The Black Keys snag No. 1s on multiple Billboard charts dated May 29 thanks to their new album, Delta Kream.
The covers set, an ode to the Mississippi blues that influenced the duo, debuts atop the Top Rock Albums, Alternative Albums, Americana/Folk Albums and Blues Albums charts with 35,000 equivalent album units earned in the May 14-20 tracking week, according to MRC Data. It sold 30,000 albums, including 14,000 on vinyl, as it also starts atop the Vinyl Albums chart.
The LP is the act’s fifth Top Rock Albums leader since the chart began in 2006, dating to its first, Brothers, in 2010. The pair now boasts four No. 1s on both Alternative Albums and Vinyl Albums, while it tops Americana/Folk Albums and Blues Albums for the first time.
On the all-format Billboard 200, Delta Kream starts at No. 6, marking the tandem’s fifth top 10.
The album’s lead single, “Crawling Kingsnake,” concurrently shoots 3-1 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart. It’s the act’s sixth No. 1 and first since 2019’s nine-week ruler “Go.” The duo first dominated with “Lonely Boy” for seven weeks in 2011-12.
The new leader’s five-week rise to No. 1 ties it with Kings of Leon’s “The Bandit” for the quickest trip to the top of the chart in 2021. The song is also the first cover to go No. 1 since Robert Plant’s “Angel Dance,” originally recorded by Los Lobos, in 2010. “Crawling Kingsnake” is a redo of a Delta blues standard whose original songwriter is believed to be unknown but has been performed by John Lee Hooker, Junior Kimbrough, Big Joe Williams and many more.
“Crawling Kingsnake” also rises into the top 30 of Alternative Airplay (32-29), while on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, it climbs 34-29, up 13% to 1.3 million audience impressions. In addition to its adult alternative and alternative support, the track is earning play at a handful of mainstream rock stations.
