WEEK IN PREVIEW: TRYPTOPHAN IN FULL EFFECT

The top of this week’s album chart is a three-way fight among last week’s #1, Britney Spears (Jive), this week’s biggest debut, No Doubt (Interscope), and Jay-Z (Roc-a-Fella/IDJ). Each of those discs look like they’ll sell somewhere in the mid-200k range. Those three will be followed by the oh-so-dreamy Josh Groban (143/Reprise) who is on track to sell 200k

Also giving thanks is Hilary Duff (Buena Vista/Hollywood), who will more than double her sales of last week, thanks to a ton of publicity from her American Dreams appearance, high visibility for the Lizzie McGuire DVDs, an MTV Making of the Tour special which ran five times last week on the network and an eight-hour Lizzie marathon on the Disney Channel. Toss in an almost year-long campaign by Disney's Hollywood Records that has produced a hit single in "So Yesterday" and sent sales of her Metamorphosis album past 1.3 million, as well as a shot at a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist this Thursday, and you've got a textbook example of how to turn a TV teen idol into a pop music superstar. She is on track to sell 180k this week, more than double last week's total of 82k. Nice work, guys.

Also debuting this week are Nelly’s remix record (Fo’ Reel/Universal) at around 150k+, Missy Elliott (Goldmind/Elektra) at around 125k, and Puddle of Mudd (Flip/Geffen), looking like it will do 120k.

Thanks to deep-discount pricing and the fact that everybody and their mom went shopping this week, the chart will have a lot of action, so keep checking back. It doesn’t close until our crack team of retail gurus factors the last number and starts drinking. Actually, they drink all day.