Soft-rocker Jack Johnson floats to the top of this week's Billboard 200 album chart. His new album 'To the Sea' sold 243,000 copies to lead this week's Top 10, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album follows 2008's 'Sleep Through the Static,' which sold 375,000 copies in its opening week. Johnson reports that the title and theme of the new record deal with his feelings as a father to three children: "I guess it's a reference to a father leading his son to the sea, with the water representing the subconscious. So it's about trying to go beneath the surface and understand yourself."
Meanwhile, Taio Cruz, a British R&B songwriter and performer perhaps best known stateside for writing hit songs by Justin Timberlake and Rihanna, finds his new album 'Rokstarr' making this week's second highest debut at No. 8 with sales of 24,000.
'American Idol' alumni Clay Aiken hits No. 9 with the last of this week's new entries on the Top 10. His album 'Tried and True' features covers of traditional standards such as 'Unchained Melody' and 'Suspicious Minds.'
The rest of the Top 10 is filled with recent chart veterans, beginning with the unstoppable Justin Bieber's 'My World 2.0', which moves up a notch to No. 2 with 52,000 records sold. 'Glee: The Music, Volume 3 - Showstoppers' ends its two week reign at the top, slipping to No. 3 with 45,000 units. Lady Antebellum's 'Need You Now' is at No. 4 with a tally of 41,000, and Usher's 'Raymond v Raymond' holds firm at No. 5 by selling 35,000 copies.
The bottom half of our list finds Lady Gaga's 'The Fame' at No. 6 with sales of 33,000, Carole King and James Taylor's 'Live at the Troubadour' defying age gracefully on the charts and on stage by moving 25,000 copies, and the outrageous Kesha bouncing up seven spots to return to the list at No. 10 with sales of 20,000.
