The reviews are not earth-shattering, but Lupe Fiasco’s heavily-hyped “Lasers” will still have no trouble topping next week’s album sales chart.
Based on opening day sales data, Hits Daily Double forecasts the opening-week total will land in the 220-240,000 range. That performance will easily rank as a career-best for the rapper, whose previous album “The Cool” opened to about 140,000.
It also assures “Lasers” will have a comfortable sales margin over other new releases. The latest “Glee” soundtrack (Volume 5) is pacing for about 90-100,000, while Avril Lavigne’s “Goodbye Lullaby” is looking at a soft 85-90,000.
While the “Glee” figure and Lavigne figure are both tracking below those of their respective predecessors, the Lavigne tally is particularly disappointing. 2007’s “The Best Damn Thing,” her previous album, opened to just under 300,000 first-week copies.
REM’s “Collapse Into Now” is pacing for 45-50,000, slightly ahead of the forecasted totals for Sara Evans’ “Stronger” and Raekwon’s “Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang” (40-45,000).