Linkin Park Score Narrow Victory Over Maroon 5 for No. 1 Album
If you love Linkin Park and are really tired of hearing Adam Levine croon about that payphone in a falsetto voice, then now is your time to celebrate: The Cali alt-rockers eked out a Billboard 200 victory over Maroon 5 for their new records' respective chart debuts.
Linkin Park's Living Things sold 223,000 copies in its first week and Maroon 5's Overexposed followed close behind with 222,000 units moved. Both are very respectable tallies for albums released in 2012: Numerous artists this year scored No. 1 albums and didn't sell more than 100,000 copies in their first week (Adam Lambert topped the charts with 77,000). But apparently there are a few more people (1,219 to be exact) who favor Linkin Park these days.
Living Things is the fifth Linkin Park album to hit No. 1, while Overexposed's slot mirrors the No. 2 peak of their last record, Hands All Over (which was released before the chart-topping single "Moves Like Jagger" and Levine's stint on The Voice moved the long-running rock outfit into a whole new level of celebrity).
As for the No. 3 spot, Justin Bieber's Believe—obviously—took that honor with 115,000 units. Chances are good Beliebers will be keeping JB's third full-length in the Top 5 of the Billboard 200 for some time to come.
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