On the Charts: Chris Stapleton’s ‘Traveller’ Number One Again
Chris Stapleton continued to feel the sales afterglow of his huge, breakthrough CMA Awards night as the country singer’s Traveller spent its second consecutive week atop the Billboard 200. Released back in May, Traveller sold 124,000 total units in the first full week following its Album of the Year win at the CMAS on November 4th, a night that also featured Stapleton winning Best New Artist and performing alongside Justin Timberlake.
Traveller also becomes only the second LP released in 2015 to reach Number One in consecutive weeks, joining Luke Bryan’s Kill the Lights, Billboard reports. Adele‘s 25 will no doubt join that exclusive club and then some when that album arrives November 20th.
Eric Church‘s surprise album Mr. Misunderstood jumped one spot to Number Two as it sold 65,000 copies in its first full week on shelves. Ellie Goulding’s Delirium was the week’s highest-charting new release, placing Number Three with 61,000 total copies sold. The Weeknd’s Beauty Behind the Madness finished the week at Number Four while Tim McGraw’s Damn Country Music debuted at Number Five.
The Beatles‘ remastered, restocked best-of compilation 1+ reentered the Billboard 200 at Number Six with 39,000 copies sold. The rest of the Top Ten was fleshed out by the Now 56 collection (Seven), Fetty Wap’s self-titled (Eight), Carrie Underwood’s Storyteller (Nine) and, in its debut week, Sara Bareilles’ What’s Inside: Songs From Waitress, which sold 30,000 copies on its way to Number 10.
Next week, the victor in the much-ballyhooed sales matchup between Justin Bieber‘s Purpose and One Direction‘s Made in the A.M. will be announced. As of Saturday, Billboard gave Bieber a slight edge, and as of press time, Purpose is outpacing the British quartet as Number One on the iTunes Top Albums chart. It will be a short reign for whoever wins, as Adele’s 25 swoops in Friday to save the music industry.