BACK 2 THE TOP

The Marshall Mathers LP 2 by Aftermath/Interscope’s Eminem regains the #1 post on the HITS Album Sales Chart this week with 123k (-41%), marking the third straight week an Interscope artist has ruled the roost (last week’s champ, Lady Gaga, followed Eminem’s debut week). With a RTD tally of 1.1m+, Em is truly a titan of Q4.

Pulling in at #2 is Prospect Park’s Five Finger Death Punch, who bow with 78k of the second volume of their two-part rock opus The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell.

UMe’s Now 48 (63k in its second week, -46%), nabbed #3, followed by Duck the Halls by EMI Nashville’s The Robertsons (establishing a sales Dynasty with 60k, down just 9%) and a new release from AMAs presenter and recent Kimmel performer Daughtry (19/RCA), whose Baptized scored 57k and splashed down at #5.

The Top 10’s other debuts include Republic/RCA’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack, with 56k, at #6; Epic’s Yo Gotti with 44k at #8 and, at #10, KTCZ’s Cities 97 Sampler, Vol. 25 with 40k.

Selling steadily are RCA’s Kelly Clarkson,up 2% at #9 with 42k, and Lava/Republic’s Lorde, even with last week at 32k.

Mary J. Blige’s holiday offering on Verve was the greatest gainer, enjoying a 92% spike and moving #19-14 with 30k, thanks to a Home Shopping Network sale. Three other yuletide records, RCA’s Best Man Holiday soundtrack (+52%), Susan Boyle’s Home for Christmas (SYCO/Columbia, +51%) and Michael Buble’s perennial Christmas (Reprise, +39%), enjoyed nice holiday bonuses.

Just out, of course, is SYCO/Columbia’s One Direction, which some estimates suggest could debut at 550k or higher on next week’s chart. The following week brings Britney Jean from RCA’s Britney Spears. And we’re likely to see one more superstar release in 2013; stand by for details on that front.

Thursday, of course, brings obscenely huge plates of fatty food and drinking to sick excess—as a tribute to our Puritan forebears—for which we are duly thankful.