With a Bullet: Today's Charts

The time is now for the flannel-shirt-sporting, anti-war-lyric-spouting, retro-sounds-spewing, AARP-card-carrying rocker! Bruce Springsteen and John Fogerty concurrently debuted their latest collections of populist rock 'n' roll last week, one meeting with success and the other meeting with megasuccess. 'Magic,' Springsteen's 15th studio album, and his first with the always-on-call E Street Band in five years, has not only appealed to his loyal fan base but, judging by a couple of songs on the record, is trying to peel off a few Magnetic Fields-loving indie kids for good measure. (That triangulation strategy will come in handy if he makes a run for governor of New Jersey.) 'Magic' moved 337,000 environmentally friendly Digipak units, marking it as Springsteen's eighth No. 1 long-player in his almost 35-year recording career and simultaneously keeping most of the E Streeters out of the Asbury Park soup kitchens for at least a couple more years. Now that's liberal activism!

John Fogerty, a performer Springsteen can see eye-to-eye with both musically and politically, has released his own album of progressive politics set to throwback sounds, namely the Creedence-referencing title 'Revival.' His first studio LP since rejoining Fantasy Records (which, under previous ownership, once had the avocados to sue Fogerty for plagiarizing his own songs) debuted at No. 14, selling 65,000 copies.

• Perhaps Bob Dylan wanted to play a game of "me too" with Springsteen and Fogerty, but more likely in anticipation of the upcoming movie where he's portrayed by Kate Winslet or Cate Blanchett or Kate Hudson or Katie Holmes (or is it all four?), one more compilation of the troubadour's mush-mouthed musical genius debuted this week. The collection, simply and starkly and accurately titled 'Dylan,' and made available in one- and three-disc versions, sold 19,000 in its first week on its way to No. 36.


• Annie Lennox scored the No. 9 position this week, selling 78,000 copies of what is only her fourth solo album since dissolving Eurythmics in 1991, called 'Songs of Mass Destruction.' As one can surmise from the title, the increasingly reclusive Scots lass also has a political bee or two buzzing around in her bonny bonnet.


• After last week's Rascal Flatts triumph, it behooves this reporter to mention the other country debuts gracing the heights of this week's chart. Let us extend a big 'Hee-Haw' salute to Faith Hill, whose 'The Hits' comp is at No. 12, with 69,000 in sales, and Brooks & Dunn, whose 'Cowboy Town' wrangled a lucky No. 13 spot, also selling 69,000. Saaaaaa-loooot!

The top five albums for the week ending October 7:

1. 'Magic,' Bruce Springsteen (337,000 in 1st week)
2. 'Still Feels Good,' Rascal Flatts (168,000 in 2nd week; 715,000 total)
   
3. 'Exile on Mainstream,' Matchbox Twenty (131,000 in 1st week)
4. 'SouljaBoyTellem.com,' Soulja Boy (117,000 in 1st week)
   
5. 'Back of My 'Lac,' J. Holiday (105,000 in 1st week)