The angst-ridden Canadian songstress held off the Grammy-winning Album of the Year in a tight race on the album charts.
Morissette's first album in three years, the Yoda-esque titled Under Rug Swept, debuted at number one, selling an impressive 215,000 copies for the week ended Sunday, according to SoundScan data.
That was enough to play spoiler to O Brother's huge Grammy bump. The roots music soundtrack came in a close second with 209,000 copies--a whopping 300 percent gain over the previous week. The sales pushed the much Grammy'd disc's total over the quadruple-platinum mark.
Other big Grammy winners also benefited from the traditional post-awards bounce. Alicia Keys, she of the five Grammy wins, saw sales of her Songs in A Minor double to 103,000 and her chart position rise 16 spots to number four. U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind, which tallied three Grammys last week, also doubled its sales, climbing 18 places to number 10 in its 70th week of release. Train's Drops of Jupiter, whose title track won Best Rock Song, shot 60 spots to 37; Best Female Pop Vocal Performance winner Nelly Furtado's Whoa, Nelly! moved 25 spots to 28; and Bob Dylan's Best Contemporary Folk Album Love and Theft leapt a mighty 103 spots to 72.
Although she left the Grammys empty-handed, multiple nominee India.Arie--who performed her "Video" during the telecast--saw her Acoustic Soul climb 18 spots to 14. And Mary J. Blige, one of the ceremony's highlight performers with her rendition of the title track from No More Drama, recorded a jump of 10,000 for a 60,000 sales week.
But not all Grammy-related acts got the bump. Winner-performers OutKast and Pink both posted sales declines.
Outside Grammy Land, there were two other Top 10 entries under Alanis' Rug. Kylie Minogue, the Aussie who invaded our shores in the late '80s with her "The Loco-Motion" remake, debuted her latest, Fever, at number three with 115,000. And Cher, who made a huge comeback in 1998 with Believe, charted at number nine with her new disc, Living Proof.
The Top 10 holdovers were Linkin Park's Grammy-winning Hybrid Theory at five, Grammy perfomer Alan Jackson's Drive at six, Jennifer Lopez's J to tha L-O! The Remixes at seven (down from the top spot on last week's charts) and Ludacris' Word of Mouf at eight.
The X-ecutioners, the first deejay turntable squad signed to a major label, dropped the needle at number 15, moving 67,000 copies of Built from Scratch. The album features the crossover hit "It's Going Down" with guest stars Linkin Park. Plus One, the uninspired Christian music knockoff of the Backstreet Boys, opened at 29 with their second album, Obvious. The hugely buzzing Kentucky rap crew Nappy Roots followed at 31 with Watermelon Chicken and Gritz.
Other noteworthy debuts included R&B singer Sharissa at number 44 with No Half Steppin', Gorillaz's G-Sides at 84, Phantom Planet's (featuring Slackers and Rushmore star Jason Schwartzman on drums) The Guest at 133 and Lisa Loeb's Cake and Pie just barely making the party at 199.
Next week, watch for Brandy to make a big Top 10 bow with her latest, Full Moon.
Here a recap of the Top 10 albums for the week ended March 3:
1. Under Rug Swept, Alanis Morissette
2. O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Various
3. Fever, Kylie Minogue
4. Songs in A Minor, Alicia Keys
5. Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park
6. Drive, Alan Jackson
7. J to tha L-O! The Remixes, Jennifer Lopez
8. Word of Mouf, Ludacris
9. Living Proof, Cher
10. All That You Can't Leave Behind, U2