Toby Keith Boots the DMB

Leave it to a former Sooner linebacker to bust things up at the top of the charts. Amid myriad songs about healing and peace in the post-9/11 zeitgeist, Toby Keith's vengeance-minded anthem, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" feels like, as Keith puts it, a boot in the ass. Regardless, the song ushered 338,000 folks into record stores to pick up the country singer's latest, Unleashed, putting the album at Number One.

Unleashed managed to finally find a soft spot in the armor of the usually best-selling Now That's What I Call Music! series, the tenth edition of which mustered a comparatively paltry 288,000 units sold, the lowest first-week tally for Now in more than two years. The two newcomers downshifted last week's top three, with Nelly's Nellyville (Number Three, 271,000 copies sold) sliding ahead of last week's Number One, the Dave Matthews Band's Busted Stuff (Number Four, 212,000). Lil' Wayne's 500 Degreez (Number Six, 141,000), Mario's Mario (Number Nine, 91,000) and Boyz II Men's Full Circle (Number Ten, 83,000) also busted into the Top Ten after a week of sales, with Trust Company's Lonely Position just missing at Number Eleven, with sales of 78,000.

Elsewhere sales held some of their summer momentum, with Norah Jones' Come Away With Me, Kenny Chesney's No Shoes No Shirt No Problems and the Austin Powers in Goldmember soundtrack all enjoying sales spikes. Keith's previous release, Pull My Chain, was the week's biggest climber, piggybacking on Unleashed from Number 120 to Number Eighty-nine.

Next week looks to be an exciting slugfest of old and new. Bruce Springsteen's The Rising, which takes the more meditative post-9/11 route, is riding a huge publicity wave as well as numerous fans thrilled by his reunion with the E Street Band. Then there's Linkin Park's Reanimation: In its favor, the band's Hybrid Theory was last year's best-selling album; going against it, it's an album of remixes and follows lukewarm receptions to albums by fellow new metal stalwarts Korn and Papa Roach.

This week's Top Ten: Toby Keith's Unleashed; Now That's What I Call Music! 10; Nelly's Nellyville; the Dave Matthews Band's Busted Stuff; Eminem's The Eminem Show; Lil' Wayne's 500 Degreez; Avril Lavigne's Let Go; the Red Hot Chili Peppers' By the Way; Mario's Mario; and Boyz II Men's Full Circle.

ANDREW DANSBY
(July 31, 2002)