Jack White's “Lazaretto” debuts at No. 1, breaks vinyl sales record

PanARMENIAN.Net - Rocker Jack White claims his second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, as Lazaretto bows in the top slot with 138,000 sold in the week ending June 15, The Hollywood Reporter reveals citing Nielsen SoundScan.

The effort follows his solo debut, Blunderbuss, which also opened atop the list and sold 138,000 in its first frame. (It sold a handful of copies less, actually, but when rounded to the nearest thousand, both figures become 138,000.)

Lazaretto -- released on White's Third Man Records label through Columbia Records -- also sets the record for the largest sales week for a vinyl album since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.

The vinyl LP sold 40,000 copies -- easily enough to debut at No. 1 on Billboard's Vinyl Albums chart. (The vinyl edition of the album has many unusual bonus features that clearly intrigued consumers.)

It beats the debut of Pearl Jam's Vitalogy, which sold 34,000 vinyl LPs in its first week, back in 1994. (Notably, Vitalogy was issued on vinyl first, two weeks before its release on CD and cassette.)

To put the sales of the vinyl Lazaretto in further perspective, the configuration on its own would have ranked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 this week. In total, vinyl LP sales of Lazaretto accounted for 28.9 percent of the album's first-week sales -- nearly beating the number of CDs that were sold (41,000; 30 percent of the album's debut). Downloads were 41.1 percent.

Aside from White, the top of the Billboard 200 is pretty sleepy, with the next-highest new entry landing at No. 12: Passenger's Whispers. It's the act's highest-charting album and, with 19,000 sold, its best sales week yet.

Back in the top 10, Miranda Lambert's Platinum slips to No. 2 with 62,000 (down 65 percent) while the soundtrack to Frozen is also down one rung, to No. 3 with 50,000 (down 4 percent). Brantley Gilbert's Just As I Am dips 3-4 with 40,000 (down 18 percent), and the soundtrack to The Fault in Our Stars climbs to a new peak (8-5) with 38,000 (up 5 percent). It's the best sales week so far for the Fault soundtrack.