CHART PREVIEW: NOW THAT’S WHAT WE CALL PREDICTABLE

It’s not shaping up to be the most exciting week at retail. But then, “exciting” and “retail” generally go together like waffles and horseradish, and the current scenario is no exception.

Yes, the 19th installment of the fabled money-printing compilation series Now That’s What I Call Music, this one on Capitol, is looking at a second week at #1 following its hefty 428k chart-topping bow last week. In line with the usual 50% “taper” for a #1 album’s second-week sales, the early tally indicates Now 19 will come in at around 200k this time.

That should be more than enough to hold off hip-hop upstart Young Jeezy, whose refreshingly novel rap saga Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 (Def Jam) will be the week’s top debut, with first-week sales marching toward 180k.

Other albums coming on the chart this week include that of TV comic Dane Cook, whose debut album, Retaliation (Comedy Central), came out of the gate hot and could log a first week total of up to 90k. Then there’s Jason Mraz, an old hand by comparison, whose Mr. A-Z (Atlantic) is on track to open with 70k-80k, followed by actual old hand Babyface, whose first album in a long while, Grown & Sexy (Arista), is headed for a first week of around 55k, and altogether new hand Trey Songz, whose I Gotta Make It (Atlantic) is looking like it’ll chart with upwards of 45k sold.

As always, look to our locally famous building album chart to see just how wrong we can be... especially when the numbers are final tomorrow afternoon.