Here’s what’s weird about Panic! at the Disco’s new No. 1 album
Call it wish fulfillment: With an opening track titled “Victorious,” the new album from Panic! at the Disco beat the competition to enter the Billboard 200 this week at No. 1.
“Death of a Bachelor,” the flamboyant emo band’s fifth album, sold 169,000 copies during its first week of availability, according to Nielsen Music. The disc racked up an additional 21,000 album-equivalent units through streaming and track sales for a total of 190,000, well ahead of the week’s No. 2 title, Adele’s smash “25,” which moved 147,000 units.
More significant, Panic’s release-week sales figure is the band’s highest in its decade-long career -- an unusual accomplishment at a moment when sales are generally on the decline thanks to a widespread shift to streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.
In 2008, the group sold 139,000 copies of its second album, “Pretty. Odd.,” to debut on the chart at No. 2; its previous album, 2013’s “Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!,” entered the chart at No. 2 as well on sales of 84,000 copies.
What’s more, Panic! at the Disco, following a series of lineup shifts, is now down to a single founding member in frontman Brendon Urie.
“Number one?! I don’t believe this,” Urie wrote early Monday on Twitter. “Thank you all for allowing this to happen to me. I love you all.”
Behind Panic and Adele, Justin Bieber’s “Purpose” landed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, followed by David Bowie’s “Blackstar” at No. 4 and Twenty One Pilots’ “Blurryface” at No. 5.
Twitter: @mikaelwood
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