow last week at No. 1 with 545,000 copies, sales this week dip 64% to 197,000 copies.

Petey Pablo is the top entry at No. 4 this week with “Still Writing in My Diary: 2nd Entry.” With 117,000 copies sold, the Jive set beats the No. 13 debut of Pablo’s 2001 album, “Diary of a Sinner: 1st Entry.”

Prince’s “Musicology” (Columbia) holds onto the No. 3 position despite a 12% decrease to 150,000 copies in its third week. Hoobastank is up 7-6 — an 11% increase to 91,000 copies — with Island’s “The Reason.”

Norah Jones re-enters the top 10 with “Feels Like Home” (Blue Note), up 11-8 this week on a 63% increase to 90,000 copies. Also rejoining the top 10 is Josh Groban’s “Closer,” which jumps 18-9 with an increase of 83%. The Reprise/Warner Bros. set sold 79,000 copies this week.

Christian rockers Third Day enter at No. 12 with their seventh studio album “Wire.” With 61,000 copies, the Essential set debuts higher than last year’s “Offerings II: All I Have to Give,” which joined the chart at No. 18.

Other debuts this week include “American Idol” alum Kimberley Locke at No. 16 with “One Love” (Curb), and veteran diva Patti LaBelle at No. 18 with Def Soul Classics’ “Timeless Journey.”

Overall U.S. album sales are up 6.4% to 11.8 million, about 7% ahead of the comparable week last year. Sales for the year are beating those of 2003 by 7.8%.

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