After five years, Kendrick Lamar has returned with a No. 1 album — his new “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers,” which notched the year’s biggest opening — though Harry Styles is on deck with what may well be an even splashier start.
“Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers,” the much-anticipated follow-up to Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “DAMN.” (2017), has become his fourth album to reach the top spot on the chart. It had the equivalent of 295,500 sales in the United States in its first week out, including 343 million clicks on streaming services, according to Luminate, the music tracking service formerly known as MRC Data.
Its total was a bit better than what Bad Bunny had for “Un Verano Sin Ti,” which opened last week with 274,000 sales. But the fine print shows a close match. Bad Bunny’s album actually had more streams: 357 million, still the best this year by that measurement. Lamar ended up with a greater overall number because “Mr. Morale” sold three times as many copies as a complete package, moving 35,500, versus about 11,500 for “Un Verano.”
Still, both titles will likely be dwarfed by Styles’s “Harry’s House,” which immediately dominated streaming services upon its release last week and should also be a big hit on vinyl.
“Un Verano Sin Ti” fell to No. 2 in its second week out, and “I Never Liked You” by the Atlanta rapper Future, which opened at No. 1 two weeks ago, dropped one spot to No. 3.
The K-pop group Tomorrow X Together opened at No. 4 with its new release, a five-track, 15-minute EP called “Minisode 2: Thursday’s Child.” It had minimal streams but sold 65,500 copies as a complete package, mostly on CD. The physical edition of “Minisode 2” came out in eight collectible variants, including ones exclusive to Target and Barnes & Noble stores.
Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” is No. 5 in its 71st week on the chart. All year long, “Dangerous” has not left Billboard’s Top 5.
Also this week, Florence + the Machine’s “Dance Fever” opens at No. 7, and the Black Keys’s “Dropout Boogie” starts at No. 8.
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