July 07, 2010

By By Keith Caulfield

Unless something awfully crazy happens, next week Eminem's "Recovery" will be the first album to notch three consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 since March. That's when Sade's "Soldier of Love" wrapped a three-week run atop the list. Industry prognosticators expect "Recovery" to easily hold in the penthouse, as none of this week's new releases will pose a threat to its chart supremacy.

Drake's "Thank Me Later" is also looking like it will probably remain at No. 2 for a third straight week, while OutKast's Big Boi is on course to snare
the chart's top debut. His "Sir Lucious Left Foot ... The Son of Chico
Dusty" is projected to sell in the range of 45,000 to 55,000 copies by
week's end on July 11. That should probably place the album in the top five, and it might be the only new entry in the top 10.

Both Enrique Iglesias' "Euphoria" and Bret Michaels' "Custom Built" are also possibly headed for top 20 debuts, as is Kylie Minogue's "Aphrodite."

Next week's album charts competes with the same week in 2009 when Michael Jackson's "Number Ones" remained the top-selling set in the U.S. with 349,000 (up 3%) while Maxwell's "BLACKsummers'night" bowed as the second-biggest of the week with 316,000. Jackson claimed a full six out of the top 10 sellers that week, with "Thriller" (No. 3; 264,000), "The
Essential Michael Jackson" (No. 4; 148,000), "Off the Wall" (No. 6; 107,000), "Bad" (No. 8; 97,000) and "Dangerous" (No. 9; 67,000).

Subscribe to Billboard magazine today!