Only two albums crossed the 100,000 mark last week, but one of them had a huge debut. Linkin Park's Minutes To Midnight (Warner Bros) debuted with sales of 622,000 (13% digital), giving the album the biggest single sales week of the year. (Norah Jones' Not Too Late was the previous best.) Tank's Sex Love & Pain (Blackground Records) debuted at #2 with sales of 103,000 (1% digital). Wilco's Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch) had a big first week with sales of 87,000 (23% digital) and a #4 showing. Gretchen Wilson's One of the Boys (Sony) debuted at #5 with 73,000 (5% digital). At #8, Megadeth's United Abominations sold 54,000 (5% digital).

Last week's #1, Michael Buble's Call Me Irresponsible, dropped 19% and slipped to #3. Other steady sellers -- albums by Carrie Underwood, Daughtry, Akon and Robin Thicke -- had double-digit declines. Elliott Yamin's self-titled album jumped 136% (must have been his appearance on "American Idol" last week). Amy Winehouse and Taylor Swift had more modest gains of 7% and 8%, respectively.

I guess moviegoers don't just buy the soundtrack just because the like the movie. The indie rock-heavy "Spiderman 3" soundtrack is languishing at #122 after three weeks.

Second-week fades: Barbra Streisand fell 71%, Duke Da God faded 64%, Bobby Valentino sank 63%, Travis fell 58%, Bjork sank 61%, Bones Thugs-N-Harmony dropped 56% and Elliot Smith slipped 46%.

Overall, it was a decent week. Album sales were up 1%, although they were 7% lower than last year. Digital track sales rose 6% and were 51% higher than last year. In terms of track equivalent albums (add up albums sold and one-tenth of digital tracks sold) total music sales were down 2.3% compared to the same week last year. For the year, track equivalent albums are down 10.4%.

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