Album sales shot up again last week but didn't match the same week last year. Album sales rose 24.9% from last week but were 5.6% lower than the same week last year. Album sales are down 4.6% for the year. A small consolation can be found in digital tracks, which rose 2% last week and 2% the week prior. Weekly sales of digital tracks have increased 16% since mid-October...so ignore the headlines at The Register.

Young Jeezy's The Inspiration (Def Jam) sold 352,000 units in its first week. That was good enough for the #1 spot on the album chart. Taylor Hicks' self-titled debut (Arista) sold 298,000 and debuted at #2. Hicks should be the more popular Christmas present of the two, though.

Mary J. Blige's Reflections: A Retrospective (Geffen), the only other debut in the Top 10, sold 171,000. Fantasia's self-titled album (J Records) debuted at #19 with sales of 133,000.

As expected this time of the year, most albums had a big increase last week. Carrie Underwood's Some Hearts and Josh Groban's Awake were both up 83%. Tony Bennet's Duets: American Classic was up 65%. Fergie's The Duchess was up 52%. A few albums are holding strong in the Top 20. Daughtry's self-titled debut increased 17% and has sold a total of 795,000. Akon's Konvicted, one of the few hip hop albums not dropping down the chart, rose 20% and has sold 818,000 in five weeks.

Even in this season of big increases, two of last week's big albums dropped mightily. Ciara's Evolution, last week's top album, dropped 52%. Eminem Presents: Re-Up dropped 51%. Gwen Stefani's The Sweet Escape dropped 39%. Stefani fell to #14 from #3.

Other second-week fades: Lil Scappy dropped 59%, Brian McKnight sank 57% and the Dreamgirls soundtrack fell 31%.

There is no Christmas cheer for some of the year's biggest disappointments. Janet Jackson's 20 Y.O. sits at #184 and has sold only 580,000 in 12 weeks. Audioslave's Revelations is at #182 and has sold 357,000 in 15 weeks. The Who's Endless Wire rose two spots to #136 but has moved only 182,000 in seven weeks. Diddy's Press Play dropped another 11% and fell to #130 in its ninth week of release.

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