Zac Brown Band Beats Drake, Taylor Swift, And Josh Groban In Album Sales Race
Hits Daily Double, which tabulates sales data that is always very close to Billboard‘s calculations, has the Zac Brown Band on top this week with Jekyll + Hyde. It has sold more than 217,000 copies and easily tops the runner up, Josh Groban, who has sold 149,000 copies of Stages. Considering the deflating state of the record industry, these numbers are great.
Jekyll + Hyde has received generally good reviews. ABC News believes the Zac Brown Band is eclectic on the new album.
“Brown sets the tone immediately on ‘Jekyll + Hyde,’ which opens with an aggressively rhythmic ‘Beautiful Drug,’ the most electronic-driven track Brown has recorded. The variety doesn’t stop there, as he brings a Celtic melody to ‘Remedy,’ big-band swing to ‘Mango Tree’ (a duet with Sara Bareilles) and a grunge-rock guitar crunch to “Heavy Is the Head” (a duet with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell).”
There is bad news for Drake this week as his If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late takes a major 32 percent drop from last week’s No. 3 position. He still ends up at No. 6, which isn’t all that bad. Drake is currently experiencing a backlash from his kiss with Madonna, whom many say he threw under the bus at their joint Coachella performance by acting disgusted. According to the Daily Mirror, it was Madonna’s lipstick that caused Drake to act like the life was violently sucked out of him.
“Drake really looked like he wanted to throw up after Madonna locked lips with him in a surprise stunt on stage at Coachella last night – but it wasn’t the kiss itself apparently, BUT her lipstick. The Tuesday rapper was sitting on a chair in front of thousands of fans at the festival when Madonna went in hard. But the Canadian star really couldn’t hide his feelings about the display of affection that really did seem to gross him out once Madge let him up for air.”
Taylor Swift, who will easily top the Zac Brown Band when it comes to end-of-the-year sales, actually moves up from No. 6 to No. 5 with 1989, which may end up as the biggest selling album of the decade. Taylor kicks off her 1989 World Tour this week in Tokyo.
Will the Zac Brown Band still top the charts next week? Jekyll + Hyde is still No. 2 on iTunes, but will likely be topped by Mumford & Son’s Wilder Mind. Still, the Zac Brown Band has created a sleeper hit album that both fans and critics immensely enjoy. You can expect to see the Zac Brown Band on the Grammy Nomination list that comes out in November.
[Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images]
