IT’S TIM TIME

Curb country star Tim McGraw has a beautiful wife. He also has the week’s #1 album in Let It Go, which notches the second-highest first-week sales total of the year with 331k.

The son of the late Mets relief star Tug McGraw is one of seven debuts in the Top 10, which also includes EMI’s Now 24 (#2), G Unit/Interscope’s Young Buck (#3), Capitol rapper Mims (#4), Epic emo-punks Good Charlotte (#7), Island/IDJ’s Elton John #1 hits collection (#9) and Jennifer Lopez’ Epic Spanish-language effort, Como Ama Una Mujer (#10). For all you gringos, that means How to Love a Woman.

SRC/Universal Motown’s Akon, riding three straight hit singles at #5, RCA/RMG’s still-powerful Daughtry at #6 and Virgin’s Joss Stone at #8 are the Top 10’s lone holdovers.

Def Jam/IDJ’s veteran hip-hop artist Redman debuts at #12, leading a bevy of Top 50 newcomers, including Walt Disney’s Disneymania 5 (#13), Asylum/Atlantic’s Lil Flip (#16), Koch’s Prodigy (#22), Casablanca/Universal Republic’s Mika (#26), Reprise’s Stevie Nicks (#30), Big Machine’s Jack Ingram (#35), Koch’s Dogg Pound (#38), DRT Entertainment’s Clutch (#42), Roadrunner’s Machine Head (#44) and Universal Motown’s Kaiser Chiefs (#48).

Big story of the week is Gwen Stefani’s Interscope album, The Sweet Escape, which, buoyed by her American Idol appearance, goes #25-14 with a whopping 73% increase. Universal Republic’s Hinder also had a good week, up 27% at #33, while Big Machine’s Taylor Swift is up 14% at #37. Also up: Akon (2%), Universal Republic’s Amy Winehouse (#11, +1%), Arista/RMG’s Carrie Underwood (#17, +6%), Walt Disney’s Hannah Montana (#24, +4%) and Lyric Street’s perennial Rascal Flatts (+3%).

Next week, the chart newcomers will be topped by Interscope’s Timbaland, Hollywood’s Hilary Duff, SBMG Nashville’s Martina McBride and Asylum’s Paul Wall, all expected to do 150k or better.