Piątek 9 Paź 2009, 10:36

Last.Fm Top Artists
Ouch. We’ve had some pretty good results from singers before when new albums were released, but no one has had as good a showing as Miranda Lambert did this week. Not only is her 36 listeners one of the highest totals we’ve ever had on these charts, but there’s never been a greater gap between #1 and #2. The best that Brad Paisley could manage was 27, which is pretty impressive on most weeks, but not this week.

Lambert was really the only one from last week’s busy release week to see such a jump. Patty Loveless managed to come in at #7 with 23 listeners, along with Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw, but that’s not far off her usual pace. Carrie Underwood, in at #10 along with Sugarland and Keith Urban with 22 listeners, may very well be the next one to benefit from a listener boost when her new album is out in a month.

Last.Fm Top Albums
Gee, take a wild guess. With 20 listeners, Revolution was the top album, followed by Lambert’s other two albums, Kerosene (15 listeners) and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (14). Apparently, people celebrated the release of the new album with a Mirandathon, listening to everything she’s recorded. People did find time to listen to other music, notably Reba McEntire’s Keep On Loving You (13 listeners) and Dixie Chicks‘ Wide Open Spaces (12) to round out the Top 5. The Chicks had two other albums in the Top 10 to match Lambert’s total, and Sugarland had two. It looks like Lady Antebellum has more longevity that I initially thought, as its album had 11 listeners, good enough for #6. Dierks Bentley sneaks in at #10 with 10 people listening to Long Trip Alone, as did Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson with Rattlin’ Bones. And I will continue to mention that album whenever I get the chance until everyone in The 9513 group owns it and listens to it once a week, like clockwork.

Last.Fm Top Tracks
The artist is a gimme, but the exact song was at least up for debate. In this case, Lambert led the way with “Dead Flowers,” which had 18 listeners. Following that, there were five of her songs with 17, two with 16 (including the cover of “Time To Get A Gun” from the great Fred Eaglesmith), two with 15, two with 14 and one with 13. Only after 13 straight Lambert songs do we get to another artist – McEntire’s “Consider Me Gone” had 9 listeners. In total, 17 of the 23 songs in the Top 20 (ties included) were Lambert songs. Among the songs that broke up the Mirandopoly was “Red Light” by David Nail and “Cowboy Casanova” by Underwood with 8 listeners each. And each one of those eight Underwood fans thinks that Lambert can’t sing, isn’t country and generally pales in comparison to their idol.

Billboard Country Singles
We have another new #1, as Toby Keith takes his turn with “American Ride,” his first #1 song of the year and third #1 song with “American” in the title. It only needed 13 weeks on the charts to make it to the top, too. Conversely, “Getting You Home (The Black Dress Song)” from Chris Young has been on the charts for 20 weeks longer, and it just made the jump into the Top 5, moving from #6 to #3. That’s one of the few songs that jumped at all, as the Top 30 from this week is virtually unchanged from last week. McGraw’s “Southern Voice”moves up some, entering into the Top 30 at 28. He’s joined by Sarah Buxton, who moved from #34 to #30 with “Outside My Window.” Rascal Flatts had the best debut for the week, with “Why” showing up at #44. Jason Aldean’s “The Truth” is up to #42 after two weeks, and Lambert’s “White Liar” picked up some new-release momentum to move from #37 to #31. On the negative side, Jackson’s “I Still Like Bologna” dropped from #32 to #36, making it one of his worst-charting singles ever, assuming its chart life is nearing its end.

Billboard Country Albums
There’s really not much movement here, but we’ll see how the new releases affected the chart later this week. For now, Taylor Swift is still on top with Fearless, and the soundtrack to the Hannah Montana movie moved up one to #3. I’m not sure what that says when two of the top three country albums are sung by people who are not legally allowed to drink. Oh, it gets worse. The top debut from last week was from Larry The Cable Guy, surpassing the new albums from Diamond Rio (#41) and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (#69).

Americana Music Association Top Albums
While the Top three albums are unchanged – Acquired Taste by Delbert McClinton is the #1 album for the third week in a row – we’ve got a couple of albums moving up to dethrone it quickly. The Rose Hotel by Robert Earl Keen jumped 10 places to end up at #5 with 315 spins, just one away from the #4 album, Revival by Radney Foster. Right behind those two, at 312 spins, is The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again from John Fogerty, moving from #13 to #6. Also entering the Top 10, albeit more slowly, is Lean Forward from The Bottle Rockets. The top debut for the week is The List by Rosanne Cash, which entered the chart at #20 with 204 spins.