Pretty Ricky, Shins Shine on Charts

Wed., Jan. 31, 2007 12:54 PM PST by David Jenison

Oh, what a night—make that two nights—on the charts!

In the year's first real battle between new albums, Pretty Ricky's Late Night Special went head-to-head with the Shins' Wincing the Night Away. When dawn broke, Pretty Ricky had the Night of nights.

For the week ended Sunday, Late Night Special took the number one spot, selling 132,000 copies to Wincing the Night Away's 118,000, according to the latest Nielsen SoundScan numbers.

Featuring four brothers from Miami, Pretty Ricky made its debut in 2005 with Bluestars, featuring the Top 10 hit "Grind with Me." That album debuted at 16 and was certified gold. Their follow-up, Late Night Special, is off to an even stronger start thanks to the sizzling new single "On the Hotline."

Although Late Night won out, the Shins still scored not only the biggest sales of their career, they had the biggest debut ever for Sub Pop Records, the Seattle label famed for releasing early albums by Nirvana and Soundgarden. Wincing the Night Away is the third album by the popular Portland, Oregon-based indie rockers that changed Natalie Portman's Garden State life.

With two new albums taking the top spots, last week's number one, Daughtry's self-titled disc, slipped to number three on 80,000 copies.

Two newcomers followed. The 2007 Grammy Nominees compilation, featuring trophy-contending tracks by Dixie Chicks, Gnarls Barkley and Justin Timberlake, sold 77,000 copies at number four. John Mellencamp showed he's still truckin' with Freedom's Road racking up 56,000 copies to finish at five.

Meanwhile, after 17 weeks of natural selection, Robin Thicke's Evolution of Robin Thicke finally cracked the Top 10, climbing eight spots to number eight. The disc moved more than 51,000 copies for the week, bringing its total to 1.38 million.

The remaining Top 10 albums, all holdovers, included the Dreamgirls soundtrack at six, Akon's Konvicted at seven, the Jump In! soundtrack at nine and Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds in the 10 hole.

Outside the Top 10, Memphis rockers Saliva spit their way to 19, selling 30,000-plus copies of Blood Stained Love Story. The Good, the Bad & the Queen—a new group that started off as a Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) solo project—sold 15,000 copies of its eponymous album to debut at 48. The group gets its name from the Sergio Leone classic, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which the Gorillaz sampled for the hit single "Clint Eastwood."

Other noteworthy debuts included Ernie Haase & Signature Sound's Get Away Jordan at 58, Valentin Elizalde's Vencedor at 69, Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna Are You the Destroyer at 71 and Sunshine Anderson's Sunshine at Midnight at 85.

After a slow start to the year, total CD sales were up 5 percent from last week, thanks to the influx of new releases; but that good news was tempered by the fact that overall sales were down a whopping 15 percent from the same period last year.

Here's a recap of the Top 10:

1. Late Night Special, Pretty Ricky
2. Wincing the Night Away, the Shins
3. Daughtry, Chris Daughtry
4. 2007 Grammy Nominees, various
5. Freedom's Road, John Mellencamp
6. Dreamgirls soundtrack, various
7. Konvicted, Akon
8. Evolution of Robin Thicke, Robin Thicke
9. Jump In! soundtrack, various
10. FutureSex/LoveSounds, Justin Timberlake