Post Date:
June 7, 2003 Issue Date:
June 7, 2003

BESTSELLERS

Name: WORLD
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The Top 5 best-selling albums for the week ending May 24, according to Billboard magazine

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The Top 5 best-selling albums for the week ending May 24, according to Billboard magazine 1 BODY KISS The Isley Brothers

1 week on chart

CONTENT Style Slow, sensuous R&B in the style of R. Kelly, who wrote, arranged, and produced 11 of the 12 songs.

GIST Objectionable material "Busted," "Showdown Vol. 1," the title cut (suggestive deletions and/or casual cursing), "I Like" (euphemistic raunch). Worldview When Ronald Isley gets that feeling, he wants sexual healing. Overall quality The heavy-breathing sexuality aside, an intermittently persuasive case for letting R. Kelly act the Svengali to aging soul stars.

2 COME AWAY WITH ME Norah Jones

63 weeks on chart

CONTENT Style Acoustic love songs gently sung, evocative of coffeehouses and jazz clubs.

GIST Worldview Sunsets, cloudy days, lone stars, swirling skies-just the sort of soft-focus sentimentality one expects from a single, romantically inclined young chanteuse. Overall quality High; unlike her father, Ravi Shankar, Miss Jones operates strictly within the Western pop-musical tradition, inspiring hopes that her eventual follow-ups will receive an equally warm reception.

3 ON AND ON Jack Johnson

21 points (aba: 2nd; nyt: 4th; pw: 9th; amazon: 8th) | 1 week on chart

CONTENT Style Introspective, soft-spoken, mildly jazzy acoustic folk. Objectionable material "Gone," "Rodeo Clowns" (casual cursing).

GIST Worldview "[I]t was you, it was me, it was every man / we've all got blood on our hands / we only receive what we demand / and if we want hell then hell's what we'll have" ("Cookie Jar," a "Who Killed Davey Moore?" for the Columbine generation). Overall quality Somnolent sensitivity.

4 THE VERY BEST OF CHER Cher

6 weeks on chart

CONTENT Style The AM-radio '60s, the variety-show '70s, the Diane Warren/Desmond Child '80s, and the vocoderized '90s-to-the-present.

GIST Objectionable material The booklet photo of Cher modeling tinsel. Worldview With the right combination of confidence and connections, even this deep-voiced comedienne can accumulate enough hits over a 38-year period to fill a 75-minute CD. Overall quality One guilty pleasure after another.

5 GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN' 50 Cent

14 weeks on chart

CONTENT Style Sex-and-violence rap.

GIST Worldview "The Lord's blessings leave me lyrically inclined / [expletive deleted], I ain't even gotta try to shine /... I got Scriptures in my brain I could spit at your dame / straight out the Good Book, look, [plural racial slur] iz shook" ("Patiently Waiting"). Overall quality None. Maybe when he starts "spitting" Scripture?

CAUTION Some profanity.

BESTSELLERS

The Top 5 best-selling albums for the week ending May 24, according to Billboard magazine

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