Norah at No. 1 a sixth time

Norah Jones holds the No. 1 spot on the nation’s pop album chart for the sixth consecutive week, but her days at the top are numbered.

Geoff Mayfield, director of charts for Billboard magazine, said that Usher’s “Confessions” album got off to such a fast start in its first day in stores Tuesday that retailers are predicting it could top 800,000 copies this week.

That would be the biggest opening week since Jones’ “Feels Like Home” sold 1.02 million during its first week in February, and easily enough to claim the No. 1 spot next week. Jones’ album sold only 147,000 copies last week, bringing its total to 2.2 million.

Usher’s new album, which features a more mature tone than his earlier work, figured to do well -- his last CD, 2001’s “8701,” has sold 4.2 million copies. But the massive radio exposure for his single “Yeah!” has added substantially to the heat surrounding the new collection.

Only two new releases debuted in the Top 10 on Wednesday, according to Nielsen SoundScan: Cassidy’s “Split Personality” at No. 2, with sales of 118,000, and Godsmack’s “The Other Side” at No. 5, with sales of 98,000.