Mumford & Sons hold top spot on Billboard 200

Band’s album released in September 2012, became one of last year’s biggest selling records.

LOS ANGELES: British folk band Mumford & Sons held their reign at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart with their Grammy-winning album Babel in a slow week that saw no new debuts in the top 10.

Mumford & Sons, who won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards earlier this month and performed twice on stage, saw a second week of Grammy-related boosts as Babel sold 62,000 copies, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.

It is the fifth non-consecutive week at the top spot for the album, which was released in September 2012 and became one of last year’s biggest-selling records.

The Grammy awards boost also helped Bruno Mars’ Unorthodox Jukebox reach number two with 48,000 copies, The Lumineers self-titled album at number five, and Alabama Shakes’ Boys & Girls at number six.

The official “2013 Grammy Nominees” compilation dropped from to number seven from number two, FUN’s Some Nights dropped one spot to number eight, Rihanna’s Unapologetic climbed six places to number nine and Taylor Swift’s Red dropped to number 10 from number four.

Josh Groban’s All That Echoes at Number three and the Now Music 45 compilation at number four were the only two entries not related to the Grammys this week.

On the Digital Songs chart, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ Thrift Shop single held at number one for the seventh consecutive week, with 363,000 downloads.

New York-based electronic artist Baauer’s viral music video hit Harlem Shake climbed one spot to number two this week, with 297,000 copies, while Bruno Mars’ latest ballad, When I Was Your Man, rounded out the top three.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2013.                   

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