Charts Afire: Ciara Evolves, Gwen Slumps and More

Proving that rumors of transexuality do not detrimentally effect album sales, crunk diva Ciara topped the charts with her second album, Evolution. The disc debuted at Number One this week, moving 339,062 units.

In other chart news, Eminem's mixtape The Re-Up did poorly by Shady standards but as mixtapes go, a Number Two charting (with 310,160 units sold) is nothing to sneer at. Golden girl Gwen Stefani scored the Number Three spot with Sweet Escape, though with 310,160 copies sold in its first week, the album fell astoundingly short of its predecessor, last year's multiplatinum Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Inexplicably, Simon Cowell's operatic pop invention Il Divo jumped 10 spots from last week — Siempre landed at Number Six and sold 166,065 copies since its last chart showing at Number Sixteen. And Jay-Z's Kingdom Come has come and gone, falling from Number Six last week to Number 15 this week. Hova, what happened?

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

More Song Stories entries »

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