As reported elsewhere on the site, Sheeran's + enters at five on the chart this week on the back of 42,000 sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan, making it the highest arrival in history by a brand new UK male solo artist. This excludes Thom Yorke's whose introductory solo set The Eraser started in runner-up position in 2006, but he clearly had previous US chart success with Radiohead, including topping the countdown with Kid A and In Rainbows.
While Sheeran is new to the Top 10 - and entire chart - fellow Brits Adele and One Direction's Top 10 runs are being weighed in months. In Adele's case it is 69 weeks, its entire Billboard 200 run, even though it has recently dropped out of the UK Top 10. This week 21 slips 1-3 in the States as week-on-week sales drop 16% to 63,000.
One Direction's own residency in the US Top 10 is now a very impressive 14 weeks and Up All Night's weekly sales are down by just 1% this week to 39,000 as it remains in sixth position.
Adele, Ed Sheeran and One Direction's presence in the Top 10 makes it the seventh week in 2012 so far when there have been a trio of British albums in the Billboard 200's top tier. Every one of those seven weeks has involved Adele's 21, while the other artists participating in what clearly highlights a very successful time right now for UK talent Stateside are Coldplay, Florence + The Machine, Snow Patrol, Paul McCartney, Adele again (with 19), One Direction, The Wanted and Ed Sheeran.
Meanwhile, Usher scores his fourth Billboard 200 number one with Looking 4 Myself debuting at the top with 128,000 sales although this is significantly down on the 329,000 takers for his last album and chart-topper Raymond v Raymond in 2010.
Veteran Canadian rock band Rush clock up their highest weekly sales in 10 years as Clockwork Angels debuts at two with 103,000 takers, while behind Adele in fourth place is country act Josh Turner whose Punching Bag arrives with 45,000 sales.
Having last week become his highest-charting album since chart-topper Harvest in 1972, Neil Young's Americana with Crazy Horse drops 4-7 as sales slide 15% to 37,000, while Alan Jackson's Thirty Miles West falls 2-8 after a 50% sales drop to nearly 37,000.
The Rock Of Ages soundtrack moves into the Top 10, up 15-9 with a 101% sales increase to 36,000, following the roll-out of the film in US movie theatres and rapper Waka Flock Flame's Triple F Life starts in 10th spot after selling 33,000 copies.
As their North American tour resumes in Dallas on Friday (June 22) at the American Airlines Center, Colplay's Mylo Xyloto vaults back up 78-44. However, a week after making her Billboard 200 debut at 28 with Our Version Of Events, Emeli Sande this week makes a rapid descent, dropping 28-90.
Hot Chip hit a new high on the Billboard 200 as In Our Heads debuts in 62nd place, easily beating the peaks achieved by Made In The Dark (109 in 2008) and One Life Stand (103 in 2010).
Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe leads the Hot 100 for a second week and remains the US's top download seller with another 292,000 units sold, while Gotye featuring Kimbra's Somebody That I Used To Know holds in second place and Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa's Payphone is still third. Katy Perry's Wide Wake rises 9-4, Fun featuring Janelle Monae's We Are Young drops 4-5 and What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction falls 5-6.
It now seems only a matter of time until Ellie Goulding joins One Direction in the Top 10 with Lights climbing this week 13-12. It has already made the Top 10 of Billboard's Digital Songs chart, rising 12-9 with sales up 14% to 121,000.
Lights is one of six tracks by British acts on the Hot 100 to move up this week with Calvin Harris's Let's Go improving 58-44, One Direction's One Thing up 54-47, Alex Clare's Too Close rising 75-67, Rita Ora's How We Do (Party) progressing 85-68 and The Wanted's Chasing The Sun gaining 10 places to 81. And Cher Lloyd makes her Hot 100 debut (see separate story), debuting at 75 with Want U Back.
US album sales are up 10.5% on the week but down 7.8% compared to the same week last year to 5.81 million units, while the year's running total is now 143.20 million units, 3.1% lower than at this stage in 2011.
The one-track market continues to remain significantly ahead of where it was at this stage last year with 647.57 million singles having been sold so far in 2012, 6.1% more than 12 months ago. In the past week sales were up 0.2% on the week and were 1.1% higher than the equivalent period in 2011 to 25.38 million units.
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