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Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Fri, Nov 29, 2024

Rush's Clockwork Angels debuts at #2 on the Billboard 200

Wed, Jun 20, 2012@11:31AM | comments removed/disabled

UPDATE - 6/21@9:46AM: The official Billboard Top 200 Chart has now been posted (thanks John at Cygnus-X1.net). In addition to taking the #2 spot in the Billboard 200 Albums Chart, Clockwork Angels also ranked extremely well in other various categories:

[Digital Albums Rank: #3]
[Rock Albums Rank: #1]
[Hard Rock Albums Rank: #1]
[Taste Maker Albums Rank: #1]
[Canadian Albums Rank: #1]

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UPDATE - 6/21@8:12AM: Here's the Market Watch press release (thanks John at Cygnus-X1.net) announcing the album's debut chart numbers:

... "CLOCKWORK ANGELS" has also debuted at #1 in the band's native Canada. In other international news, the album has already achieved the band's highest chart debuts in over a decade from Japan - #2, Norway - #10, Germany, Holland - #11, and Switzerland - #21. In addition to the commercial success, "CLOCKWORK ANGELS" has also received a raft of critical acclaim, including Rolling Stone and USA Today who heralded the release as "an ambitious, sophisticated effort by a band that sounds surprisingly vital after 20 studio albums." In the UK -- where the album was also released as an exclusive non-chart eligible fan pack format which included a 132 page booklet covering the entire history of the band -- "CLOCKWORK ANGELS" garnered a 5 out of 5 review in The Sun, Britain's largest newspaper. Had the 40,000 fanpacks sold been chart eligible, the album would have debuted at #1 in the UK as well. ...

Notice the mention that the 40,000 fanpacks sold were not chart eligible for some reason. Had those counted in some capacity towards US sales then the album may have had a shot at #1.

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UPDATE - 6/20@5:39PM: The album has debuted at #1 in Canada with close to 20,000 unit sold according to Nielsen SoundScan. The exact total sales numbers were 19,625 units sold with LP (Vinyl) sales of 367, CD sales of 14,311, and digital sales of 4,947.

UPDATE - 6/20@11:48AM: Eric at Power Windows has obtained a more detailed breakdown of the sales numbers for the album, reporting total sales of 104,707 with LP (Vinyl) sales of 2,361, CD sales of 72,007, and digital sales of 30,339.

Just as we had anticipated, Rush's Clockwork Angels album has debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 album charts in the US. The official word from Billboard:

... At No. 2 on the Billboard 200, rock band Rush clocks its best sales week in 10 years as "Clockwork Angels" debuts with 103,000. The group last sold more when 2002's "Vapor Trails" bowed at No. 6 with 110,000. "Clockwork Angels" is Rush's second album to hit No. 2 following 1993's "Counterparts." A No. 1 album continues to elude the act. ...

This debut also tops 2007's Snakes & Arrows, which debuted at #3 with first week sales of around 93,000 in the US. Note that sales of the UK Clockwork Angels fanpack were not included in this week's total as those were technically sold in the UK regardless of where they were shipped. The album continues to get great reviews in the press and online. MetaCritic's metascore for the album is currently a strong 84 based on just 5 reviews from major publications. Here's a roundup of all the reviews we have so far:

[Hellhound.ca]
[The A.V. Club] A-
[Musicians for Freedom]
[Zoiks! Online]
[Rolling Stone] 3.5/5
[Toronto.com] 3/4
[ASU's The State Press] 4.5/5
[NOW Magazine] 4/5
[TMR Zoo]
[The Toledo Blade]
[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette] 3.5/4
[The Irish Times] 3 stars
[Exclaim.ca]
[Ultimate Classic Rock] 8/10
[The Village Voice]
[Time Magazine]
[Cleveland Channel 5 News]
[The Imaginative Conservative]
[Blinded by Sound]
[Yahoo! Music Canada]
[The Calgary Herald] 3.5/5
[USA Today] 3 stars
[PopDose]
[Buffalo News] 4/4
[Peffer Reviews] A+
[Montreal Gazzette] 4.5/5
[Examiner.com] 9.3/10
[AllMusic.com] 4/5
[Something Else!]
[MSN.com]
[Toronto Sun] 4/5
[Toronto Globe and Mail] 3.5/5
[Audio Times]
[Riff Magazine]
[Planet Mosh]
[The Digital Fix]
[Martin Popoff]
[MusicRadar.com]