Here's the naked truth: High School Musical 2 just matriculated into an elite class.

For the week ended Sunday, the Mouse Network soundtrack notched its fourth straight week at number one, moving 165,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

This makes HSM2 only the eighth album this millennium to hold the top spot for four or more consecutive weeks, joining such smashes as The Eminem Show (four weeks), the Bad Boys II soundtrack (four), 50 Cent's Massacre (five), Shania Twain's Up! (five), Usher's Confessions (five), Norah Jones' Feels Like Home (six) and Creed's Weathered (eight).

So far, the HSM2 soundtrack has sold nearly 1.3 million copies.

HSM2's continued success suggests there's little or no backlash from the Internet-disseminated  pics of star Vanessa Hudgens. The 18-year-old actress, who plays goody Gabriella Montez, publicly apologized and remains locked in for HSM3, which comes out next year.

In what was a sluggish sales week, Fergie's The Dutchess jumped three spots to number two on just 49,000 copies, down a few thousand copies from the week previous. Still, her 51-week tally tops 2.6 million.

The week's biggest bow, and the only new entry in the Top 40, belonged to rock act Chiodos, who sold 39,000 copies of Bone Palace Ballet to open at five. Demonstrating its recent popularity growth, the indie post-hardcore group opened at 164 just last year with All's Well That Ends Well.

With such a light release schedule, a pair of former Top 10 albums were able to climb back into the upper echelon: Amy Winehouse's Back to Black moved up four slots to nine, while Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight ticked up one to take the 10 spot.

The rest of the Top 10, all holdovers, included Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus at three, Casting Crown's Altar and the Door at four, the Hairspray soundtrack at six, Now That's What I Call Music! 25 at seven and Nickelback's All the Right Reasons at eight.

Just missing the Top 40, New York state metalcore act Every Time I Die set new a career-high for itself and a record for label Ferret Music, selling 14,000 copies of Big Dirty at 41. Israel & New Breed followed closely behind, moving 12,000 of A Deeper Level: Live at 48.

Other noteworthy debuts included Manu Chao's La Radiolina at 71, Patti Scialfa's Play It As It Lays at 90, Hillsong's Saviour King Live at 114 and Eric Hutchinson's Sounds Like This at 134.

Meanwhile, opera legend Luciano Pavarotti, who died of pancreatic cancer last week, had The Best (Farewell Tour) rocket onto the chart at 76. Selling only 170 copies the prior week, The Best tallied nearly 8,000 posthumous sales, pushing the disc's total to 41,000 copies.

On a more upbeat note, John Mayer's Continuum celebrated its one-year anniversary on the chart, selling 8,000 copies at 80. The disc originally opened in the two spot, right behind Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds.

Overall, total sales were down nearly 4 percent compared to the previous week and down nearly 23 percent compared to the same week in 2006. Expect sales to jump next week, however, as 50 Cent and Kanye West battle it out for the top spot and Kenny Chesney also set to make a big bow.

According to just-released figures from Billboard and SoundScan, West's Graduation has the early, and seemingly insumountable lead, notching first-day sales of 437,000 on Tuesday, ahead of 50 Cent's Curtis (310,000) and Chesney's Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates (107,000).

Fiddy has insisted he would quit the music business if he lost to West. Maybe he better start working on his golf game.
Watch this space next week for the final figures. Meanwhile, here's a recap of the Top 10 for the week ended Sunday:

1. High School Musical 2 soundtrack, various
2. The Dutchess, Fergie
3. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus, Miley Cyrus
4. Altar and the Door, Casting Crowns
5. Bone Palace Ballet, Chiodos
6. Hairspray soundtrack, various
7. Now That's What I Call Music! 25, various
8. All the Right Reasons, Nickelback
9. Back to Black, Amy Winehouse
10. Minutes to Midnight, Linkin Park