Hilary Duff (file)
Photo: Jason Squires

Sometimes it's hard to feel sorry for Hilary Duff. She's got a clothing line, a huge tour and a fledgling movie career. But what she still doesn't have is a #1 album, as her self-titled second release will fall just short of taking the top spot on the next Billboard albums chart.

According to SoundScan numbers released Wednesday (October 6), Duff's album sold 191,852 copies last week — good enough for a #2 debut — but she couldn't overtake Rascal Flatts, the country-music pretty boys whose third album, Feels Like Today, moved 200,946 copies, giving them their first #1 debut.

Another reason to feel sorry for Duff: a precipitous drop-off in sales. Her debut album, Metamorphosis, sold nearly 12,000 more copies during its first week of release in August 2003.

Things are probably a whole lot cheerier in Ciara's camp, as the 18-year-old rode the success of her single "Goodies" to a #3 debut. Her album of the same name sold 124,750 copies, good enough to place her ahead of two previous Billboard champs: Green Day and Nelly. The Bay Area punks fall three spots to #4 after selling 123,613 copies of their punk opera, American Idiot. Nelly's Suit follows at #5, with sales of 118,358 copies, while that album's companion piece, Sweat, drops to #8 after selling 79,927 copies.

Orem, Utah, gutter punks the Used moved 93,240 copies of their second album, In Love & Death, for a #6 debut. The band's self-titled first album failed to crack the Billboard albums chart when it was released in 2002. Behind them is the final studio album from Ray Charles, Genius Loves Company, which holds steady at #7 after selling another 81,401 copies. Since its release in late August, Genius has never left the top 10.

Marilyn Manson's greatest-hits album, Lest We Forget: The Best of Marilyn Manson, bows at #9 on sales of 78,715 copies, while Tim McGraw rounds out the top 10 with Live Like You Were Dying. Just missing the top 10 is British soul singer Joss Stone, whose Mind, Body and Soul sold 73,487 copies for a #11 ranking.

Now That's What I Call Music! 16 lands at #12 (72,390 copies sold), just ahead of four new entries. Brian Wilson's Smile, an experimental studio project the Beach Boy abandoned 37 years ago, sold 65,089 copies to land at #13, followed by New York MC Talib Kweli's Beautiful Struggle (62,633), former "You Hear It First" band Interpol's Antics (62,538), and Queen Latifah's jazz-inspired Dana Owens Album (61,493).

Two other "You Hear It First" artists scored solid debuts: rapper Guerilla Black's Guerilla City, which opens at #20 (46,023 copies sold), and Disturbing Tha Peace's Shawnna, who lands at #22 with Worth Tha Weight (42,680). Not far behind Shawnna is the chart's biggest freefall, Chevelle's This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In), which plunges 17 spots to #25.

Other notable debuts include influential punkers Social Distortion at #31 with Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll; MTV2's Headbangers Ball Volume 2 at #43; the Shaolin's own Wu-Tang Clan at #82 with their live Disciples of the 36 Chambers: Chapter 1; goth-rockers Cradle of Filth's Nymphetamine at #89; and the Jerry Garcia Band at #118 with After Midnight: Kean College, 2/28/80.

• Hilary Duff
• Ciara
• Rascal Flatts
• Green Day
• Nelly

MTV.com Exclusive: Guerilla Black Photos 09.13.2004

• Guerilla Black