Sharon Van Etten hits the top 10 of Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated May 21) for the first time with her new album, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong. The set debuts at No. 10 on the latest ranking, selling 5,500 copies in the U.S. in the week ending May 12, according to Luminate.
The album also bows in the top 10 on Billboard’s Americana/Folk Albums, Tastemaker Albums, Vinyl Albums and Top Current Album Sales charts.
We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong is Van Etten’s sixth album and first since Remind Me Tomorrow, which was released in 2019.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Americana/Folk Albums lists the week’s most popular Americana/folk releases, ranked by equivalent album units. Tastemaker Albums ranks the best-selling albums at independent and small chain record stores. Vinyl Albums lists the top-selling vinyl albums of the week across all sellers. Top Current Album Sales ranks the week’s biggest-selling current albums (not including catalog – older – releases).
Also in the new top 10 on Top Album Sales, Arcade Fire scores its fourth No. 1 as We debuts atop the tally with 26,500 sold. The album is one of seven debuts in the top 10. Also starting in the region are Halestorm’s Back From the Dead (No. 2; 14,000), Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti (No. 3; 11,500), Thrive Worship’s Pour Your Spirit Out: A Live Album (No. 4; 9,000), Jack Harlow’s Come Home the Kids Miss You (No. 5; 8,000), Three Days Grace’s Explosions (No. 6; 7,000) and Van Etten at No. 10.
A trio of holdover titles populate the top 10, as Miranda Lambert’s Palomino trots from No. 2 to No. 7 in its second week (7,000; down 72%), Olivia Rodrigo’s chart-topping Sour falls from No. 6 to No. 8 (6,500; down 7%), and The Weeknd’s former leader Dawn FM drops from No. 1 to No. 9 (5,500; down 88%).
In the week ending May 12, there were 1.697 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 7.1% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.284 million (down 9.6%) and digital albums comprised 413,000 (up 1.6%).
There were 623,000 CD albums sold in the week ending May 12 (down 7% week-over-week) and 653,000 vinyl albums sold (down 11.6%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 11.991 million (down 12.2% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 14.056 million (up 4.2%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 33.911 million (down 7.8% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 26.224 million (down 3.9%) and digital album sales total 7.687 million (down 19.1%).
