Carnival of Soul

A number of new releases from some of the biggest names in the music industry debut inside the top 10 this week, but none made a serious play for the No. 1 spot, which continues to be held by Taylor Swift’s Folklore. The set, her first surprise release, has now led the charge on the Billbord 200 for six consecutive weeks. 

With another turn on the throne, Folklore now stands as the album with the most weeks at No. 1 so far this year. Now that it’s reached half a dozen turns atop the list, Swift’s latest breaks out of a tie with Lil Baby’s My Turn, which managed five nonconsecutive stints as high as a release can rise.

Steady at Nos. 2 and 3 are Pop Smoke’s Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon and Juice WRLD’s Legends Never Die, respectively.

Metallica returns to the Billboard 200’s top 10 with their latest live recording, S&M2, which also features the San Francisco Symphony. The project opens at No. 4 with 56,000 equivalent units shifted. That number includes 53,000 pure purchases.

S&M2 follows the appropriately-titled S&M, which saw the band team up with the symphony for the first time back in 1999. That release was a huge success, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and since then it has gone six-times platinum. 

This latest live album is the hard rock outfit’s eleventh top 10 title on the Billboard 200. So far, lead single “All Within My Hands” has reached No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock airplay chart, No. 4 on the Rock Airplay list, No. 5 on the Hot Hard Rock Songs tally and No. 47 on the Hot Rock/Alternative Songs roster. Another tune, “Nothing Else Matters,” has likewise become a top 10 hit on both the Rock Digital Song Sales and the Hard Rock Digital Song Sales charts.

New at No. 5 is Katy Perry’s Smile, her first full-length in just over three years. The set begins with 50,000 equivalent units, which is made up primarily of pure purchases, as 35,000 fans decided to buy the title. Perry has now landed half a dozen top 10 releases, with Smile being her first proper album to miss the No. 1 spot in over a decade.

Perry has been promoting Smile for a little over a year, and so far the title has produced a handful of charting hits. Lead cut “Never Really Over” rose all the way to No. 15 on the Hot 100, becoming something of a redemption smash for the star. Fellow singles “Small Talk” and “Daisies” also reached the most important songs ranking in the U.S., peaking at Nos. 81 and 40, respectively.

Three other tracks pushed as either proper singles or promotional cuts, “Harleys in Hawaii,” “Never Worn White” and “Smile,” all failed to reach the Hot 100, though they did rank on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 at Nos. 10, 12 and 21, respectively. The title track also lifted to No. 25 on the Adult Contemporary radio ranking as well.

The Broadway cast recording of Hamilton dips to No. 6, and it is followed by a handful of extremely popular hip-hop titles, with Lil Baby’s My Turn falling to No. 7, Rod Wave’s Pray 4 Love slipping to No. 8 and DaBaby’s Blame it On Baby keeping at No. 9.

The third and final new entrant inside the Billboard 200’s top 10 this week comes from production collective Internet Money, who launch their debut full-length B4 the Storm at No. 10 with 31,000 equivalent units shifted. That number is powered largely by streams, as it only sold under 1,000 copies. 

B4 the Storm features vocals from some of the biggest names in hip-hop (many of whom have worked with the producers before) such as Gunna, Trippie Redd, Future and even Juice WRLD. Two singles from the set, “Somebody” with Lil Tecca and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and “Lemonade” with Gunna, Don Toliver and NAV, have thus far peaked at Nos. 96 and 66 on the Hot 100.