ITZY’s Crazy in Love: The 1st Album debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Oct. 9), marking the first leader, and second entry, for the Korean pop group. The set, which is promoted as the act’s debut full-length studio album, sold 22,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Sep. 30, according to MRC Data.

Crazy follows one other entry for the group, the Guess Who EP, which peaked at No. 23 this May.

Crazy in Love: The 1st Album leads five debuts in the top 10 on Top Album Sales, as new efforts from Angels & Airwaves, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Billy Strings and Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine arrive.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now MRC Data. Pure album sales were the measurement solely utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram. 

Of Crazy in Love: The 1st Album’s sales of 22,000, physical album sales comprise 21,000 (all from CD sales) and 1,000 via digital download. Like many K-pop releases, the CD edition of the album was issued in multiple collectible packages (including a Target-exclusive edition).

ITZY replaces another Korean pop act at No. 1, as NCT 127’s Sticker: The 3rd Album falls from No. 1 to No. 2 in its second week (15,000; down 76%).

Angels & Airwaves’ new studio album Lifeforms bows at No. 3 with 13,000 sold while YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s Sincerely, Kentrell starts at No. 4 with 10,000. Metallica’s self-titled former No. 1 is up one spot to No. 5 with 9,000 (down 26%) and Olivia Rodrigo’s chart-topping Sour climbs 7-6 with nearly 9,000 (down 26%).

Billy Strings’ Renewal launches at No. 7 (8,000 sold), Billie Eilish’s former No. 1 Happier Than Ever climbs 11-8 (7,000; down 9%), Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine’s A Beginner’s Mind debuts at No. 9 (nearly 7,000) and Kacey MusgravesStar-Crossed falls 4-10 in its third week (nearly 7,000; down 54%).

Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart returns for the 2021 holiday season, with Carrie Underwood’s 2020 release My Gift leading the list (dated Oct. 9).

The Top Holiday Albums tally will continue to be published on a weekly basis through early January of 2022, when it will jingle away until the next holiday season. (The chart generally returns every October.)

My Gift spends a seventh nonconsecutive week atop the tally, after six weeks at No. 1 last season following its release on Sept. 25, 2020. The album was reissued on Sept. 24, 2021 with three bonus tracks.

The Top Holiday Albums chart ranks the 50 most popular seasonal albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

The Oct. 9-dated Top Holiday Albums chart is filled with familiar favorites in the world of seasonal albums, including Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas, Michael Bublé’s Christmas, Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas and Nat “King” Cole’s The Christmas Song. The chart’s highest debut is Chris Tomlin’s Emmanuel: Christmas Songs of Worship, which starts at No. 8 following its release on Sept. 24.

Upcoming holiday album releases that will likely impact the Top Holiday Albums chart include: Darren CrissA Very Darren Christmas (due out Oct. 8), Josh Turner’s King Size Manger (Oct. 8), Kelly Clarkson’s When Christmas Comes Around (Oct. 15), Norah JonesI Dream of Christmas (Oct. 15), Jim Brickman’s A Christmas Symphony (Oct. 22), Kristin Chenoweth’s Happiness Is… Christmas! (Oct. 22), Brett Eldredge’s Mr. Christmas (Oct. 22), Zach WilliamsI Don’t Want Christmas To End (Oct. 22), Brett Young & Friends’ Sing the Christmas Classics (Oct. 22), Pistol AnniesHell of a Holiday (Oct. 22), Rob ThomasSomething About Christmas Time (Oct. 22), Nat “King” Cole’s A Sentimental Christmas With Nat “King” Cole and Friends: Cole Classics Reimagined (Oct. 29), Pentatonix’s Evergreen (Oct. 29), Matthew West’s We Need Christmas (Oct. 29) and Steve Perry’s The Season (Nov. 5).

When Alanis Morissette released her blockbuster Jagged Little Pill album in 1995, she painted a picture of a woman who contained multitudes — or, really, she painted a picture of a multitude of women. It was like Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman” in album form, only grittier.

Which is why it was such a beautiful, full-circle moment to see Morissette bring her breakthrough album — which spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and made her the youngest artist to that point to win a Grammy for album of the year — back to life for the final U.S. date of the Jagged Little Pill 25th Anniversary Tour on Wednesday night at the Hollywood Bowl, the second of two nights at the venue. This time, instead of a 21-year-old raging against her shady ex with wild hair shrouding her face in the blurry, desert-set “You Oughta Know” music video, we saw a 47-year-old thrashing her now-blonde (but just as wild) locks and delivering just as much of the song’s trademark vitriol even though she’s now a happily married mom of three. Jagged Little Pill still represents 2021 Alanis, just as the ripped-from-her-diary songs somehow managed to encapsulate the complicated and complex worlds of a lot of women back in 1995 through today. It’s all at once intimately personal and surprisingly universal.

Below, find some of the best full-circle moments from Morissette’s final U.S. tour stop, where she was joined by Garbage and Cat Power as openers and a crowd full of fans who have made Jagged Little Pill their own over the past 25 years.

The Vocals

Capturing the powerful wails and crystal-clear yodels that she recorded more than a quarter-century ago might seem like a tall order, but Morissette far exceeded expectations when it came to her live vocals. The way her intonation cut through the Bowl crowd singing along to every word and how she held on to notes for an impossibly long time (especially on the seething JLP standout “Wake Up”) was, honestly, extraordinary.

Evolving Lyrics

In the final pre-chorus of “You Learn,” Morissette acknowledged her trio of kids with a knowing smile, swapping the original line “The way a 3-year-old would do” for “Like a 10-year-old, and a 5-year-old, and a 2-year-old would do.” She also gave a cheeky update to “Ironic” by changing “It’s like meeting the man of my dreams and then meeting his beautiful wife” to “meeting his beautiful husband,” with the big screens focusing on a gay couple kissing in the crowd to rapturous cheers.

‘And the Other One Is Givin’ a Peace Sign’

While playing the final harmonica line of the sweetly romantic “Head Over Feet,” Morissette held the instrument with one hand while throwing a peace sign in the air with the other — a cute callback to her “Hand in My Pocket” lyric.

Leave the Beach Ball at Home

During her opening set with Garbage, frontwoman Shirley Manson went off on the crowd when someone in the pit started tossing a beach ball around, calling the display “disappointing and, quite frankly, pathetic.” “This is enough already,” she added. “How musicians are treated in this culture is f—ing insane. Stop with the f—ing balloons unless you want to go back to being 5 years old, yeah? F— you,” she said, before seamlessly launching into 1998’s “I Think I’m Paranoid,” an Alternative Airplay top 10 hit for the band. Lest you think concertgoers felt chastised by Manson’s speech, it was quite the opposite: The crowd positively ate up Manson’s dressing-down.

A Group Sob-Fest

Morissette wrapped her encore with 1998’s non-Jagged Little Pill Billboard Hot 100 top 20 hit “Thank U,” and when she got to the lyric “how ’bout unabashedly bawling your eyes out?,” fans cheered wildly because they either: A) Already had cried at some point during Alanis’ set, or B) Were currently weeping as the cathartic concert came to a close.

A Fond Farewell

As the last U.S. date of the anniversary tour, Morissette expressed her gratitude to her crew and opening acts ahead of the final song. She acknowledged the weight of touring during a pandemic by saying, “We’re so grateful — and we’re alive.” She also shared a message to her socials on Thursday (Oct. 7) about wrapping up the trek, calling it “the most intense tour of my life.”

The set list for night 2 of Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill 25th Anniversary Tour at the Hollywood Bowl:

All I Really Want
Hand in My Pocket
Right Through You
You Learn
Hands Clean
Forgiven
Everything
Mary Jane
Diagnosis
Reasons I Drink
Head Over Feet
So Unsexy
Ablaze
Nemesis
Perfect
Losing the Plot
Wake Up
Not the Doctor
Ironic
Sympathetic Character
Smiling
I Remain
You Oughta Know

Encore:
Your House
Uninvited
Thank U

On Thursday (Oct. 7), Tears for Fears announced their return to rule the world once again with their long-awaited seventh album The Tipping Point. Their first new album since 2004, The Tipping Point is a reflection of the pop rock duo’s personal and professional “tipping points” and is set to arrive Feb. 25 via Concord Records.

In anticipation, Tears for Fears duo Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith also dropped the title track and music video inspired by Orzabel’s own life and struggles with grief and the loss of a loved one. The music video, directed by Matt Mahurin, conveys the imbalance of death and disease through dark imagery.

Despite their legendary status, the band opens up about their failed attempts at artistic compromise with management suggestions to work with “hit songwriters.” Ultimately, this cycle came to a halt with Orzabel stating, “That pressure and tension divided us not just from our management, but from one another too.”

This album was created alongside Tears for Fears’ longtime collaborator Charlton Pettus, with songwriters and producers Florian Reutter and Sacha Skarbek. Smith also shared, “If that balance doesn’t work on a Tears for Fears album, the whole thing just doesn’t work. To put it in simple terms, a Tears for Fears record and what people perceive to be the sound of Tears for Fears  is the stuff we can both agree on.”

The Tipping Point is available for preorder now. Watch the video for “The Tipping Point” and find the album track list below.

The Tipping Point  track list:

1. No Small Thing
2. The Tipping Point
3. Long, Long, Long Time
4. Break The Man
5. My Demons
6. Rivers Of Mercy
7. Please Be Happy
8. Master Plan
9. End Of Night
10. Stay

Additional Tracks On The Deluxe CD Edition

11. Let It All Evolve
12. Secret Location
13. Shame (Cry Heaven)

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Ben Facey has exited Universal Music, a little more than six months after relocating to the United States from his native Australia.

An experienced major-label marketing executive, Facey has served as Executive Vice President, Global Marketing and Digital Strategy at Republic Records in Los Angeles since February.

Prior to that, he was Head of International Marketing & Media at Universal Music Australia from October 2014, and he held marketing posts at Foxtel and Warner Music before that.

An auto-reply from Facey’s email account confirms he is “no longer with the company” and directs inquiries to Jim Roppo, EVP/General Manager at Republic Records.

Facey was understood to be the subject of an internal investigation, news of which first emerged in late August on Beneath The Glass Ceiling, the Instagram account that’s been holding the music industry to account for bad behavior.

The reasons for Facey departure are unclear, and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing. A spokesman for Universal Music Group confirmed his departure from the company, and tells Billboard there is no further statement at this time. Roppo did not respond to requests for comment.

The latest development follows the launch of an independent investigation at Universal Music Australia, sparked by reports of inappropriate behavior from within its ranks. The Sydney Morning Herald reported multiple claims made against staffers, including allegations of bullying, harassment, racism, homophobia, discrimination, as well as more serious allegations of sexual assault.

The affiliate’s leader George Ash reportedly engaged Darren Perry at law firm Seyfarth Shaw to conduct the probe, informing staff on Friday, July 30 and encouraging them to raise concerns through the internal and external complaints channels. When asked for an update on that investigation, a spokesperson for the music major recently declined to disclose confidential personnel matters or comment on the status of any potential investigations, citing privacy reasons and corporate policy.

“Everyone deserves a workplace environment that is safe, inclusive, and respectful. We take seriously any claims of alleged misconduct which are brought to the company. All claims are reviewed promptly, thoroughly and objectively. If any misconduct is found, appropriate action is taken,” reads a company statement, issued Aug. 24 to Billboard.

“In light of the recent reports regarding sexual harassment and abuse, both from various corners of the Australian music industry and across broader society, we are committed to playing our part to advance real and constructive change and an industry that upholds the highest standards of professional respect, conduct and integrity.”