The Grace Notes

Christian Album Sales – Week of 5/8/12

Gospel duo Mary Mary is still at it, and while Go Get It is not a career-best for them it still shows them holding a strong place in the “urban contemporary gospel” scene. It also sounds like this was not a completely new album like last year’s which hit #10, but contains some remixes and remasters, and these are pretty good numbers for that kind of album. Selected discography for Mary Mary:

Thankful – 2000 – #59
Incredible – 2002 – #20
Mary Mary – 2005 – #8
The Sound – 2008 – #7
Something Big – 2011 – #10 (42,000)
Go Get It - 2012 – #16 (19,000)

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Christian Album Sales – Week of 5/1/12

Point of Grace’s new album A Thousand Little Things debuts at #186. The female CCM group seems to have peaked about a decade ago, even before losing one of their members a few years ago. Selected chart history for Point of Grace, according to Wikipedia:

The Whole Truth – 1995 – #132 (Gold)
Life Love & Other Mysteries – 1996 (Platinum)
Steady On – 1998 – #24 (Platinum)
Free to Fly – 2001 – #20 (Gold)
I Choose You – 2004 – #85
How You Live – 2007 – #56
No Changin’ Us – 2010 – #60
A Thousand Little Things – 2012 – #186

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Christian Album Sales – Week of 4/24/12

Heavy act War of Ages hits #155 with their new album Return to Life. This is a career-best for them. Here is their selected chart history:

Arise and Conquer – 2008 – N/A
Eternal – 2010 – #179
Return to Life - 2012 – #155 (2,900 copies)

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Christian Album Sales – Week of 4/17/12

Thousand Foot Krutch hit a career-best #14 with their new album The End Is Where We Begin. The band has continued to grow bigger with each new release. Here is their selected chart history:

Set It Off – 2001 – N/A
Phenomenon – 2003 – N/A
The Art of Breaking – 2005 – #67
The Flame In All Of Us – 2007 – #58
Welcome to the Masquerade – 2009 – #35 (13,000)
The End Is Where We Begin - 2012 – #14 (23,000)

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Christian Album Sales – Week of 4/10/12

Trip Lee’s new hip-hop album Good Life debuted at #17 with over 21,000 copies sold. This is a career-best and ties Lecrae’s #17 debut with Rehab in 2010, although Rehab sold over 25,000 copies. Some Trip Lee chart history:

If They Only Knew – 2006 – N/A
20/20 – 2008 – #193
Between Two Worlds – 2010 – #58
Good Life – 2012 – #17 (21,000)

Demon Hunter lands #36 with True Defiance. That is a career-best chart position for the heavy band, but slightly fewer sales than their last one.

Demon Hunter – 2002 – N/A
Summer of Darkness – 2004 – N/A
The Triptych – 2005 – #136
Storm the Gates of Hell – 2007 – #85 (10,000)
The World Is A Thorn – 2010 – #39 (14,000)
True Defiance – 2012 – #36 (12,000)

Desperation Band hits #180 with Center of it All. Read more of this post

Christian Album Sales – Week of 4/3/12

Gospel singer Marvin Sapp debtued at 9 with I Win. CCM worshipper Christy Nockels hit #67 with Into the Glorious. A lot of Christian albums saw significantly increased sales last week – almost as if there was a change in how the data was being collected. Or maybe Christians just like to buy a lot of CDs around Easter. Jamie Grace and Mandisa came back into the top 200 and so did Flatfoot 56!

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Christian Album Sales – Week of 3/27/1

Lots of new releases this week. Britt Nicole sold over 10,000 copies of Gold, hitting #41 on the Billboard 200. It looks like this is a career-best for her:

Say It – 2007 – N/A
The Lost Get Found – 2009 – #62 (7,000)
Gold – 2012 – #41 (10,000)

tobyMac’s remix album hit #52. His last two “regular” albums have hit the top 10, but this is a career-best for a remix album:

Re:Mix Momentum – 2003 – N/A
Renovating Diverse City – 2004 – #162
Dubbed & Freq’d: A Remix Project – 2012 – #52

Another CCM artist, Sidewalk Prophets, had a nice debut at #83. I can’t tell if their previous releases charted or not, but I think there’s a pretty good chance this is also a career-best for them.

We also have Jimmy Needham coming in at #128.

Speak – 2006 – N/A
Not Without Love – 2008 – N/A
Nightlights – 2010 – #136
Clear The Stage – 2012 – #128

Here are the selected sales for artists in the top 200:

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Christian Album Sales – Week of 3/13/12

The latest album in the Passion series hit #5 last week, which was reported as the highest ever for the conference worship series; I think Chris Tomlin’s title track is a radio single, so maybe that helped. But the Passion series has been increasingly successful in recent years as well; here’s some chart history:

Everything Glorious – 2006 – #69
God of This City – 2008 – #72
Awakening – 2010 – #15 -(25,000)
Here For You – 2011 – #11 – (30,000)
White Flag – 2012 – #5 (48,000)

Dave Barnes hits #59 with his new album Stories To Tell. It looks like that tied his previous release. Some of Barnes’s chart history:

Brother, Bring the Sun – 2004 – N/A
Chasing Mississippi – 2006 – N/A
Me and You and the World – 2008 – #94
What We Want, What We Get – 2010 – #59
Stories to Tell – 2012 – #59

It looks like metal band Impending Doom had their best release to date.

Nailed. Dead. Risen – 2007 – N/A
The Serpent Servant – 2009 – #144
There Will Be Violence – 2010 – #123
Baptized in Filth – 2012 – #106

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