Weezer scores its first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart as the band’s latest studio album, Van Weezer, opens atop the tally. The set was released May 7 and sold 23,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending May 13, according to MRC Data. Van Weezer is the rock act’s 13th top 10 and 19th chart entry overall on Top Album Sales.
Meanwhile, Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert and Jon Randall’s The Marfa Tapes bows at No. 3, while new albums from Dodie and Van Morrison start in the top five.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now MRC Data. Pure album sales were the measurement solely utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. The new May 22, 2021-dated chart (where Van Weezer debuts at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on May 18. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Van Weezer’s debut sales of 23,000, physical album sales comprise 14,000 of that figure (6,500 CDs and nearly 7,500 vinyl LPs), while digital album sales comprise 9,000.
Weezer previously topped out at No. 2 with three different albums on Top Album Sales: 2019’s Weezer (Teal Album), 2018’s Weezer (White Album) and 2005’s Make Believe. Van Weezer is the second top 10 of 2021 for the band, following the No. 6-peaking studio set OK Human in February. (Van Weezer was meant to be released in May of 2020, to accompany the band’s Hella Mega stadium tour with Green Day and Fall Out Boy. Instead, the album and tour were delayed, and Weezer first released an entirely separate album, OK Human, earlier this year.)
Van Weezer also bows at No. 1 Billboard’s Vinyl Albums sales chart, which ranks the top-selling vinyl LPs of the week. The set additionally starts at No. 1 on the Tastemaker Albums chart (which tallies the top sellers at independent and small chain record stores), Top Rock Albums and Alternative Albums. On the all-genre Billboard 200, it begins at No. 11.
Carrie Underwood’s former No. 1 My Savior rises 4-2 on the latest Top Album Sales chart with 11,000 sold (down 34%). The album, now in its seventh week on the chart, has yet to leave the top four since its No. 1 debut (April 10-dated chart).
Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert and Jon Randall’s collaborative album The Marfa Tapes debuts at No. 3 on Top Album Sales with a little over 10,000 sold. Of that sum, 7,500 were digital albums, while the rest were vinyl LPs. (The set has not been released on CD.)
Singer-songwriter Dodie lands her first top 10 on Top Album Sales as Build a Problem debuts at No. 4 with 7,000 sold. It’s Dodie’s fourth visit to the chart after three earlier placings on the tally with Human (No. 15, 2019), You (No. 14, 2017) and Intertwined (No. 88, 2016). Build a Problem is considered Dodie’s first full-length studio album, as her previous releases were positioned as EPs.
Van Morrison’s latest release, aptly titled Latest Record Project, Volume 1, bows at No. 5 on Top Album Sales with a little over 6,000 sold. He last debuted on the chart in 2019 with Three Chords & The Truth, debuting and peaking at No. 7.
Marvin Gaye’s 1971 album What’s Going On re-enters Top Album Sales at No. 6 with 6,000 sold (up 276%) following the May 9 debut of CNN’s documentary What’s Going On: Marvin Gaye’s Anthem for the Ages. This marks the first top 10 and highest-charting set for Gaye on the nearly-30-year-old Top Album Sales chart. (What’s Going On peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 in 1971 and is one of six top 10s for Gaye on that list.)
Rounding out the new top 10 on Top Album Sales are Harry Styles’ former No. 1 Fine Line (20-7 with 6,000 sold; up 20% after a surge in vinyl LP sales), Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (18-8 with 5,000; down 3%) and Michael Jackson’s Thriller (22-9 with nearly 5,000; up 1%).
