American Songwriter Reads The Charts: Colbie Takes Over

California pop songwriter Colbie Caillat tops the Billboard 200 charts this week with her sophomore album Breakthrough, the eagerly awaited followup to 2007’s Coco.  According to Nielsen SoundScan, Breakthrough sold 106,000 copies in its first week. Congratulations Colbie.

“Christian-leaning rock band” Skillet, as Billboard classifies them, claim the #2 spot with their new album, Awake. If only the album had come out a few weeks earlier; then they could have battled it out with Chickenfoot.

You can’t keep Miley Cyrus off the charts. The country pop starlet’s new EP, The Time of Our Lives, was released a few days early, and is only available at Wal-Mart. It shot to #3. This makes Cyrus’s eighth top 10 album, when you factor in the albums released under her Hannah Montana alter-ego.

Experimental British singer-songwriter Imogen Heap had a career-high sales week with Ellipse, which debuted at #5. Her last album, 2005’s Speak For Yourself, stalled out at No. 145.

The skinny: overall album sales this week reached 5.82 million units, up 2% compared to last week’s sum (5.71 million), and down 19% compared to the same week last year. (7.15 million). Year to date album sales hit 231.1 million, down 15% compared to the same total at this point last year (270.8 million).

The top ten albums in the country this week:

1. Breakthrough – Colbie Caillat

2. Awake – Skillet

3. The Time of Our Lives – Miley Cyrus

4. Only By The Night – Kings of Leon

5. Ellipse – Imogen Heap

6. Reba McEntire’s “Keep On Loving You”

7. Twang – George Strait

8. The E.N.D. – the Black Eyed Peas

9. Fearless – Taylor Swift

10. Now That’s What I Call Country Vol. 2 – Various Artists