Reality show-bred girl groupDanity Kane lands atop this week's U.S.
pop chart, and gives the graduates of MTV's "Making the Band" its
second No. 1 album. Meanwhile, rap newcomer Flo Rida finds that even a
pair of hot-selling singles doesn't guarantee a six-figure entry.
Danity Kane's "Welcome to the Dollhouse" bows atop the chart, selling
236,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's on par with the
234,000 first-week figure for the act's 2006 debut, which went on to
sell about 922,000 copies.
Entering at a distant No. 4 is Flo Rida, whose "Mail on Sunday" follows
his Top-30 singles "Low," featuring T-Pain, and "Elevator," featuring
Timbaland. "Mail on Sunday" sold 86,000 copies, but the release feels a
bit anti-climactic after the digital sales posted by his singles.
"Low," for instance, has sold 3.4 million digital downloads to date,
which, according to Billboard, makes it the top-selling digital track
of all time. "Elevator" is no slouch, either, having sold 373,000
digital downloads.
Gnarls Barkley's rush-released "The Odd Couple" arrives at No. 18. It
sold 31,000 copies after being released to digital retailers on March
18. The CD had originally been pegged for an April 8 release, but was
bumped up after leaking online.
Of the 31,000 copies sold, 26,000 were
from digital retailers. No surprise, as physical retailers began
selling the album as it arrived throughout the week.
Grammy watch: Gnarls Barkley's debut, "St. Elsewhere," scored an album of the year nod, but its success was driven largely by the runaway hit "Crazy." Thus far, "Run (I'm A Natural Disaster)," the first single off of "The Odd Couple," hasn't taken hold, despite "The Odd Couple" being a fascinatingly weird listen. Reviews on "The Odd Couple" have been positive, but if the album doesn't spawn a breakaway single, it'll be curious if Recording Academy voters are just as kind to the electro-soul duo a second time around. For what it's worth, they should be, as it's an album worthy of being added to the below list.
2009 Grammy album of the year contenders:
Gnarls Barkley, "The Odd Couple" Radiohead, "In Rainbows" Lupe Fiasco,"The Cool" Sheryl Crow,"Detours" Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, "Raising Sand" Mary J. Blige, "Growing Pains"
Picture: Danity Kane, by Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times
In a week when two major pop acts are challenging the relevancy of first-week sales numbers, rapper Rick Ross topped the U.S. album chart with his latest, "Trilla." The album enters at No. 1 after selling 198,000 copies.
Yet changes are ahead for the weekly sales tally.
On Monday,the Raconteurs, which features the White Stripes' Jack White, announced that its latest, "Consolers of the Lonely," will be released March 25, writing in a statement that the group does not want the album "defined by its first week's sales." "Consolers of the Lonely" had been pegged for late April release.
Then genre-hopping pop act Gnarls Barkley rushed its latest, "The Odd Couple," to digital retailers on Tuesday, two weeks early, and has been shipping the album to physical stores throughout the week. Manager Jeff Antebi of Waxploitation said the concept of promoting an album for a big first-week sales number was no longer relevant.
"It's a big deal in the context of the old guard -- where you land on the Billboard Top 200," Antebi said. "To a lot of people, that's the goal. . . . I think it's an outdated, completely impractical, strategic mind-set. It is just as outdated as releasing a single three months early."
After the industry has seen straight-to-Web releases from Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead, Antebi said record companies will soon be releasing albums, then promoting them after the fact, adjusting the marketing plan based on what is or isn't working. As an example, Antebi said the top-downloaded Gnarls Barkley song on iTunes was "Going On," and not the singles "Run (I'm a Natural Disaster)" or "Who's Gonna Save My Soul."
"You should service press and service radio after you have serviced retail," Antebi said.
"Odd Couple" will show up on next week's chart, and Antebi said the success of the album would be better evaluated in a year, not a week.
As for the rest of this week's tally, the 27th volume of the "Now! That's What I Call Music" compilation series enters at No. 2 with 169,000 copies, and Snoop Dogg's "Ego Trippin' " lands at No. 3 with 137,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Rapper Fat Joe debuts at No. 6 with "Elephant in the Room" (46,000 copies), and Miley Cyrus is back in the Top 10, at No. 10, with her live album, "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: The Best Of Both Worlds Concert" (34,000 copies).
Photo: Gharls Barkley in Los Angeles, 2006. Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times
What: The latest from two-time Grammy winners Gnarls Barkley, “The Odd Couple,” hit the Web last night, and judging from early listens, the duo has returned with an album that’s just as dark and haunting as its 2006 debut, “St. Elsewhere.”Cee-Lo defines the mood early on, opening the soul scorcher “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” with this line: “Got some bad news this morning, which in turn made my day.”
Gathering an album from early Internet leaks is never a prime way to experience a new release, but plenty will be watching the sophomore effort from the duo of Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo. “St. Elsewhere,” which was nominated for an album of the year Grammy, was responsible for one of the more electrifying singles in recent years, the genre-busting “Crazy.”
“Crazy” peaked at No. 2 on Billboard’s singles chart, but to give an indication of the crossover appeal the song had, it also appeared on Billboard’s rock and R&B/hip-hop tallies. Ultimately, the song won a Grammy in the hard-to-define category of best urban/alternative performance.
Early verdict: "The Odd Couple," due April 8, appears no less adventurous in its production. Take “Going On,” which opens with some light guitar wailing before breaking to a hand-clap-driven rhythm, and then segueing into a call-and-response, almost gospel-like feel. Or the acoustic strumming of “No Time Soon,” a beautiful ’70s-inspired soul ballad that drifts into a world full of spacey effects and synthesized rhythms, even recalling recent work from the Flaming Lips.
The massive success of “Crazy” perhaps somewhat obscured the fact that “St. Elsewhere” was a spooked record, full of nightmare imagery that was dressed with Danger Mouse’s lush production. “The Odd Couple” seems to take this vision even further, with “Charity Case” packed full of vintage haunted house effects, and some background “ooh-ahhs” descending around Cee-Lo like a swarm of zombies.
“Would Be Killer” goes beyond that, its cymbal-heavy rhythm soon obscured with all sorts of electronic skitters. Cee-Lo, whose impassioned soul vocals are a highlight on nearly every track, practically gives up on “Would Be Killer,” going for more of a growl.
But it’s important to note that this mood is never off-putting. “Whatever” is a delight, a bratty, childlike anthem to being a loner, with Cee-Lo telling his own mother to shut it, and “Blind Mary” is full of carnival effects.
Additionally, album closer “A Little Better” is a laid-back showcase for Cee-Lo, who taps his inner Curtis Mayfield to coast over the song’s sweltering bass lines. It’s a sigh of relief, with Cee-Lo recognizing that his inner demons aren’t all bad.
If the album doesn’t have an immediate knock-down grabber like “Crazy,” it’s already a fascinating listen, and worthy of far more attention than this initial reaction can give. Time will tell whether it proves to be another album of the year candidate, but Cee-Lo’s vocals, especially on the arresting slow-burner of “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul,” should provide for a few attention-grabbing singles.
Photo: Danger Mouse, left, and Cee-Lo. Credit: Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times
A tipster close to Gnarls Barkley sent along a document claiming that the video for first single "Run" failed the U.K.'s Harding Flash & Pattern Analyzer, which looks at a video frame-by-frame to see if it is at danger for causing epileptic seizures.
"Run," according to the document, scored 52 counts of a violation titled "extended failure." Since the press release arrived after the Harding FPA's business hours, this was unable to be verified, nor was it possible to ask if they were down with Gnarls Barkley using their test as a weird sort of badge of pride.
Here's a closer look at the results:
Don't know exactly what that means? Here's an FAQ to understanding the results, which, at the moment, lacks a section on music biz hype.
Like most everything in 2008, it comes equipped with a Justin Timberlake appearance (but no Timbaland!). It's a nice slice of vintage-inspired soul, and a prime showcase for Cee-Lo's increasingly strong vocals. Gnarls Barkley also hasn't lost its penchant for spooked, dream-like lyricism, with Cee-Lo ordering listeners to run from some unseen and never-described "beast," all while its retro keys play give-and-take with a gleefully weird background chorus of children.
