Sales light up for ‘Sun’

Kenny Chesney’s album “When the Sun Goes Down” entered the national pop chart at No. 1 on Wednesday after selling 551,000 copies in its first week in the stores, Nielsen SoundScan reported.

That’s the highest first-week total since Alicia Keys’ “The Diary of Alicia Keys” sold 618,000 copies in its first week in December. It’s also the fourth-highest No. 1 first-week showing by a country artist of the last two years -- behind only Shania Twain’s “Up!” (874,000 copies in November 2002), the Dixie Chicks’ “Home” (780,000 copies in August 2002) and Toby Keith’s “Shock’n Y’all” (585,000 copies last November).

In reviewing the album for the Los Angeles Times, Randy Lewis noted, “Chesney doesn’t go in for much lyrical subtlety or artfulness but sticks to a heart-on-sleeve directness that makes his a characteristically American voice.”

The Calabasas rock band Incubus also enjoyed strong first-week sales with its album “A Crow Left of the Murder.” The CD sold 332,000 copies to finish No. 2 on Wednesday’s chart.

Looking ahead, retailers are predicting that Norah Jones’ long-awaited follow-up to her Grammy-winning “Come Away With Me” will enter the chart at No. 1 next week. Geoff Mayfield, director of charts for Billboard magazine, said her “Feels Like Home” album, which went on sale Tuesday, may hit the 600,000 mark for the week. Rapper Kanye West’s “The College Dropout” album also got off to such a fast start Tuesday that it may reach 400,000 sales for the week, Mayfield added.