The Backstreet Boys' Millennium will top the Billboard 200 albums chart for

a seventh week, and it's a week that pretty much tells the story of the summer in music.

Limp Bizkit, the top-selling rock band in the U.S., whose Significant Other

displaced the Backstreet Boys from the #1 spot for three weeks earlier this month, will

hold firm at #2, and they'll be surrounded by pop, pop and more pop, according to sales

figures released Wednesday (July 28) by SoundScan.

At the top of the chart, Millennium, which reclaimed the top spot from

Significant Other a week ago, sold 235,192 copies for the week ending Sunday,

about 10,000 more copies than Significant Other did. The Billboard chart,

which is posted each Thursday, is based on SoundScan's numbers.

Millennium, which includes the current top-10 hit "I Want It That Way" (

href="http://media.addict.com/atn-bin/get-

music/Backstreet_Boys/I_Want_It_That_Way.ram">RealAudio excerpt), has

now sold more than 4 million copies, according to SoundScan. Limp Bizkit's album,

bolstered by the song "Nookie" (

music/Limp_Bizkit/Nookie.ram">RealAudio excerpt), which the band played to

a nearly out-of-control audience of moshers and crowd surfers Saturday night at

Woodstock '99, has sold around 1.7 million copies.

The year's other major pop darlings, ex-Menudo singer Ricky Martin and teen upstart

Britney Spears, will hold their ground at #3 and #4 respectively with Ricky Martin and

... Baby One More Time.

Behind them, though, rock albums are knocking at pop's door. The week's other big

chart stories involve Smash Mouth and Kid Rock, whose albums will each jump four

spots into the middle of the top 10.

Quirky California rockers Smash Mouth will see their Astro Lounge, boosted by

the hit "All Star" (

music/Smash_Mouth/All_Star.ram">RealAudio excerpt), jump to #6. And

Detroit rap-rocker Kid Rock, whose performance with his band Twisted Brown Trucker

and diminutive rhyming partner Joe C was one of the most well-received sets at

Woodstock, will climb to #7 with Devil Without a Cause.

Smash Mouth singer Steve Harwell said Astro Lounge was made with the goal of

overcoming the potential one-hit-wonder status facing the band after 1997's "Walkin' on

the Sun."

"It wasn't about copying 'Walkin' on the Sun,' " he said. "For us it was keep it fun. Stay a

fun band, but grow up a little bit more. We really do focus on the fun, danceable stuff. The

last thing we want to make is a boring record."

Veteran rap duo EPMD, who spent the past two months denying rumors that Out of

Business would be their final album, will see the new collection enter the chart at

#13, making it the week's highest debut. The album, produced with the same spare

beats and casual rhyme technique of partners Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith's earlier

albums, includes the single "Symphony 2000" (

bin/get-music/EPMD/The_Symphony.ram">RealAudio excerpt), a collaboration

with Method Man, Redman and Lady Luck.

The next highest debut will come from industrial band Powerman 5000, whose kinetic

Tonight the Stars Revolt! will enter the chart at #46. The album features a guest

appearance by singer Mike "Spider" Cummings' older brother, Rob Zombie.

Latino rockers Los Lobos, who played Woodstock '99 on Saturday, will debut at #134

with their eighth album, This Time, while the soundtrack to "White Boys," featuring

hard-core hip-hop songs by Snoop Dogg, Big Punisher and DJ Hurricane with the

Flipmode Squad, will appear at #145.

Rounding out the top 10 will be Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan's live

album Mirrorball at #5; Woodstock '99 festival closers the Red Hot Chili Peppers'

Californication at #8; the hip-hop soundtrack to "Wild Wild West" at #9 and

Oakland, Calif., rapper Too $hort's Can't Stay Away at #10.