COOL IT REBA

For the first time since his death, two weeks will pass with an act other than Michael Jackson topping the HITS Album chart.

With one-day reports from those retailers who haven’t turned their record stores into massage parlors, Valory Music Group’s Reba McEntire gives Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine machine a #1 bow, with between 90-100k for her new album, Keep on Loving You. After this week’s George Strait debut, that means country albums have had consecutive chart-topping bows.

Third Eye Blind’s latest, on indie Megacollider, should do a robust 40-50k, with a heavy iTunes presence, while Verve Forecast’s Ledisi, upset Best New Artist Grammy nominee several years back, returns with a new album, Turn Me Loose, that should do between 23-27k.

Finally, veteran VP/Atlantic Records dance hall/reggae artist Sean Paul will do between 20-23k for his new album, Imperial Blaze, and Warner Bros.' Mute Math should sell in the 15-20k range, while Victory's OTEP and Emmure will each debut with around 12-15k.

The market was down 2% vs. last week, down 20% vs. same week last year (when Jonas Brothers debuted at #1 with 525k) and still down 14% year to date. Excuse us, while we go disrupt a town hall meeting.