Timberlake takes sexy to top spot

JUSTIN Timberlake is bringing sexy sales back. “FutureSex/LoveSounds,” the pop star’s second solo release, is No. 1 on the nation’s album chart with a robust 684,000 copies sold during it first week in stores.

The CD’s first single, the vamping dance-floor track “SexyBack,” is getting strong airplay, and the album, much of it produced by Timbaland, is enjoying wide critical acclaim. Times pop music critic Ann Powers praised its inspired experimentation guided by the “dense collage effect of ‘abstract’ hip-hop and the hallucinatory groove of post-rave-era dance music.”

Timberlake led a flurry of eight new releases that debuted in the Top 20 and veer across the map from heartland rock to heartfelt R&B.;

At No. 2, Grammy winner John Mayer returns to the chart with “Continuum,” his third studio album and one heavy on big-name collaborators: Kanye West, the Dixie Chicks, Alicia Keys, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Herbie Hancock. The CD sold 300,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Bob Seger and Lionel Richie, who rose to fame in the 1970s, are back this week with Top 10 albums. Seger’s “Face the Promise,” his first release since 1995, sold 151,000 copies to open at No. 4. Richie is at No. 6 after selling 75,000 of “Coming Home,” his first Top 10 seller since 1986.

geoff.boucher@latimes.com