USA
Billboard Report (Excerpt)
Tim McGraw scores top Billboard 200 debut
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
by Keith Caulfield, L.A. & Silvio Pietroluongo, N.Y.

As is usually the case in January, few major albums are released in the first few weeks of the year. Now, as we get back to normal -- post holidays -- we see an influx of seven new albums in the top 10 of

the Billboard 200 chart. That's the most debuts within the top 10 since the May 21, 2011 chart, when eight new titles arrived in the region. But before we get to the debuts, the chart is still crowned by Adele's "21" as it sits tight at No. 1 for an 18th non-consecutive week (116,000; up 22% according to Nielsen SoundScan). The set's sales gain is owed in part to how a deluxe version of the set was reissued at Target stores last week, and carried an advertised price of $13.99. Now -- time for the new entries. A whopping seven debuts dot the top 10, led by country superstar Tim McGraw. His "Emotional Traffic" drives in at No. 2 with 68,000 sold. McGraw's last studio effort, 2009's "Southern Voice," bowed at No. 2 with 137,000 sold. "Emotional" is the singer's 14th top 10 album on the Billboard 200 and 13th No. 1 on the Country Albums chart. All of his studio sets have topped the Country tally, save for 2002's "Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors," which debuted and peaked at No. 2. Rock band Lamb of God's new "Resolution" debuts at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 (52,000) securing its third top 10 album. The act's last studio set, 2009's "Wrath," bowed at a career-high No. 2 with 68,000 sold.¨ The "2012 Grammy Nominees" compilation album enters at No. 4 with 52,000 (a teensy bit behind Lamb of God) -- marking the 11th top 10 for the long-running annual series. The franchise launched with the "1995 Grammy Nominees" set. Collectively, the albums (excluding its occasional Latin and rap-themed offshoots), have sold 7.7 million copies in the U.S. The last three sets have moved between 220,000 and 281,000 each -- making it safe to assume "2012" will ultimately shift about as many copies as well. Singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson notches her best sales week and highest charting album ever as "Human Again" takes a bow at No. 5 with 40,000. Until this week, her best frame came when her last set, 2009's "Everybody," bowed and peaked at No. 18 with 23,000 sold. The new album's current single "Ghost" rises from No. 22 to No. 21 on the Triple A airplay chart this week Kellie Pickler's "100 Proof" gives the former "American Idol" contestant her third straight top 10 -- and her highest-charting album yet -- as her third release debuts at No. 7 with 27,000. Her first two albums, 2006's "Small Town Girl" and 2008's self-titled set, both debuted and peaked at No. Seal's "Soul 2" album arrives at No. 8 with a little over 27,000 -- marking the singer's highest-charting effort since 2003's "Seal IV" debuted and peaked at No. 3. The new release is a sequel to his 2008 covers album, which has sold 547,000 and reached No. 13 on the tally. Rounding out the top 10 is Christian singer Kari Jobe, who sees her sophomore release "Where I Find You" start at No. 10 with 25,000. Her self-titled 2009 debut topped out at No. 63 in early 2011, after initially debuting at No. 67 back on Feb. 28, 2009. On our Christian Albums chart, the new album debuts at No. 1. It follows the No. 3 peak of her eponymous debut. Just outside the top 10, the all-star charity compilation "Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan," debuts in two different slots on the list this week. The 73-track (76 online) version debuts at No. 11 with 22,000 while the Starbucks-exclusive 31-track edition starts at No. 39 with 10,000. Sales of the albums and the individual song downloads benefit Amnesty International. As for the top 10's two other holdovers from last week: "Kidz Bop 21" falls 2-6 (33,000; down 43%) and Drake's "Take Care" slides 4-9 (26,000; down 9%). Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Jan. 29) totaled 5.39 million units, up 7% compared to the sum last week (5.06 million) and up 2% compared to the comparable sales week of 2011 (5.31 million). Year to date album sales stand at 21.34 million, up 2% compared to the same total at this point last year (20.84 million).
Over on the Digital Songs chart, we have a new No. 1, as Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" zooms from No. 3 to the top with 225,000 downloads sold (up 29%). On the Mainstream Top 40 airplay chart (known as Pop Songs on Billboard.com) the track rises 24-20 in its third week on the list. Last week's No. 1, David Guetta's "Turn Me On" (featuring Nicki Minaj), falls to No. 3 with 162,000 (down 18%). The tune could rebound in the coming week, as its official music video premiered on Jan. 31. Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain" rests at No. 2 for another week (167,000; down 10%) while Tyga's "Rack City" also holds at No. 4 (142,000; down 4%). Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa's "Young, Wild & Free" rises three spots to No. 5 (128,000; down 4%), Flo Rida's "Good Feeling" falls a slot to No. 6 (121,000; down 15%) and Rihanna's "We Found Love" (featuring Calvin Harris) falls a rung to No. 7 (114,000; down 18%). LMFAO's resilient "Sexy and I Know It" moves 7-8 (113,000; down 16%), Jessie J's "Domino" is steady at No. 9 (111,000; down 9%) and Pitbull's "International Love" (featuring Chris Brown) jumps 17-10 with 108,000 (up 21%). Digital track sales this past week totaled 25.98 million downloads, down 7% compared to last week (27.89 million) and up 5% stacked next to the comparable week of 2011 (24.73 million). Year to date track sales are at 115.19 million, up 6% compared to the same total at this point last year (108.33 million).  COMPLETE CHARTS

United Kingdom
Music Week Report (Excerpt)
Cover Drive drives at the hot spot
Monday, January 30, 2012
by Alan Jones, London

A song called Barbados topped the chart for Typically Tropical in 1975 but the Eastern Caribbean island of that name had to wait until 2001 for one of its natives (Rayvon) to have a number one, helping out

Shaggy on Angel. Its most famous export to the charts, of course, is Rihanna, who has had six number ones since 2007 - but while Rihanna's latest hit You Da One reverses 19-27 (12,409 sales) a third act from Barbados races to number one. 'Caribpop' quartet Cover Drive are the act in question, and enter the chart in pole position with second single, Twilight dethroning Jessie J's two week topper, Domino. Twilight sold 76,109 copies last week, almost as many copies as the band's debut hit Lick Ya Down - number nine in September - has sold since its release 22 weeks ago. The 3,497 copies it sold last week to re-enter the Top 200 at number 80 raise Lick Ya Down's sales to 83,313. Titanium is David Guetta's seventh top three hit, and climbs 3-2 this week, increasing its sales 35.22% week-on-week to 66,043. The track features Australian singer Sia, who also guests on Flo Rida's new hit Wild Ones, which debuts at number five (42,584 sales). The latter collaboration completes a perfect triangle - before Guetta and Flo Rida teamed with Sia, they teamed with each other, hitting number one with Club Can't Handle Me in 2010. Wild Ones is the second single from Flo Rida's upcoming Only One Rida (Part Two) album. The first - Good Feeling - is in the Top 10 for the 11th week in a row, falling 5-9 (29,787 sales). That's enough to make it the fifth song featuring Flo Rida to sell more than half a million copies. The list: Bad Boys (Alexandra Burke feat. Flo Rida) - 736,956, Low (Flo Rida feat. T-Pain) - 613,434, Club Can't Handle Me (Flo Rida feat. David Guetta) - 550,571, Good Feeling - 512,842, and Right Round (Flo Rida feat. Ke$ha) - 505,434. While Domino slips to number three for Jessie J (58,311 sales), her second single Price Tag (feat B.o.B) racks up its millionth sale as it completes a year of chart duty. Price Tag debuted at number one last February, and has remained in the Top 100 ever since, never slipping below 92nd place. It has spent 44 weeks in the Top 75, including the current one, which sees it slip 67-74, with 3,804 sales lifting its career tally to 1,002,010. Who You Are climbs 10-7 on the album chart, with sales of 11,543. Stronger becomes Kelly Clarkson's eighth Top 10 hit, climbing 11-8 (30,677 sales). Lana Del Rey's second single debuts lower than her first and with lower sales. Video Games debuted and peaked at number nine, with first week sales of 40,541 last October. Follow-up Born To Die enters at number 14 this week, selling 23,881 copies. Video Games remains at number 20, selling a further 17,770 copies to take its career tally to 271,596. Both songs are included on Del Rey's debut album which is released next Monday (30th), and is also called Born To Die. Singles sales are up 4.48% week-on-week at 3,444,091 - 5.72% above same week 2011 sales of 3,257,615.
In another week of dire sales, Ed Sheeran's + returns to the top of the album chart. The album, which debuted at number one last September, and first returned to the summit four weeks ago, claims pole position by default. Helped by the growing exposure of fourth single Drunk - up 75-29 on the Music Control radio airplay chart and 92-29 (10,400 sales) on the singles chart - and TV advertising, + registers a modest decline in sales, from 20,721 a fortnight ago to 20,607. The latter figure marks the album's lowest weekly total in 20 weeks on release, and also provides the album chart's lowest number one tally for more than 16 years - 855 weeks to be precise. The last number one to sell fewer copies in a week was The Levellers' Zeitgeist, which opened at number two on sales of 23,531 on 9 September 1995 (week 35) and climbed to number one the following week despite a 40.74% dip in sales to just 13,885. + did well to hold off Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto, which also had a marginal decrease in sales - down 0.90% to 19,405 as it climbs 3-2. Mylo Xyloto's advance is powered by digital sales, which accounted for 49.35% of its total, thanks no doubt to its current £5.99 price tag at iTunes.
Adele's 21 became the first album to log upwards of 20,000 sales every week for a year last week but it starts its second year in the chart by slipping 1-3, with sales of 19,394. In its previous 52 chart appearances the album sold 3,855,537 copies at an average of 74,145 a week and a median of 45,792, with a top weekly tally of 257,731 on its 10th chart appearance and a lowest weekly tally of 20,978 on its 52nd. A chart fixture for a week longer than 21, Bruno Mars' Doo-Wops & Hooligans improves 5-4 but sees its sales slide 21.60% week-on-week to just 14,054. Although its third Top 10 single, Mama Do The Hump reverses 2-4 (43,628 sales), Rizzle Kicks' debut album Stereo Typical reaches a new peak. The album debuted 12 weeks ago at number nine and climbed back to that peak last week. It now advances to number five, with sales up 6.29% week-on-week at 12,485.
With the album's only original, Live It Up, getting 54 plays on Radio Two in the last four weeks, Chris Isaak's covers album, Beyond The Sun, debuts at number six (12,138 sales). Containing the 55 year old crooner's versions of songs originally recorded by Sun recording acts Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, it is only the fifth album by Isaak to make the Top 75, and provides his highest chart placing since 1991, when his introductory chart album Wicked Game reached number three in the wake of the success of the single of the same name. Live It Up sold more copies in its first two days on release than the 4,056 copies that Isaak's last album, Mr Lucky, has sold since its release in 2009. Isaak is in the UK promoting Live It Up, with appearances on Something For The Weekend, BBC Breakfast and elsewhere also helping to generate renewed interest in his first and biggest hit single, the aforementioned Wicked Game, which re-enters the Top 200 at number 95 (2,761 sales). The track has racked up download sales of 106,942 since OCC began tracking them in 2004, 10 times more than Isaak's number two digital title, Blue Hotel. At their lowest level for 19 weeks, overall album sales of 1,569,703 are down 1.39% week-on-week and are 19.38% below same week 2011 sales of 1,947,080.  COMPLETE CHARTS