The U.S. pop chart belongs to One Direction this Thanksgiving

U.K. boy band One Direction leads seven new albums onto the top 10 of the U.S. pop charts as record labels ramp up their release schedule for the holiday season. The act’s second album in 12 months, “Take Me Home,” sold more than 500,000 copies in its first week in stores in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.

“The X-Factor”-groomed One Direction, whose hit “What Makes You Beautiful” has sold about 3.7 million downloads, now has two albums in the top 30. The act’s late 2011 debut, “Up All Night,” is at No. 26 on the tally and has sold more than 1.3 million copies to date.

Only two albums this year have debuted with higher first-week sales than the 540,00 copies sold by “Take Me Home.” Mumford & Sons’ “Babel” sold 600,000 when it debuted and Taylor Swift’s “Red” arrived with a 1.2 million showing in its first week.

In fact, despite all the new offerings available to consumers, Swift’s “Red” isn’t showing any signs of rust. “Red” sold an additional 145,000 copies this week and would have again been No. 1 were it not for One Direction. In four weeks of release, the heavily promoted album -- one that’s not available for streaming -- has sold just shy of 1.9 million copes.

The rest of the top 10 is populated with returning stars and name-brand compilations, with one exception. At No. 4 is “Trilogy,” a collection from Abel Tesfaye’s The Weeknd. The album, which splits the difference between modern hip-hop and bedroom soul, collects three albums that were initially given away for free online. Tesfaye is now working with Universal, which released the three disc collection that’s selling for around $11.99.

Elsewhere, the soundtrack to vampire soap opera “Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 2” lands at No. 3 with 93,000 copies sold. All five soundtracks to the films have debuted in the top 5, but the latest has the distinction of scoring the lowest first-week sales total. The soundtrack last year for “Breaking Dawn -- Part 1” topped 100,000 sales in its debut.

Soundgarden’s “King Animal,” the act’s first album of all new material since 1996, enters the chart at No. 5 with 83,000 copies sold. Further down, Green Day, another act that rose to fame in the ‘90s, bows at No. 9 with “¡Dos!.” Green Day’s plan to release three new albums in 2012 is showing diminishing returns, as last month, “¡Uno!” debuted with 139,000 copies sold, while “¡Dos!” sold 69,000.

Diva-turned-reality show judge Christina Aguilera lands at No. 7 with “Lotus,” which sold 73,000 copies. Lana Del Rey’s eight-track “Paradise” rounds out the top 10 at No. 10 with 67,000 copies sold.

Outside the top 10, Sacramento metal act the Deftones enter at No. 11 with “Koi No Yokan” (65,000 copies), and it wouldn’t be the holidays without a new release from Susan Boyle. Her “Standing Ovation: The Greatest Songs From the Stage” enters at No. 12 (47,000 copies).

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