Nickelback
Photo: Roadrunner

A cool wind wafted into American record stores from Canada last week in the form of Nickelback's fifth offering, All the Right Reasons, while a raging Twista, which first started swirling over Chicago, cut a path across the U.S. and left The Day After in its wake.

In the end, Nickelback's release had a bigger impact, debuting atop Billboard's albums chart with sales nearing 325,000 — the band's first #1 debut. Making the foursome's triumph even sweeter is the fact that All the Right Reasons also represents the band's best week-one sales showing; 2001's Silver Side Up debuted at #2 with 178,000 scans while 2003's The Long Road finished at #6 with more than 200,000 copies sold.

Twista tried to make it two #1's in a row with The Day After, which follows 2004's chart-topper Kamikaze. The Chicago rapper fell short of his goal, with After's sales clocked at under 129,000. His #2 finish hindered female country singer Sara Evans' run for Billboard glory; her newest offering, Real Fine Place, debuts at #3 with sales of nearly 126,000. The previous week's #1, Gretchen Wilson's All Jacked Up, falls three spots to #4, followed at #5 by Sheryl Crow's Wildflower, which netted second-week sales of 106,000. Kanye West's Late Registration hangs tough at #6 with over 94,000 copies soaring off shelves.

Fiona Apple's Mike Elizondo-produced second stab at Extraordinary Machine affirms the songstress' comeback, finishing its opening week at #7. The album sold close to 94,000 copies, besting Franz Ferdinand's latest by more than 10,000 scans; Apple's 1999 release, When the Pawn Hits ... debuted at #13 with 103,000 sold.

You Could Have It So Much Better, Franz Ferdinand's follow-up to their breakthrough self-titled debut, moved just over 81,000 copies during its initial week in stores to claim Billboard's #8 post. The Black Eyed Peas follow Franz at #9 with sales of 79,000 and change for Monkey Business while Faith Hill's Fireflies leaps 30 spots to #10, thanks to a 194 percent surge in retail interest that translated to week-10 scans of just under 79,000.

Trina's latest, Glamorest Life, came close, but couldn't quite score that top-10 cigar, debuting this week at #11 with 77,000 plus scans. Hers was one of several prominent discs to debut on the most recent Billboard chart. Melissa Etheridge's Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled opens at #14 with 66,000 in sales, while Shinedown's Us and Them takes #23 with 47,000 albums sold. O.A.R.'s newest, Stories of a Stranger, surfaces at #39 with sales of 28,000 and then some, and the Deftones' B-Sides & Rarities claims the #42 spot with nearly 27,000 scans. Liz Phair's latest, Somebody's Miracle, hits #46 with 24,000 in sales, while Dwele's Some Kinda ... opens at #54 (21,000), Atmosphere's You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having takes the chart's #66 (19,000) with My Morning Jacket's Z at #67 (18,000).

See "Fiona Apple: The People's Champ" for more on Extraordinary Machine.

• Nickelback
• Twista
• Fiona Apple
• Franz Ferdinand
• Trina

Gretchen Wilson's <I>All Jacked Up</I>
Photo: Sony

For Memphis rappers Three 6 Mafia, who open at #3 on Billboard's albums chart with Most Known Unknown, visions of a chart-topping debut were annihilated by country queen Gretchen Wilson and rock leading lady (and soon-to-be Mrs. Lance Armstrong) Sheryl Crow, who finish the week at #1 and #2, respectively.

Female artists debuted big on the chart, owning four of the six new releases that crack the latest top 10. Newcomers rule again this time around — as was the case with the two charts that preceded it — bucking the tendency for top-10 LPs to linger within those ranks for weeks.

While Most Known Unknown managed to move more than 115,000 units during its first week on record-store shelves, Three 6 Mafia were outdone by Crow's Wildflower, which finished with 140,000 scans, and Wilson's new one, All Jacked Up, scoring first-week sales of nearly 264,000 to earn Billboard's blue ribbon.

But Gretchen and Sheryl weren't the only ladies leading the chart. With just over 114,000 copies of her LP Libra scanned, sexy R&B songstress Toni Braxton earned herself the chart's #4. And finishing in this week's #6 slot is Lil' Kim's latest hardcore outing, The Naked Truth. Kim's take (close to 109,000 discs) might come as something of a bittersweet triumph for the rapper who recently left her New Jersey manse for a Philadelphia prison cell. The pint-sized rapper bested dancehall dude Sean Paul, whose latest offering, The Trinity, sold more than 107,000 copies its first week out to earn the chart's #7 spot.

Kanye West's Late Registration falls two spots to #5 after moving close to 110,000 units during the album's fifth week at retail. The previous chart's #1, Disturbed's Ten Thousand Fists, takes a 61 percent hit in sales, slipping to #8 with over 92,000 copies sold. Bon Jovi's Have a Nice Day also suffers a fall, dropping from #2 to #9 with nearly 89,000 scans. The Black Eyed Peas round out the top 10 with sales of Monkey Business hovering just under 77,000.

Grunge granddaddy Neil Young's new disc, Prairie Wind, opens at #11 with 72,000 scans, making it the week's seventh-biggest debut. The chart includes many fresh faces, including #18 finisher H.I.M. — Bam Margera's nominee for best band ever. The Finnish emo-metal act's first proper U.S. release, Dark Light, sold more than 46,000 copies. Another favorite of Bam's, Bloodhound Gang, return to the chart at #24 with Hefty Fine, which sold nearly 36,000 copies during its opening week. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals' Jacksonville City Nights debuts at #33 with 31,000 copies sold, while Mack 10's Hustla's Handbook finishes at #65 with 17,000 plus scans.

Other notable debut showings were turned in by Ill Nino's One Nation Underground (#101 with sales of nearly 11,000), Blackalicious' The Craft (#102, over 10,000), Panic! At the Disco's A Fever You Can't Sweat Out (#112, nearly 10,000), Project 86's ... And the Rest Will Follow (#131, 8,000) and Wolf Parade's Apologies to the Queen Mary (#158, close to 7,000).

• Lil' Kim
• Sheryl Crow
• Gretchen Wilson
• Toni Braxton
• Kanye West

Ashlee Simpson (file)
Photo: Amy Cooper

After a beach bum's weeklong lounge on the throne, pop music has reclaimed its crown.

Ashlee Simpson's Autobiography has earned the top spot on the next Billboard 200 albums chart after selling more than 398,000 copies last week, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday (July 28). The singer's debut album comes on the heels of her MTV series, "The Ashlee Simpson Show," and her first single, "Pieces of Me."

Simpson's chart-topping debut easily trumps big sister Jessica's first-week sales for her debut, Sweet Kisses, which landed at #65 when it was released in 1999, selling more than 45,000 copies. In fact, none of Jessica's albums has enjoyed such a big first week; Irresistible debuted at #6 in 2001, and In This Skin (currently #22) landed at #10 in 2003.

Jimmy Buffet's License to Chill drops a spot to #2 after Parrot Heads snapped up another 147,000 copies last week. Van Halen jump onto the chart at #3 with The Best of Both Worlds, a two-disc compilation of the band's biggest hits from the past 25 years. The set, which includes "Jump," "Jamie's Cryin' " and "Hot for Teacher," as well as three new Sammy Hagar-fronted tracks, sold more than 138,000 copies.

After spending six weeks at #2, Usher's Confessions drops to #4. In its 18 weeks on the top 200, Confessions had never dropped below the #3 spot. The album saw a 9 percent dip in sales last week, moving some 113,000 copies, bringing its total sales to more than 4.9 million.

In the rest of the top 10: Gretchen Wilson's Here for the Party holds strong at #5; Lloyd Banks' The Hunger for More drops three notches to #6; Avril Lavigne's Under My Skin slides a spot to #7; Prince's Musicology clings to #8 for a second week, following a huge jump from #64 two weeks prior; Big & Rich slip from #7 to #9 with Horse of a Different Color; and the soundtrack to Hilary Duff's "A Cinderella Story" moves from #9 to #10.

The Roots' The Tipping Point, after debuting at #4, drops to #15 in its second week following a 50 percent decline in sales. Maroon 5, meanwhile, jump seven spots with Songs About Jane (#20) and a whopping 21 notches with 1.22.03 Acoustic (#42).

Other notable debuts include Lloyd's Southside at #11 (67,000 copies sold); the Hives' Tyrannosaurus Hives at #33 (35,000); Maria Mena's White Turns Blue at #102; Dillinger Escape Plan's Miss Machine at #106; and Mis-Teeq's self-titled effort at #125.

For a full-length feature on Ashlee Simpson, check out "Ashlee Simpson: The Rock Sister."

• Ashlee Simpson
• Jimmy Buffett
• Van Halen
• Usher
• Gretchen Wilson

Velvet Revolver (file)
Photo: Dan Winters

Usher has been rocked at retail.

Selling more than 256,000 copies of Contraband in its first week out, Velvet Revolver will take Mr. Entertainment down a peg on next week's Billboard albums chart. The hit single "Slither," a ready-made fanbase and a boatload of press combined to give the band — which includes former members of Guns N' Roses and ex-Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland — a #1 placement for its debut album.

Proof that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, Contraband beat the combined first-week sales of the latest releases by both GN'R and STP (both were greatest-hits collections) by more than 41,000 copies.

Usher's Confessions shouldn't take the hit to heart. The more than 170,000 copies it sold last week has bumped the album's total sales beyond the 4 million mark. Usher may not be far from the hot seat for too long, since a re-release of the album, with at least three new songs, is on the horizon, according to producer Jermaine Dupri (see "Usher, Alicia Keys Record Duet").

Avril Lavigne's Under My Skin is showing some staying power after three weeks on the chart. Without a U.S. tour, only a smattering of radio festivals and emphasis given to just one, three-month-old single ("Don't Tell Me"), the album will slip one spot to #3, having sold more than 121,000 copies.

Another steadfast woman, country singer Gretchen Wilson, is showing similar staying power with Here for the Party, which will step back one place to #4, with more than 91,000 copies sold in its fifth week on shelves.

The #7 spot has been seeing a bit of 311 recently. Less than a year after their latest studio album, Evolver, debuted there, the reggae-inspired quintet's decade retrospective, Greatest Hits '93-'03, will follow suit, albeit with 23,000 fewer copies sold.

Perhaps fans gearing up for this year's Warped Tour, kicking off June 25, did so with the 2004 Warped Tour album. Featuring a sampling from this year's lineup — New Found Glory, NOFX, Thursday, Yellowcard and others — the 52-track LP sold more than 60,000 copies to take the #8 spot.

The remainder of next week's top 10 finds Prince's Musicology continuing its strong showing, though receding one spot to #5 (with more than 72,000 copies sold); Hoobastank's The Reason holding on to the #6 spot for the third straight week and selling more than 66,000 copies; D12's D12 World falling two spots to #9 (59,000); and Slipknot's Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) dropping five places to #10 (58,000).

Los Lonely Boys and the Black Eyed Peas continue to benefit from recent exposure. Trailed by a spate of great reviews while on their current tour, the Texas trio's self-titled debut has been on a hot streak in the last three weeks, moving from #31 to #23 to #13; while the Black Eyed Peas' "Let's Get It Started," the theme to this year's NBA Finals, helped Elephunk advance seven spots to #14 with 43,000 copies sold adding to its 1.3 million total.

Even a marriage to J. Lo couldn't spark sales for Marc Anthony. The Latin singer's latest, Amar Sin Mentiras, released just days after he wed Jennifer Lopez, will place at #26, 23 spots higher than his last Spanish-language LP, 2001's Libre, though with 17,000 fewer copies.

Modest Mouse and Franz Ferdinand are still tolling the bell for the aggro nü-metal that once dominated radio airwaves. After more than two months in stores, both bands' albums, Good News for People Who Love Bad News at #21 and Franz Ferdinand at #43, have shown steady improvement in the last three weeks.

Other notable chart debuts include country trio SheDaisy's Sweet Right Here at #16; punk chanteuse PJ Harvey's Uh Huh Her at #29; SoCal punk vets and Warped Tour headliners Bad Religion's The Empire Strikes First at #40; the Calling's second album, Two, at #54; Punk-O-Rama Vol. 9, featuring Pennywise, Rancid and the Bouncing Souls, at #67; Sonic Youth's Sonic Nurse at #70; A--hole, the new solo album from Kiss' Gene Simmons, at #86; Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, the major-label debut by New Jersey emocore group My Chemical Romance, at #103; and turntablists the X-ecutioners' Revolutions at #118.

• Usher
• Velvet Revolver
• Avril Lavigne
• Gretchen Wilson
• 311

Usher (file)
Photo: Gregg Delman

Usher didn't waste much time before giving Avril Lavigne the bump.

After just a week on top of the Billboard albums chart, Lavigne's second album, Under My Skin, will be knocked down to #2 on next week's chart thanks to another hugely successful run that saw Mr. Entertainment moving more than 194,000 copies of Confessions, according to SoundScan.

Like a good club DJ who leaves no time to rest, Confessions has kept the party pumping with "Confessions Part II," the third single to drop from Usher's fourth album since its release 11 weeks ago. Fueled by previous singles "Yeah!" and "Burn," the album has been #1 for nine of those weeks and is now knocking at the door of 4 million total copies sold.

Lavigne's Under My Skin, meanwhile, sold more than 170,000 copies last week. The follow-up to 2002's Let Go has moved more than 551,000 copies so far.

With four shows last week, including two at Los Angeles' Staples Center, to help keep his album sales high (since one album is factored into the cost of each concert ticket), Prince will move up four spots to #4 with Musicology. The album also experienced a 35 percent rise in weekly sales, to more than 95,000 copies, pushing its total to slightly less than 800,000 (see "Billboard Sours On Prince's Musicology Sales Experiment").

Big weeks by Usher, Avril, Prince and country singer Gretchen Wilson, whose Here for the Party will take a step up to #3 with more than 111,000 copies sold, will relegate Slipknot's Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) to #5, three spots below its debut position on the last chart. The band's follow-up to 2001's Iowa sold more than 84,000 copies.

The rest of the top 10 will find Hoobastank's The Reason and D12's D12 World holding onto #6 and #7, respectively (with more than 76,000 and 68,000 copies sold last week); the "Shrek 2" soundtrack moving a peg up to #8 (66,000); Now That's What I Call Music! 15 advancing four places to #9 (54,000); and Method Man's Tical 0: The Prequel slipping five spots to #10 (53,000).

If Kanye West's latest single is to be believed, two sets of footprints lead up seven places to his album's spot at #12. With "Jesus Walks" providing support, The College Dropout sold another 49,000 copies for a grand total of 1.7 million.

No matter who takes home the NBA Finals trophy, the Black Eyed Peas have been winners since the playoffs began. The group's "Let's Get Retarded" has been retitled "Let's Get It Started" and used in promotional spots for the playoffs. After weeks of televised broadcasts on cable channels TNT and ESPN, the playoffs have moved to a prime-time network time slot, and the added exposure is evident in sales of Elephunk. Nearly a year after its release, the album will jump up 13 spots to #21 with a 19 percent goose in sales.

Significant strides were also made by the soundtrack to "That's So Raven" (#54 to #44), Juvenile's Juve the Great (#59 to #49) and J-Kwon's Hood Hop (#66 to #54).

Next week's notable chart debuts include Wu-Tang cohort Masta Killa's debut, No Said Date, at #136; Ready Now, Truth Hurts' follow-up to her 2002 debut LP, Truthfully Speaking, at #173; and the self-titled debut by former Hole/ Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur's new band Auf Der Maur, at #187.

• Usher
• Avril Lavigne
• Prince
• Gretchen Wilson
• Slipknot

Avril Lavigne (file)
Photo: Arista

Avril Lavigne and Slipknot make strange bedfellows, but the odd couple joined forces to knock Mr. Entertainment out of the #1 spot on next week's Billboard albums chart.

Lavigne will take the top spot with her own album of confessions, the introspective (albeit still brash and rebellious) Under My Skin. According to SoundScan figures released Wednesday (June 2), the album sold more than 380,000 copies in its opening week, almost six times more than her debut, Let Go, upon its release in 2002.

Lavigne's opening sales soundly beat those of masked metal marauders Slipknot. Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses, the third installment from the Iowa-bred hellions, made its debut this week at #2 on sales of more than 242,000 copies.

Usher might be feeling the "Burn" of a slip to the #3 spot on sales of nearly 197,000 copies, but after 10 weeks on the chart (eight at #1), it can't hurt too much: Confessions has sold 3.7 million copies to date, more than three times as many as any other artist in the top 10.

Gretchen Wilson is Here for the Party and isn't calling it a night anytime soon. The country songstress holds strong at #4 in her third week on the chart, moving more than 125,000 copies. Method Man's party, however, seems to be winding down as Tical 0: The Prequel drops three notches to #5, selling slightly more than half as many units as it did the week before (from 164,000 to 84,000).

After 25 weeks on the chart, Hoobastank's The Reason is hanging tough, moving up a notch from #7 to #6 with sales of more than 80,000. D12 are holding strong as well, having sold more than 1 million copies since D12 World was released five weeks ago. The album drops a notch to #7, moving more than 71,000 copies.

Royalty and ogres alike find happiness this week as their albums jump up a few spots. Prince's Musicology climbs eight spots to land at #8 with sales of more than 70,000. Likewise, the "Shrek 2" soundtrack jumps from #12 to #9, no doubt bolstered by the film's staggering box-office sales. The soundtrack sold more than 69,000 copies in its third week.

New Found Glory, however, have to be hoping that it's not "All Downhill From Here," as their newest album, Catalyst, drops seven spots to land at #10. Album sales for Catalyst were down more than 50 percent (to more than 63,000) in its second week on the charts.

Alanis Morissette's So-Called Chaos sinks from #5 to #11 this week (62,000), while George Michael proves Patience is a virtue, moving up from #29 to #12 (61,000).

Tamyra Gray of "American Idol" finds dreams can come true as her debut, The Dreamer, opens on the chart at #23. Vets Wilson Phillips, however, get a chillier reception as California enters at #35 in its opening week. Also debuting on the chart are Everlast's White Trash Beautiful (#56), 3 Doors Down's Another 700 Miles EP (#156) and Counting Crows' Films About Ghosts (#171).

• Avril Lavigne
• Slipknot
• Usher
• Gretchen Wilson
• Hoobastank

Usher (file)
Photo: Arista

"Burn" is proving to be as smoking a jam as "Yeah!," as the single helps Usher to remain in the hot seat of the Billboard albums chart.

Mr. Entertainment's fourth album, Confessions, sold another 228,000 copies last week, just barely enough to keep country singer Gretchen Wilson out of the #1 slot, according to SoundScan. The one-two punch of hit singles has helped Usher's album to maintain its position in the top slot for seven of the eight weeks since its release (D12 bumped it into the #2 spot two weeks ago).

Wilson's debut album, Here for the Party, trails Confessions by less than 1,500 copies, while the album's hit single, "Redneck Woman," moves to #2 on Radio & Records' country-radio chart.

Dirty South pioneers 8Ball & MJG's seventh LP, Living Legends, comes in at #3. Featuring contributions from Ludacris, Twista, 112 and P. Diddy, the album sold more than 120,000 copies on the heels of the single "You Don't Want Drama."

While D12 World will slide two spots to #4, with more than 117,000 copies sold in its third week out, Hoobastank's The Reason takes one step forward to #5 (79,000 copies sold) as the crossover single "The Reason" shows no signs of slowing down.

The latest addition to the Cash Money clique, 48-year-old Teena Marie, will make her reintroduction at #6 with La Dona by selling more than 75,000 copies. Marie's first album in a decade — and her 10th overall — features collaborations with Gerald Levert, Common and her former boyfriend Rick James, though the soulful R&B singer is flying solo on her hit single, "I'm Still in Love."

The rest of next week's top 10 finds Prince's Musicology vacating its three-week-old spot at #3 for a place at #7 (with more than 68,000 copies sold); Now That's What I Call Music! 15 up two notches to #8; Mario Winans' Hurt No More down a deuce to #9 (60,000); and Petey Pablo taking the biggest dip with Still Writing in My Diary: 2nd Entry, which will fall from #4 to #10 (56,000).

End of Heartache, the third album by metal quartet Killswitch Engage, will bow at #21, their highest chart position ever. And the soundtrack to "Shrek 2," with its eclectic roster of artists ranging from pop stars (Counting Crows) and disco kings (Lipps Inc.) to celebrity dabblers (Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas covering "Livin' La Vida Loca") and misanthropic singer/songwriters (Eels, Tom Waits, Nick Cave), will come in at #36, rounding out the top-40 debuts.

Big strides were made by rockers showing staying power, as Modest Mouse's Good News for People Who Love Bad News moves up 11 spots to #23 — a 16 percent increase in sales — on the popularity of "Float On"; and Scottish hipsters Franz Ferdinand will jump up 42 spots to #65 with their eponymous debut.

And more than 9,500 people looking to make the next Black Album permutation (i.e. Grey Album, Slack Album, Double Black Album, etc.) picked up the a cappella version of Jay-Z's latest, which will come in at #106.

• Usher
• Gretchen Wilson
• Dirty South
• Twista
• 112