Chappell Roan‘s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” continues its run as one of the pop phenomena of the year, reaching a new high of No. 2 on the Billboard 200, in results released Sunday. The album chart continues to be dominated, however, by Taylor Swift‘s “The Tortured Poets Department,” which hit the No. 1 spot for the 15th non-consecutive week.
Swift’s album stayed on top with 85,000 equivalent album units, a 40% decline from the previous week, in Luminate data first reported by Billboard. Roan’s very hot freshman album rose a spot to second place, with 72,000 units, a 13% increase, and her best weekly tally to date.
As has been her custom, Swift did release a digital variant of “Tortured Poets” during the week, which contained as a bonus track a live medley of “The Prophecy” and “Long Story Short” recorded at a Lyon show, available for just a few hours on Sunday. However, Billboard pointed out that Swift’s album would have stayed at No. 1 even if she hadn’t released that extra edition, as her total digital album sales for the week only amounted to about 10,000, meaning the new variant wasn’t a critical factor this time in her ongoing charttopping status.
Although Roan fans are eager to see if she can finally claim the No. 1 spot with her album (which was released all the way back in September 2023), it’s not likely to happen next week. Nor is Swift any kind of sure bet to top the chart next week, either. That’s because Post Malone’s country album, “F-1 Trillion,” came out Friday and has been pegged as a likely chart leader in the results to come.
In a calm before the storm of a fresh Post Malone release, no albums debuted in the chart’s upper ranks. In fact, the top 10 is comprised of the same 10 albums as last week, with one exception: Ye and Ty Dolla Sign’s “Vultures 2,” which debuted at No. 2 last week, dropped off the list. (It was not immediately revealed just how far “Vultures 2” fell; that will become evident when the full Billboard 200 chart is released this week.)
Two artists have a pair of albums in the top 10. Morgan Wallen is in the No. 3 and No. 8 spots with “One Thing at a Time” and “Dangerous.” Zach Bryan’s “Great American Bar Scene” got a two-spot uptick to No. 5, and he also holds the No. 10 position with his self-titled album.
Among artists who have but one top 10 album, Billie Eilish’s resilient “Hit Me Hard and Soft” moved up a spot to No. 4. Charli XCX’s “Brat” holds on at No. 6, followed by Noah Kahan’s enduring “Stick Season” leaping two positions back up to No. 7. “Twisters: The Album” benefits from continued attendance for the movie (and new PPV interest) by moving up one spot to No. 9.
Swift did not set any fresh records by landing a 15th non-consecutive week on top of the album chart, but Billboard did note that “Poets Department” is now tied for Carole King’s “Tapestry” for third place in the list of albums by a woman that have spent the most weeks at No. 1. The all-time champion in that derby is Adele’s “21,” which spent 24 weeks atop the chart in 2011-12.
The top 10 singles on the new Billboard Hot 100 chart will be revealed Monday.
From Variety US