Modest Mouse’s ‘Ship’ sails
THERE’S new blood rushing to the head of the national album sales chart, led by Modest Mouse’s first No. 1 album, “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank,” which claimed the top spot Wednesday with first-week sales of 129,000 copies.
The Washington state rock group recently expanded its lineup, bringing Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr aboard, and uses the sea as a metaphor for navigating life’s turbulent waters in many of the album’s songs. The video for “Dashboard” casts singer-guitarist Isaac Brock as an old salt.
At No. 2 is teenage British soul singer Joss Stone, whose third album, “Introducing Joss Stone,” posted sales of 118,000, the highest sales week of her young career. It’s also the highest chart debut of the Nielsen SoundScan era for a female artist from the U.K. -- an irony since it entered the U.K. chart much lower, at No. 12.
Elliott Yamin, the third-place finisher in “American Idol’s” fifth season, made it to No. 3 with sales of 90,000 copies of “Elliott Yamin,” while 25-year-old, L.A.-bred R&B; singer Marques Houston debuted at No. 5 with his album “Veteran.”
Total album sales were up slightly -- about 3% -- over last week, but down 18% compared with the same week last year.
Albums released Tuesday by Tim McGraw, Redman, Young Buck and MIMS, and the latest volume in the “Now That’s What I Call Music!” series will be vying for the top spots on next week’s chart.
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