Rapper Wiz Khalifa notched his first No. 1 album last week, leading four new titles onto the U.S. chart.
Three other mild-selling releases bowed last week. Country singer Chase Rice’s “Ignite the Night” (Dack Janiels/Columbia Nashville) climbed aboard at No. 3, moving 44,000. A former contestant on “Survivor: Nicaragua,” the 2010 season of the CBS reality competition show, Rice co-wrote Florida Georgia Line’s 2012 smash “Cruise.” His two previous albums did not reach the chart.
The improbable homage “Nashville Outlaws: A Tribute to Motley Crue” (Big Machine) launched at No. 5 with a 31,000-unit frame. The L.A. metal unit is saluted in cover versions of their hits by such country performers as Rascal Flatts, LeAnn Rimes, Brantley Gilbert, the Eli Young Band and the Mavericks.
Onetime Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley collected his first-ever top-10 solo album with “Space Invader,” which attacked the chart at No. 9 with a 19,000-unit stanza. The axe man’s last set, 2009’s “Anomaly,” peaked at No. 27; his previous bestseller, a self-titled 1978 release issued at the height of Kiss’ popularity, topped out at No. 26.
Holding over were the soundtrack “Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1” (No. 2, 64,000 sold, down 30%), the “Now 51” compilation” (No. 4, 33,000, off 36%), the “Frozen” soundtrack (No. 6, 29,000, down 33%), Sam Smith’s “In the Lonely Hour” (No. 7, 24,000, down 6%), “5 Seconds of Summer” (No. 8, 24,000, off 12%) and Ed Sheeran’s “x” (No. 10, 16,000, down 12%). The Smith and 5 Seconds of Summer titles were separated by less than 400 units.
