When early projections revealed that Eminem’s “Recovery” was tracking for about 600,000 debut sales, his fans were ecstatic. Even though the reviews were significantly better, for “Recovery” to match first-week sales of last year’s comeback album “Relapse,” which was a critical disappointment and seemingly hurt some of his momentum, congratulations were definitely in order.
But thanks to positive word of mouth and the breakout success of Rihanna collaboration “Love the Way You Lie,” the album ended up greatly eclipsing expectations. According to final sales data from Billboard, “Recovery” net sales of 741,000.
Easily the best debut sales week of the year, the figure also smashed that of Drake’s heavily-hyped debut “Thank Me Later.” That album drops to about 156,000 for its second week.
Already projected as a huge disappointment, Miley Cyrus’ “Can’t Be Tamed” came in lower than expected, garnering only about 102,000 sales. While still considered a fairly solid record, the album was nonetheless criticized as trading the youthful personality of Miley’s previous recordings in favor of a more generic, polished sound.
Other debuts this week: Ozzy Osbourne’s “Scream” comes in at around 81,000, The Roots’ “How I Got Over” starts at a solid 51,000, Keith Sweat’s “Ridin’ Solo” lands at 27,000 and Jaron & The Long Road To Love’s “Getting Dressed in the Dark” opens to just under 24,000.