Coldplay slips, Kid Rock jumps

The national album chart this week tells a three-pronged tale: A hit single still packs a punch, hip-hop by anyone other than Lil Wayne continues to struggle and a sales drop isn’t necessarily bad for an artist -- as long as everyone else slides more.

The inescapable Kid Rock demonstrates what a hit single can still do. As Rock’s song “All Summer Long” climbs the Top 40, adult contemporary and country singles charts simultaneously, his album “Rock N Roll Jesus” has jumped from No. 12 to No. 7. Sales spiked 27%, to 45,000 last week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Meanwhile, Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III” moved back into the No. 1 slot even though sales dropped 25%, thanks to an even greater slip for Coldplay’s latest. Sales of “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends” dipped 40% during its third week of release, to 149,000 just shy of the 156,000 copies Wayne sold.

Wayne also trumped G-Unit’s new “T.O.S. (Terminate on Sight),” which debuted at No. 4 on sales of 102,000 copies. Despite the presence of rap heavyweights 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo, G-Unit’s first week was dramatically less than the 377,000 figure for the group’s 2003 debut, “Beg for Mercy,” and one-tenth of Lil Wayne’s 1-million-selling first week last month.

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