GAGA AGAIN, BUT EXPECT
A DROP OFF

Lady Gaga will return at #1 next week, but expect a far greater drop off than usual, thanks to the absence of Amazon’s 99 cents deal, which was responsible for 460k of the 1.1 million opening sales garnered by Born This Way last week.

That’s based on reports from those music retailers who weren’t busy chasing Sarah Palin’s tour bus stops.

Among the albums which hit the streets this week, Atlantic indie darlings Death Cab For Cutie’s seventh studio effort, Codes and Keys, and first since 2008’s Narrow Stairs, looks set for the highest debut, between 90-100k.

Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder’s Monkeywrench/Universal Republic solo album, Ukulele Songs, appears to be in the 60-70k range.

Critically acclaimed ATO/RED Louisville rockers My Morning Jacket’s Circuital is on target for between 40-45k.

Borstal Beat Irish rockers Flogging Molly’s Speed of Darkness, recorded in Detroit as a “call to action inspired by the collapse of the U.S. economy and the resilience of mankind’, should do 20-25k.

The market was up 23% vs. last week, up 34% vs. same week last year and now flat year to date. And, as we all know, flat is the new up.