The Daily Swarm

UPDATE: Variety:

Bruce Springsteen’s “Magic” returns to the top of the album sales chart, edging Kid Rock’s “Rock N Roll Jesus” (Top Dog/Atlantic set) in an extremely slow sales week.
Both albums moved abut 77,000 copies, a 42% decline for Springsteen in week three and a 55% side for Kid Rock in his second stanza, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Jimmy Eat World’s “Chase This Light” (Interscope) was the week’s top debut, selling 62,000 units to open at No. 6.

A compilation, “Ultimate Santana” (Arista), bolstered by a new track, “Into the Night,” featuring Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, sold 56,000 to make smooth entry at No. 8.

“The Art of Love & War,” the Stax debut from neo-soul thrush Angie Stone, starts at No. 11 on sales of 45,000. Thrice’s “The Alchemy Index: Vols. I & II” (Vagrant) sold 28,000 copies to debut at No. 24.

Toby Keith’s “Classic Christmas” (Show Dog) jingled 18,000 bells to hit No. 39. leader of the holiday pack, though, is Josh Groban, whose “Noel” again sold 64,000 but rose six slots to No. 4.

Album sales were down almost 20% from the same week last year to 7.93 million units.

From HITS:

ANOTHER SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE: Brace yourselves for some sobering news, kiddies. As we go into the weekend, it appears that not one album on next Tuesday’s chart will even approach six figures. Columbia’s Bruce Springsteen will return to the top spot with 70–75k, followed by this week’s #1, Atlantic’s Kid Rock, with 65–70k. We expect the rest of the Top 10 to look something like this: Rascal Flatts (Lyric Street), Jimmy Eat World (Interscope) and Reba McEntire (MCA Nashville) will fight it out for #3, as current projections put all three in the 60–65k range; Santana (Arista), Josh Groban (Reprise),High School Musical 2 (Disney) and Kanye West (Roc-A-Fella/IDJ) should finish up at around 50–55k; and either Colbie Caillat (Universal Republic) or Matchbox Twenty (Atlantic) will round out the Top 10 with 45–50k