ASIDE FROM SOME INTENSE, ANGRY DUDES, IT’S BIZ AS USUAL

Hey, mofos, intensity still pays off, especially when it’s loud, fast, and hard. So it’s no great surprise that Flip/Atlantic’s Staind should debut this week at #1, with 188k units sold. That’s one helluva lot of angry dudes.

The rest of this week’s Top 10 is pretty much business as usual, with really no huge surprises in the bunch.

Capitol’s Now That’s What I Call Music 19 maintains its stranglehold on the #2 position, with 159k. Warner Bros.’ Faith Hill gave up last week’s #1 spot to a bunch of angry, dudes, dropping to #3, with 118k. That might make Ms. Mariah Carey (Island/IDJ) slightly angry herself, since she drops one spot to #4, with 101k units sold, although that reflects a healthy 10% rise in sales from last week.

A&M/Interscope’s Black Eyed Peas saw their album jump from #8 to #5, with a full 21% jump at 73k, fueled by play on new singles “Don’t Lie” at Pop and “My Humps” at Rhythmic. And Def Jam South/IDJ’s Young Jeezy (no relation to The Jeffersons’ much-beloved Weezy... sorry, couldn’t resist!) drops from #4 to #6, with a still-impressive 70k units sold.

Rounding out the Top 10 are Capitol’s Coldplay, who maintain the #8 spot, with 60k; Virgin’s Gorillaz, who jump from #10 to #8, with a 10% increase at 58k (hardly a surprise, as that “Feel Good” track is still everywhere); Kelly Clarkson (RCA/RMG) holding onto the #9 spot at 56k; and Sony Urban/Columbia’s Bow Wow rising from an unlucky #13 to the #10 position, with 52k sold.

One of the biggest success stories of the week is Capitol Nashville’s Keith Urban, who hits #11 from last week’s #21, thanks to big Country play on “Better Life” as well as “You’ll Think of Me”—from his previous album(!)—exploding at both Hot AC and Pop.

Other notable debuts: Sugar Hill’s Nickel Creek at #22 with 34k; Rhino/WEA’s Michael McDonald hitting #30 with a new compilation selling 30k; Sneaky Long’s Hootie & The Blowfish charting at #45, with 20k; Geffen’s Common re-entering at #49, with 19k; and last but far from least, TL Education Serv. Inc.’s Tommy Lee coming in at #50, with 18k

Watch for major debut action next week from Brad Paisley, Hillary Duff and 311.