Charts: Creed Tops; U2 Grammy Bump

In a typically sluggish post-holiday sales week, the earnest arena rockers saw their Weathered remain on top of the album charts--in fact, it was the only album last week to crack the 100,000 sales mark.

Creed, who launch their world tour Wednesday in Atlanta, sold 138,000 copies for the week ended Sunday, according to SoundScan numbers.

The Florida-based band has run its chart-topping streak to eight straight weeks, tying 'N Sync's No Strings Attached for the new millennium's longest lock on the top slot.

With Creed on top, Best New Artist Grammy nominee Linkin Park spent a third straight week at number two, still failing to land the coveted top spot. Hybrid Theory moved 99,000 last week--an amazing number consider the disc has been on the charts for 15 months. In fact, Linkin Park is now almost ready to start work on their next album, once the group finishes the upcoming Projekt Revolution Tour with Cypress Hill. That outing kicks off later this month.

Meanwhile, with their lead singles continuing to light up the FM dial, Ludacris' Word of Mouf and Nickelback's Silver Side Up stayed solid, hold their positions at numbers three and four, respectively.

Likewise, red-hot singles by Nas and Pink have their latest albums climbing upwards. Nas' Stillmatic jumped four spots to number five, while Pink's M!ssundazstood moved two to number six. (Interestingly, Stillmatic actually was the top-selling album at music chain stores, but slipped to number five when sales from independents and mass merchant outlets such as Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target were figured in.)

The week's biggest chart-jumpers got their boost from the Grammy nominations, which were announced January 4. U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind, which scored a field-best eight nods, jumped 19 spots to number 39. Alicia Keys, who won an American Music Award for Best New Artist and is up for six Grammys, re-entered the Top 10 as Songs in A Minor climbed five slots to number eight. And, on the strength of her seven Grammy nods, India.Arie's Acoustic Soul moved 19 spots to 121.

The week's only newcomer was the I Am Sam soundtrack, which entered at 25 with 36,000 copies sold. Because producers of the Sean Penn-Michelle Pfeiffer flick couldn't get permission to use original Beatles tunes on the soundtrack, they recruited the likes of Eddie Vedder, Aimee Mann, the Wallflowers, and Black Crowes to cover some of the Fab Four's classics.

Overall, only about one in 10 albums showed any type of sales increase. Among the gainers were Hoobstank's self-titled debut, which moved 35 spots to number 37 on a 4,000-copy increase, and teen rockers The Calling, whose Camino Palmero jumped 15 spots to number 44.

A handful of soundtracks also made gains. The Orange County soundtrack leapt 42 spots to number 123 as the film finally hit theaters. And The Fast and the Furious soundtrack rocketed 39 slots to number 79, while its companion release, More Fast and Furious, raced 44 slots to 122 as the blockbuster finally hit video and DVD.

To recap, here are the Top 10 albums for the week ended January 13:

1. Weathered, Creed, 138,000 copies
2. Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park, 99,000
3. Word of Mouf, Ludacris, 83,000
4. Silver Side Up, Nickelback, 81,000
5. Stillmatic, Nas, 75,000
6. M!ssundazstood, Pink, 73,000
7. Pain Is Love, Ja Rule, 71,000
8. Songs in A Minor, Alicia Keys, 70,000
9. Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 8, Various, 69,100
10. A Day Without Rain, Enya, 69,000