Think the first week of 2007 was bad? It was stellar compared to last week, the second week of 2007. Album sales dropped 14% last week to 8.1 million units. That was 14% lower than the same week last year. Digital albums make up 11% of total album sales in the first two weeks of the year.

The top album was again the "Dreamgirls" soundtrack, but it sold 60,000 units -- 6,000 less than the previous, record-breaking-low total. Akon's Konvicted is at #2. Justine Timberlake's Futuresex/Love Sounds is at #3 after a mild 2% drop. Daughty's self-titled RCA debut is at #4 with 50,000 sold. The entire Top 10 is tightly packed. The tenth-best album, Hinder's Extreme Behavior, sold only 35,000 units.

There was only one new release of note, the "Jump In!" soundtrack (Disney). It sold 49,000 units in its debut and landed at #5. Yo Yo Ma's Appasionato (Sony) was the second-highest debut all the way down at #79.

The Evolution of Robin Thicke (Interscope) rose again last week, all the way to #16 from #35. In 15 weeks, the album has sold just shy of 300,000 units (6% digital). Last week it moved 31,000. Hinder's Extreme Behavior (Universal Republic) is about two weeks away from 2,000,000 scans (3% digital).

Looking forward to next week, The Shin's Wincing The Night Away (Sub Pop) is poised for a (relatively) huge first week. Other indie-friendly albums out next week include Clinic's Visitations (Domino), The Good, The Bad & The Queen (Virgin) and Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer (Polyvinyl). Among next week's important major label releases are John Mellencamp's Freedom's Road (Universal Republic), the 2007 Grammy Nominees compilation ( ) and Saliva's Blood Stained Love Story (Island).