Thanks to a week featuring at least two huge debuts, the album charts this week aren't too far from what the Billboard 200 reflected. Drake starts out with the biggest release of the year thus far, and in fact the biggest release of the last year (excluding a certain Taylor Swift). If You're Reading This It's Too Late sold 497,500 copies during its first three days of availability, suggesting that it could have racked up even more if the emcee had settled for a more traditional release date. The album/mixtape was only available digitally.
That release took all of the steam of of the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, which otherwise would have had a rather stellar no. 1 week. That album-thanks to multiple contributions from Beyoncé, Ellie Goulding and The Weeknd-opened with 205,000 actual copies sold.
Sam Smith was also at no. 3 on the Albums chart as In The Lonely Hour got a he boost from Grammy viewers, who saw him take home four awards. The album saw sales of nearly 150 percent, rising to 139,000 in total this week. Swift saw a significant boost in sales for 1989 as well despite dropping to no. 4. Her album sold 98,000 copies in the last sales period.
Ed Sheeran continues the Grammys-fuelled boost to album sales as his x moved 91,000 copies and took no. 5 on the chart. The Now 53 compilation is one of the few albums in this week's Top 10 that saw a drop in sales, but stuck at no. 6 with 73,000 copies sold. The 2015 Grammy Nominees compilation also got an increase thanks to its namesake, with 70,000 copies sold.
Beck was perhaps the biggest winner thanks to his Grammys success, where he and Morning Phase won Album of The Year. That album rose from no. 21 to no. 8 with 61,500 copies sold, the second highest week of sales for the album. Meghan Trainor also received a slight increase in sales despite not actually performing at the ceremony, as her Title stuck around with 54,000 in sales.
Diana Krall was the only one of last week's new single-artist albums to stick around for a second week, surpassing Kid Ink and Bob Dylan, who debuted ahead of her and Wallflower last week. The album dropped just a tad to 38,000 albums sold overall.
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