CHART PREVIEW: THE BATTLE OF THE COWBOY AND THE R&B STAR

As the tallying of retail reports continues, both George Strait’s 50 Number Ones (MCA Nashville) and Usher’s newly reconfigured Confessions (LaFace/ZLG), which features Alicia Keys in a remix of hit “My Boo” among four new tracks, are looking like they've sold 325-350k over the sales cycle ended Sunday.

Who’s going to be #1 on this week's chart? Give country superstar Strait a slight edge at the moment, but it's still too close to call. We’ll let you know as soon as we figure it out—hopefully a little later today, so check this space often... our retail analysts might be able to thrill you with a more refined prediction.

Meanwhile, Good Charlotte’s The Chronicles of Life and Death (Epic) looks at this point like it will come in at over the 200k level, making it a solid #3 contender. And speaking of Epic, Korn’s Greatest Hits Vol. 1 gained strength over the weekend and should log around 120k+ for the week. The new R.E.M., Around the Sun (Warner Bros.), should come in at around 80k.

Again, the picture’s still coming into focus as our tribe of light-fearing basement-dwellers lash their herd of albino gerbils to run faster on the exercise wheels that power our retail adding machines, so sit tight—more updates are on the way.