Post Date:
July 5, 2003 Issue Date:
July 5, 2003

BESTSELLERS

Name: WORLD
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The Top 5 best-sellingalbums for the week ending June 14, according to Billboard magazine

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1 HOW THE WEST WAS wonLed Zeppelin

weeks on chart 1

STYLEAnachronistically self-indulgent heavy-metal British blues, gilded with post-Woodstock reveries and dilettantish pagan mysticism.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIALOccasional double-entendres.

WORLDVIEW"All I ask for when I pray, steady rollin' woman gonna come my way. / Need a woman gonna hold my hand, won't tell me no lies, make me a happy man" ("Black Dog")

OVERALL QUALITYDisc 1, mostly classics; Disc 2, interminable soloing; Disc 3, a bit of both.

2 GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN'50 Cent

weeks on chart 17

STYLESex-and-violence rap.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIALAll 19 cuts (abundant profanity, obscenity, racial slurs, etc.).

WORLDVIEW"Every night I talk to God, but He don't say nothing back / I know He protecting me, but I still stay with my gat" ("Many Men [Wish Death]").

OVERALL QUALITYMight be funny if it weren't so sad, might be tragic if it weren't so stupid.

3 FALLENEvanescence

weeks on chart 13

STYLEGothic melodrama and muscle-bound metal.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL

WORLDVIEWApparently Christian, given singer Amy Lee's demand of salvation from Christ ("Tourniquet") and guitarist Ben Moody's thanking Him (the liner notes); apparently not quite Christian, given Mr. Moody's comments in Entertainment Weekly: "We're actually high on the Christian charts, and I'm like, What the [obscenity deleted] are we even doing there?"

OVERALL QUALITYThink Daredevil soundtrack, where this music first broke.

3 THANKFULKelly Clarkson

weeks on chart 7

STYLEMariah Lavigne, Avril Carey; Britney Aguilera, Christina Spears.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL

WORLDVIEWLike, romance so rules ("Sweet revelation / That look in your eyes / Your touch in the night / I find the sweetest salvation / In your arms, baby"... "I'm thankful / For the love that you / Keep bringing in my life").

OVERALL QUALITYThe best state-of-the-mainstream production, melodies, and banality that first-prize American Idol money can subsidize.

5 COME AWAY WITH MENorah Jones

weeks on chart 66

STYLEAcoustic love songs gently sung, evocative of coffeehouses and jazz clubs.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL

WORLDVIEWSunsets, cloudy days, lone stars, swirling skies-the sort of soft-focus sentimentality one might expect from a single, romantically inclined young chanteuse.

OVERALL QUALITYHigh; unlike her raga-playing father, the sitarist 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.

BESTSELLERS

The Top 5 best-sellingalbums for the week ending June 14, according to Billboard magazine

Full access isn’t far.

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