HALLOWEEN TREATS FOR RETAIL

This year's trick-or-treat bag will be full of goodies, with Oct. 31 set to be the biggest release week of the year to date. There's ear candy from Roc-A-Fella/IDJ's Jay-Z, La Face/Arista's Outkast, Interscope's U2, Republic/Universal's Godsmack and Island/ IDJ's Insane Clown Posse.

The combined first-week sales of those artists' previous records goes well past the million mark, with OTC totals a shade under 8 million. Sure beats an apple with a razor blade inside.

Jay-Z's "The Dynasty: Roc-La Familia 2000," with first-week expectations in the 400k+ range, will battle it out with the Outkast's "Stankonia" for #1, which should move 350k.

Taking time away from marking down the new Limp Bizkit disc, Best Buy's Kevin Engler said: "The single is great, and I have all the confidence that Jay-Z is going to do extremely well, but Outkast has attracted new fans between albums and their catalog sells very consistently."

The fight for #3 and 4 will be between U2's 10th album, and first for Interscope, "All That You Can't Leave Behind," and Godsmack's "Awake." The Insane Clown Posse's two separate albums, "Bizaar" and "Bizzar"—the "Use Your Illusion" of 2000—are the dark horses.

Wherehouse's Bob Bell took time away from raising the price of the new Limp Bizkit to say: "Anticipation for the U2 record is tremendous; it's exactly the kind of back-to-basics rock record that they needed to make."

Like U2, Godsmack is expected to do in the mid-200k range. About that record, Bell enthused, "Godsmack has established itself as a superstar act at rock radio. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get in line for Playstation 2."