The Billboard 200 albums chart could welcome four top 10 debuts next week, as the tally continues to wake from its usual post-Christmas slump.
Fall Out Boy is on course for its third No. 1 album with American Beauty/American Psycho, while new sets from Joey Bada$$, Marilyn Manson and The Decemberists are all driving toward a top 10 bow.
Industry sources say Fall Out Boy’s new set, released on Jan. 20 through Island Records, could start with over 220,000 in overall album equivalent units.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the week’s most popular albums based on their overall consumption. That overall unit figure combines pure album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).
American Beauty/American Psycho could sell as much as 190,000 in pure album sales, making it the largest sales week for a rock album since last November, when Foo Fighters’ Sonic Highways launched with 190,000 (according to Nielsen Music).
The new Billboard 200’s top 10 will be revealed on Wednesday, Jan. 28.
Hip-hop artist Joey Bada$$ may notch next week’s second-highest new entry, as his debut set B4.DA.$$ could start with around 55,000 units (most of that will be comprised of traditional album sales). Two years ago, Billboard’s Bubbling Under feature tipped Bada$$ as an act about to break through.
Marilyn Manson’s new album The Pale Emperor is also sizing up a top 10 arrival, as the set could mark the rock act’s eighth top 10. The new effort may start with 50,000 units (mostly pure album sales). Manson’s last five releases (four studio sets and a greatest-hits album) have all reached the top 10, stretching back to 2003’s The Golden Age of Grotesque.
Finally, The Decemberists’ first full-length studio album in four years, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, is also heading for a top 10 bow. It might move around 50,000 units, and like the latest releases from Manson and Bada$$, it will be powered largely by album sales.
