After Chart Delay Billboard Crowns Lana Del Rey’s Lust For Life #1 In Tight Race

Neil Krug

After Chart Delay Billboard Crowns Lana Del Rey’s Lust For Life #1 In Tight Race

Neil Krug

Lana Del Rey scores her second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as Lust for Life bows atop the Aug. 12-dated tally. The set, which was released on July 21 through Polydor/Interscope Records, earned 107,000 equivalent album units in the week ending July 27, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 80,000 were in traditional album sales.

Following closely behind Del Rey are Tyler, The Creator’s Flower Boy and Meek Mill’s Wins And Losses, as they debut at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively. Flower Boy earned 106,000 units (with 70,000 in album sales), while Wins And Losses tallied 102,000 units (with 37,000 in album sales). Industry forecasters expected a close race among the three albums, with any of them potentially finishing on top. All three albums actually performed better than expected.

As earlier reported, the release of Billboard’s Aug. 12-dated charts were delayed. A top-tier data provider encountered technical issues, initially preventing the delivery of its data to Nielsen Music (which provides the sales, streaming and airplay information for Billboard’s charts). However, the provider was ultimately able to resolve the issue, and deliver the missing information to Nielsen Music. Billboard’s charts were then completed using the data.

With the entire top three debuting titles, it’s only the second time in 2017 that the top three are all new arrivals. It previously happened on the Feb. 18-dated chart, when Migos’ Culture, Brantley Gilbert’s The Devil Don’t Sleep and Kehlani’s SweetSexySavage bowed at Nos. 1-3, respectively.

Further, this week marks the first time in 2017 where the top three albums are debuts that each earned more than 100,000 units. It last occurred on the Dec. 10, 2016-dated list, when Metallica’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct debuted at No. 1 with 291,000 units, followed by Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic at No. 2 (231,000) and Miranda Lambert’s The Weight Of These Wings at No. 3 (133,000).

Del Rey previously led the list with her second full-length studio album, Ultraviolence, which premiered atop the chart in 2014. As for Tyler, The Creator, Flower Boy is his highest charting album yet, and fourth top 10 set overall. Meanwhile, Meek Mill’s latest effort lands the rapper his fourth top 10 album.

Back on the new Billboard 200, Linkin Park’s One More Light, which debuted at No. 1 on the June 10-dated list, surges from No. 17 to No. 4 with 50,000 units (up 122 percent). The album sold 32,000 copies (up 76 percent). It’s the first of two Linkin Park albums in the top 10, as the band’s debut effort Hybrid Theory climbs from No. 27 to No. 8 with 41,000 units (up 177 percent) and 19,000 copies sold (up 141 percent). Both albums rise following the first full tracking week of activity after the death of the group’s singer Chester Bennington, on July 20.

A version of this article originally appeared on Billboard.

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