Weekly Register: Brantley Gilbert Rides To No. 1

Brantley Gilbert rocketed to the top of the Country Albums charts with his new album Just As I Am selling 211k units (44% digital) during release week, according to Soundscan. The promotional push for the Georgia native’s latest product included a multi-state motorcycle trek and was fueled by hit single “Bottoms Up.” Also, his new music was unavailable on streaming services including Spotify.
Gilbert’s tally marks the year’s second biggest Country debut, following Eric Church’s The Outsiders, which moved 288k its first week out.
Outside the Country realm, Coldplay scored the year’s top debut overall, spooking fans into picking up 383k copies of Ghost Stories.
Last week’s major debuts by The Black Keys and Rascal Flatts mark two weeks in a row of much needed sales momentum. Week-to-week sales are up 5% for all genres and up 23% Country. The Keys’ Turn Blue turned in 164k units, and Flatts fast forwarded with 61k of Rewind.
BMLG has the Top 3 Country albums this week: Gilbert (211k), Flatts (22k), and Florida Georgia Line (17k). Rounding out the Top 5 are two of People Country’s newly anointed “Sexiest Men” Luke Bryan (16k) and Hunter Hayers (9k)

Tracking Tracks
Miranda Lambert’s duet with Carrie Underwood, “Somethin’ Bad,” is turning out pretty good. It sold 107k tracks, skidding into the No. 1 slot on the Country tracks chart. Lambert thanked her Sony labelmate this week by sending her a motorcycle. Lambert’s much-anticipated Platinum album drops June 3.
It’s happy hour for Lady A, who debuted with 50k units of “Bartender,” the lead single from their fifth album.
The Voice contestant Jake Worthington also made a splash on the Country tracks chart with three new singles from the show.