Miranda Lambert Beats Hootie & The Blowfish for #1 Album
Miranda Lambert’s latest album Wildcard is the #1 album in country music this week, beating out Luke Combs and a new title from Hootie and the Blowfish (yes, they’re “country” now) to take the top spot. Wildcard sold 44,000 albums in pure album sales including physical copies and downloads, and racked up an additional 9,000 units in streaming equivalents to come in at 53,000 total albums on the week. This is good enough for #1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart, and #4 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
The 53,000 in album sales also makes for the 3rd best debut in all of country music in 2019, and the best by a woman in the genre. This also marks Miranda’s seventh consecutive #1 album in country, and her seventh consecutive Top 10 on the Billboard 200. Miranda’s last record, the double-sided The Weight of These Wings, debuted with sales and equivalents of 64,000 in 2016, and went on to be Certified Platinum by the RIAA.
Miranda Lambert’s Wildcard is a mixed bag of popish and rock-style radio-friendly songs, and a few hard country and songwriter-based tunes. The album has been receiving generally favorable reviews (Read SCM’s Review). Lambert’s current radio single “It All Comes Out In The Wash” comes in at #13 this week on radio according to MediaBase.
The now over two-year-old title from Luke Combs, This One’s For You, comes in 2nd on the week, with 18,557 in album sales and equivalents, continuing its historic run. Luke’s newest album What You See Is What You Get is not eligible for the charts until next week when it is sure to dominate, and Luke could pull off the rare feat of having two separate titles at #1 and #2 on the charts simultaneously.
Hootie and the Blowfish, who made the switch to country behind frontman Darius Rucker, and are now signed to Capitol Records Nashville, come in with 16,627 in sales and equivalents with their new album Imperfect Circle. They have also released a single called “Hold On” to country radio, which currently sits at #47. Though the debut is average for a middle tier country band, they have to be slightly disappointed that the 14-year wait by fans for a new record and their current 25th Anniversary tour did not materialize into a better showing.
November 12, 2019 @ 11:43 am
Good.
Never liked Hootie and don’t really care about Darius Fu**er country career.
November 13, 2019 @ 12:19 am
Salty much???
November 12, 2019 @ 11:59 am
this is an ACTUAL headline from a recent country music article on SCM :
” Miranda Lambert beats Hootie and The Blowfish for Number 1 Album ”
too which I can’t help responding ….. ” well …..yeah …..of course she did ……did you say ‘Hootie ……and the Blowfish ? …..THAT Hootie and the Blowfish ..? ”
If you hang around long enough , you see , hear and read it all , I guess .
November 12, 2019 @ 1:06 pm
Yeah ever since Top 40 radio fragmented, imploded, and became exclusively rhythmic, there hasn’t been a place for what I like to call White Pop – the inoffensive soft rock and ballads that used to dominate the charts. They lump it in with country because it doesn’t have a home. Hootie isn’t the only artist out there that otherwise wouldn’t call themselves country if they had another commercial outlet to ply their craft.
November 12, 2019 @ 12:09 pm
People can argue all they want. Hootie has the better album. Miranda Lambert makes really bad pop rock. People just give her street cred because she is a John Moreland fan.
November 12, 2019 @ 1:20 pm
Okay boomer
November 12, 2019 @ 3:10 pm
Lol…..Now I need to give the Hootie album the once-over so I can choose a side in this.
November 12, 2019 @ 3:55 pm
Haven’t heard much of the Hootie album, but after hearing several songs off of Miranda’s, my strong guess is that HayesCarll is correct.
November 12, 2019 @ 6:59 pm
I also agree too. This whole obsession with Miranda and ‘good’ country has went way overboard. Not that shes bad in general I just think she receives more credit from this crowd than you would expect.
November 12, 2019 @ 6:55 pm
Hope you’ve got lots of stan repellent… you’ll be needing it. They’re already biting below.
November 12, 2019 @ 12:10 pm
Good for her! I have mixed feelings on the album sonically but love majority of the songs lyrically. Love her voice. Regardless of the obvious pop radio tracks to maintain her commercial success I am happy for her.
Never been a hootie or Darius fan. Suprised that they sold that much to be honest!
November 12, 2019 @ 12:12 pm
That is crazy that Luke Combs is still having those kinds of numbers two years after that albums release. I could understand maybe if it was one of those albums they were squeezing singles out of still, but that is not the case.
November 12, 2019 @ 12:25 pm
to some extent , luke combs seems to be the new ‘ hip-to-like-him ‘ artist. not saying he doesn’t have decent tunes…..but it happens so often that so many casual listeners get sucked into a pop -ish music vortex without really knowing who, what , when , where or why beyond ”everybody else seems to be into him ….maybe i should be ? ”
still……….. better luke than hunt , urban , fgl , rhexa, l’il nads , or about 70 others …
November 13, 2019 @ 7:33 am
I’m afraid the Luke Combs craze will dwindle down eventually… I don’t find him a compelling/timeless artist. I don’t see how he can creatively elevate his career in the years and decades to come. He’s already headlining arenas, winning awards, grand ole opry member.. perhaps this is his peak?? I feel his songs have similar lyrical riffs to them.. And they feel similar to his other songs at times.
November 12, 2019 @ 12:20 pm
How does the album sales work on a double album? If you purchased or downloaded TWOTW did it count as 2 sales? So the 64,000 debut sales were really 32,000?
November 12, 2019 @ 8:53 pm
Yes, it’s counted double. So her “Platinum” certification for ‘Weight of These Wings’ came after 500,000 sales
November 13, 2019 @ 12:32 am
Technically for RIAA to count a double album as 2 sales, the album duration has to be over 100 minutes (TWOTW was 94 minutes) and knowing RIAA they rarely make exceptions. Although a case can be made that when streaming is factored in that the album’s “sales” figures are about 700k (pure sales stands at 439k the last time it was updated). They’ve been known to round up.
On another note Trigger, TWOTW sold 122k in pure sales and 133k when streaming is factored in during its release week back in 2016.
November 12, 2019 @ 12:37 pm
It’s CRAZY how much streaming has taken over.
Getting tired of pop/rock bands just getting adds on country radio. I get they are more country then most but here again comes more dudes taking up radio spins.
PS it’s Miranda’s 7th solo #1 album. She has two more #1s w/ the Annies.
November 12, 2019 @ 12:52 pm
A win for the good guys
November 12, 2019 @ 1:02 pm
Darius is tugging on his goatee in disbelief right now!
November 12, 2019 @ 1:38 pm
I’ve got my copy!
November 12, 2019 @ 1:40 pm
For those who are complaining about Rucker/Hootie: This has been pointed out here before, but I’ll reiterate: this phenomenon is not new. Not even close to new. Conway was a rocker turned country. Ronnie Milsap was a slightly-successful pop/R&B artist before turning country. Vince Gill and Dan Seals had country careers and were accepted by the country masses after singing lead on big hits for pop groups Pure Prairie League and England Dan & John Ford Coley. Don’t forget Brenda Lee. Jerry Lee Lewis.
And then there were short-lived country careers by pop artists who, for a short time, were accepted by country audiences: Ronstadt, Lionel, Aaron Lewis, Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow, Ray Charles, Michelle Branch, Bon Jovi, Elvis Costello, and others.
This isn’t new.
The fact that so many people who revere many of these artists as genuine country (especially Conway) while complaining about others who do the same thing is, at best, inconsistent; At worst, laughable.
My take: good music is good music.
November 12, 2019 @ 1:44 pm
This issue is not Hootie deciding to make country. The issue is Hootie deciding to continue to make pop rock and calling it country for marketing purposes, unlike the other examples you cited, including Darius Rucker, who did start his country career making music that sounded more country than rock.
Yes, good music is good music. But there is only one reason to call the new Hootie & The Blowfish record country: $$$$
November 12, 2019 @ 2:12 pm
I would buy that if it weren’t for the fact that some of the same people who hold to this position also view Conway as an authentic country singers, despite his moving from rock to country, then making $ off of covers of Bee Gees and Pointer Sisters and Eagles hits.
November 12, 2019 @ 1:52 pm
I am laughing g hysterically at the comment that said booties album is better than Miranda’s Wildcard.. I’m not sure that even deserves a reply. Love the new Miranda album!! And yes I love it way better than Luke combs as well… to each his own
November 12, 2019 @ 2:52 pm
LOL…I just love these people that make the comments that have us laughing. Someone was saying Hootie has been a GANG MEMBER of The Voice this pass season. Maybe he got help with this new album where great music comes from.After all wasn’t Shelton named top country artist by PEOPLE’S CHOICE.LMBO I’m the happiest when I have new Music from MIRANDA LAMBERT. I do think there are some that would like for her to go away but hey… she’s staying!
November 12, 2019 @ 7:22 pm
I wish you would review the Jonas Brothers Christmas song. I need something to bitch about.
November 13, 2019 @ 8:42 am
Keith Urban has a new Christmas song out “I can be your Santa Tonight”
November 12, 2019 @ 9:31 pm
THE REVENGE OF THE WOMEN! EVERYONE HAPPY NOW?
November 12, 2019 @ 10:18 pm
YEAH. LETS GO HOOTIE AND THE BLOWJOBS.
November 13, 2019 @ 5:15 am
Lol. They both are horrible. Neither artist was able to sell more than 100k. Luke Bryan and Carrie Underwood had better numbers with their last albums. I mean Underwood had 271K opening! Lol.
November 13, 2019 @ 5:18 am
Carrie Underwood solld 271k in the first week and landed number one on country charts and the all genre chart in multiple countries. These two are both mediorce. Blah, blah, blah!
November 13, 2019 @ 7:15 am
Sadly the biggest opening sales for a “Country” album this year is Zac Brown Band. 2nd place is Thomas Rhett… 3rd place is Miranda and I believe George Strait is #4?
But what are we predicting Luke Combs is about to get? I’m predicting 100k physical albums, with 220k units sold in his first week
November 13, 2019 @ 8:03 am
Good for her. I wish I was bigger fan of the new album, but for me it’s mostly been a disappointment. There’s far worse music on country radio right now, but I just have higher expectations for new Lambert albums.
November 13, 2019 @ 8:28 am
Baffled by Hootie & The Blowfish evidently not doing a tour bundle. That’s literally the ONLY move for a band like this … they’re not going to move albums based purely on the strength of new material.
November 14, 2019 @ 8:27 am
I’d hoot and blow her fish heh heh heh