Mariah Carey's <i>E=MC²</i>
Photo: Island

Last week, pop songstress Mariah Carey was everywhere, getting the word out about her latest LP, E=MC². She appeared on "American Idol," made the cover of Us Weekly and starred in a series of commercial-esque vignettes that aired all weekend, as part of MTV's 52/52 campaign.

Needless to say, Mariah's fans were well aware that the singer's album landed in stores last week, and clearly, the public appearances and the media hoopla didn't hurt sales of her record. In fact, with close to 463,000 copies scanned during week one, Carey's 11th studio offering coasts to the top of next week's Billboard albums sales chart, with little — if any — competition.

E=MC² marks Carey's sixth album to top the charts and has outsold all of the singer's previous efforts' opening weeks, according to the latest SoundScan data. In 2005, The Emancipation of Mimi opened at #1 with only 403,800 sold. Much more than that, though, E=MC² has earned the distinction of becoming 2008's best-selling debut so far, trouncing the 374,600 turned out by Jack Johnson's Sleep Through the Static in February.

Mariah's was among 19 new releases to impact next week's top 200 and one of only two new albums to enter the chart in the top 10. The other, country artist Lady Antebellum's self-titled set, bows at #4, selling 43,400 units. The rest of the top 10 is made up of several regulars, with Leona Lewis' Spirit at #2 (with 94,800 scans), Miley Cyrus' Best of Both Worlds live record at #3 (with 47,300 sold) and the 27th installment in the Now That's What I Call Music! compilation series finishing at #5 (selling 39,000 copies).

George Strait's Troubadour follows at #6 (with 38,000 sold), and the soundtrack to "Alvin and the Chipmunks" comes in at #7 (with sales reported at 31,700). The "Juno" soundtrack climbed 38 spots to #8 (31,300), no doubt thanks to the movie's DVD release, while R.E.M.'s Accelerate fell four spots to #9 (30,000). Taylor Swift's self-titled debut comes in at #10, with 29,700 sold.

Thrice's The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV enters next week's chart at #17, selling 21,400 units. Rush's Snakes and Arrows: Live bows at #18, selling 21,000 copies. The Naked Brothers Band's I Don't Want to Go to School scanned 19,000 copies to open at #23, and Tristan Prettyman's Hello claims the #27 spot, with a reported 18,200 snatched up. The Kooks' Konk follows at #41, with 13,300 sold, while Insane Clown Posse offshoot Dark Lotus' Opaque Brotherhood sold 12,100 copies to enter the chart at #45.

Elsewhere on the chart, Jason Mraz's We Dance EP generated first-week sales of 11,300 to open at #52, Apocalyptica's Worlds Collide follows at #59 with 10,600 scans, and M83's Saturdays = Youth comes in at #107, on the strength of 6,300 in sales. Phantom Planet return at #119, selling 5,700 copies of their new one, Raise the Dead, and Worth Dying For's self-titled debut opens at #166, selling 4,100 copies.

• Mariah Carey's E=MC²: Track By Track
• Mariah Carey: A Look Back At Her MTV Interviews
• Are British Bands Hitting A Star-Spangled Ceiling?

• Mariah Carey
• George Strait
• Thrice
• Rush
• The Kooks

The Kooks
Photo: Astralwerks

Britpop's most genial band, the Kooks, release their second album, Konk, this week, and they're part of a cohort of their countrymen who are trying to break through what we've dubbed the "Star-Spangled Ceiling" — the Stateside success that has eluded so many artists that are top-sellers in the U.K.

Can the bouncing boys from Brighton match — or, better yet, build upon — the inroads they made in America with their 2006 debut, Inside In/ Inside Out? (To date, that album has sold more than 108,000 copies Stateside, according to SoundScan, which is quite respectable these days.) Can their coastal, blue-state following (they sell out New York and Los Angeles shows in the blink of an eye, packing the room with the sort of fans who sing along to every word) spread to the heartland? How will they fare in a depleted U.S. market, where, most weeks, 200,000 sales get you to #1 and a mere 60,000 will land you a top 10 debut? And finally, can the Kooks — who were a "You Hear It First" artist back in 2006 — overcome what seems to be the recent dogged American resistance to any British pop artist not named Winehouse?

"I don't know, man, I'm really excited about America," said Luke Pritchard, the Kooks' perpetually upbeat frontman. "I think we've made a good album, and I think we can do well over here."

Pritchard may not be stressing about building a career in the U.S., but there is no doubt that for many recent British artists, America has been a tough nut to crack. Take a look at the British names represented in a recent U.S. top 100 albums chart, courtesy of SoundScan: Amy Winehouse, Robert Plant, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin and two versions of the Beatles-centric "Across the Universe" soundtrack.

That's it. The chart isn't particularly "English" or the least bit encouraging for any new U.K. artist dreaming of one day making a name Stateside.

For the sake of comparison, let's look at the American names charting in the U.K. top 100 that same week, according to the Official U.K. Charts Company: OneRepublic, We Are Scientists, Michael Jackson, the Temptations, Mark Ronson, Alicia Keys, Timbaland, MGMT, Jack Johnson, the Eagles, Chris Brown, Britney Spears, the Killers, Foo Fighters, Vampire Weekend, Paramore, Linkin Park.

As a Brit might say: "Bloody hell!"

All the same, Pritchard is excited about the Kooks' prospects here, particularly a May North American tour, during which the band will play Washington State's giant Sasquatch Festival and some of their biggest U.S. venues to date, including two nights at New York's 3,000-capacity Terminal 5. So much for Pritchard's modest assessment that "the Arctic Monkeys are a lot bigger than us in America. We've played to 300 people when they're playing to 2,000."

He added that another key difference between the two bands, which may bode well for the Kooks in the long run, is that they are less identifiably "English" than the simians from Sheffield. "Our music is really steeped in American music," Pritchard said. "Even more modern stuff, like [folk troubadour] Mason Jennings. To me, he's like the sweet side of Bob Dylan, that kind of Americana. I feel shaped by that as well. We have a real folk side, and that all came from America, whereas the Arctic Monkeys' music, that really is British indie."

There's a long-standing theory that if you're too British — in sound, accent or lyrical points of reference — you have a tough time in America. Plenty of U.K. artists over the years make that case, from the Jam to Billy Bragg to the Manic Street Preachers to even Blur, who didn't score a major pop hit in America until the decidedly unBlur-like "whoo hoo" of "Song 2." Which British artists tend to flourish in this country? Those who mine American sounds, like Amy Winehouse with her throwback soul; those who are unabashed Beatles disciples à la Oasis; and those who create something more difficult to categorize, like the most successful U.K. band in America in the 21st century, Coldplay.

The theory goes all the way back to the '60s, to Ray Davies of the Kinks — a quintessential Britpop band to be sure, but one that, after initial success, may have suffered in this country due to the resolute Englishness of Davies' songwriting. It just so happens that the Kooks recorded their new album in Davies' studio, Konk, and even named the record after it. Pritchard believes there is something to the "too English" theory. "Especially when it comes to subject matter," he said. "Pulp is quite a good example. Jarvis Cocker's lyrics are very tongue-in-cheek, English humor, which over here just might go over people's heads."

Maybe SoundScan tabulations of record sales are no longer a very accurate barometer of what people are really listening to, but no one is going to convince me that Americans are, in significant numbers, giving U.K. rock much of a chance. One can argue, as many of the Yank hipster blogs do, that much of it doesn't deserve a chance, but plenty of American bands who don't merit attention get it.

So does a star-spangled ceiling exist, or is this all just so much inside-football navel-gazing? For their part, the Kooks are happy to have a second record out, one on which, Pritchard says, they didn't just repeat themselves. With Konk, they've moved in a somewhat rockier direction, with the single "Always Where I Need to Be," the sing-along "Do You Wanna?" and "Sway," which Pritchard calls their first "proper power ballad."

"We didn't really set out to make a heavy album, but it was more like we just got into playing more rock and roll," Pritchard explained. "[Guitarist] Hugh [Harris] would just really get into his pedals and his guitar. It was quite natural, really."

And even if in other places, like the smack-talking track "All Over Town" and the charming, '60s-sounding "Mr. Maker," the Kooks are inescapably, undeniably British, Pritchard says they're not daunted by the prospect of reaching more Americans — far from it. "I think our music is working here," he said. "Plus, we like hanging out in America. It's an interesting place to be right now because everything is changing. And we definitely want to be a part of all that."

• Are British Bands Hitting A Star-Spangled Ceiling?

• The Kooks

Kooks' Luke Pritchard
Photo: MTV News

These should be nothing but good times for England's the Kooks. The boisterous boys from Brighton have a second album called Konk (named after the studio owned by their Britpop predecessor, Ray Davies of the Kinks) set for release in April, anticipation is rabid in their homeland, and even here in the States, where they enjoy pockets of devoted fans, they recently played to capacity crowds in Los Angeles and New York.

But the fun has been considerably dampened recently by the news last month that Kooks' longtime bassist Max Rafferty had left the band for the second time.

To be more precise, Rafferty was fired, and according to normally carefree frontman Luke Pritchard, this time, it's for good.

"I'd love to work with him again someday, but for now it's a permanent thing — we need to keep going," Pritchard told MTV News on Thursday, in his first on-the-record remarks about Rafferty's departure from the band on January 29.

Drug use by Rafferty has been widely rumored to be at the root of the split, and in deference to his bandmate, Pritchard would not comment specifically on those allegations, saying only, "It got really hard, and he needs to do what he needs to do. In my opinion he's going through a lot in his life, and being in a band doesn't help that kind of stuff."

Rafferty first took a months-long sabbatical from the Kooks in 2006 for "health reasons." He returned in 2007 to what Pritchard called a "honeymoon period," but before long, old problems crept up. "It's sad, man, but it's been going on a long time," he explained, and with a new album on the way and a long tour ahead of them, the band made a tough call.

"You know, I haven't really been this honest about it yet, but the thing is, I don't think [Rafferty] could have done the touring," said an emotional Pritchard. "I don't think he could have physically done it. So we were all sitting around one day, and we all care so much about him, and it was like, 'Well, he's gonna get angry and it's gonna be horrible, but at the same time, I think it would be better to happen now than in a few months when you're on the road and things get crazy."

On a brighter note, the Kooks are gearing up for Konk (due April 15), a more muscular record than their debut Inside In/ Inside Out, with some harder-edged tracks alongside vintage Kooksian singalongs. The band is soldiering on with fill-in bassist Dan Logan (also from Brighton). They just shot a video in Brooklyn, New York, for the album's first single, "Always Where I Need to Be."

And with the tough times hopefully behind them, they're looking forward to returning to America this summer. "Yeah, man, we're really excited," Pritchard said. "Honestly, especially with the way things are right now, I just want to think about music. Fun. Music. Shows. Love. I don't want to think about the other sh--."

• You Hear It First: The Kooks

• The Kooks

Photo: Colin Lane

• The Kooks

Photo: Colin Lane

• The Kooks

Gnarls Barkley
Photo: Matthew Donaldson

Every summer has one — that inescapable hit song that blankets radio and TV and becomes so mainstream, so massive, that it enters the repertoires of other artists who just can't deny its hook.

Call it the "Since U Been Gone" effect.

This summer it seems Gnarls Barkley's slice of sunnily depressive soul, "Crazy," is that song, and everyone from Nelly Furtado to British buzz-band-of-the-second the Kooks couldn't resist putting their own spin on it.

U.K. soul singer Terri Walker, former Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers and singer/songwriter Ray LaMontagne have all weighed in with unique versions. And mash-up artists have also been bitten by the bug, chopping up the irresistible bass bounce and hook with everything from old-school Prince and Aussie indie rockers the Avalanches to '60s girl group the Shirelles, classic rockers Supertramp and '90s one-hit wonder Skee-Lo in a rash of bootlegs.

Covers of the song — which set a record in England earlier this year by becoming the first digital download to debut at the top of the singles chart — can be found all over the Net. Curiously, the group has tried to stop the "Crazy" train before it gets out of hand. As the record reached its ninth week at #1, the duo of producer Danger Mouse and singer Cee-Lo asked that it be deleted from the U.K.'s list before people got tired of it.

Though the pair declined through their label to comment on the props from their peers, we grabbed as many decent versions as we could and gave them a spin to provide you with a guide to the insanely good and just plain nutty.

Assuming, of course, that you're not already sick of it.

Who: Nelly Furtado
Why you know her: She's competing with Gnarls, thanks to her summer smash, "Promiscuous."
What it sounds like: Furtado performed a quiet version of the song on a BBC radio show recently, accompanied only by acoustic guitar. Breathily crooning the song in a Norah Jones style, her smoky, downtown jazz-club vibe is the most low-key of the bunch.
Verdict: Kinda nutty

Who: Twilight Singers
Why you know them: Singer Greg Dulli was known for doing offbeat Motown covers with the Afghan Whigs, and his latest project has tackled artists ranging from Mary J. Blige and Stevie Wonder to Fleetwood Mac and George Gershwin.
What it sounds like: At a May 29 show at the Paradise in Boston, Dulli mellowed things out, giving Gnarls singer Cee-Lo a run for his money in the gravelly vocals department. The singer takes the uptempo song for a late-night, drunken-crooner makeover, thanks to brushed drums, piano and some spare guitar.
Verdict: Definitely a bit deranged

Who: Ray LaMontagne
Why you know him: The folk-oriented singer/songwriter released the blue-eyed soul album Trouble in 2004, garnering comparisons to everyone from Van Morrison to Tim Buckley.
What it sounds like: Kind of like a Richie Havens tune from 1968. The husky, scratchy-voiced LaMontagne transforms the song into a Woodstock-era acoustic anthem with a healthy dollop of impassioned folk/soul and a bit of improvised scatting at the end.
Verdict: Certifiable

Who: The Kooks
Why you know them: You probably don't ... yet. The latest English buzz band of retro-rocking teens has released a string of hit singles in the U.K. and recently made its American debut at the South by Southwest music conference.
What it sounds like: Seemingly the ones who kicked off the trend with their cover from March — the same month the song was released digitally overseas — singer Nick Pritchard slathers the song in a slack, British, indie sensibility. The acoustic-guitars-and-spare-drum take is a bit hippy-dippy, but Pritchard's squeaky, nasally voice and marble-mouthed delivery give it a nice edge.
Verdict: Sorry, but kinda kooky

Who: Terri Walker
Why you know her: Yet another testament to Gnarls' effect on the British music scene, Walker is a twentysomething North London R&B sensation who has yet to make it in the U.S. but whose 2003 debut, Untitled, snagged her a nomination for England's prestigious Mercury Music Prize.
What it sounds like: The female Cee-Lo (scratchy voice and all — do you sense a pattern here?) busts out a kinda bossa-nova soul version of the track in a live recording. A bit Jill Scott, a bit Erykah Badu, the funky cover retains the original's ragged R&B edge but replaces Danger Mouse's thick sonic backdrop with a jazzy guitar.
Verdict: A bit mad, a bit sad, but definitely not bad

• Gnarls Barkley
• Nelly Furtado
• The Twilight Singers
• Ray LaMontagne
• The Kooks

MTV.com Exclusive: The Kooks

• The Kooks