So she sleepwalks through live performances, especially when she’s singing a slow song (no more slow songs, please!). She’s still looks fabulous, is wildly popular, and provides proof that rereleasing old CDs is great for business. Her album, Good Girl Gone Bad, jumped from No. 124 on the Billboard 200 to No. 7 after being rereleased with three new tracks.

Also, Coldplay, along with Lil Wayne, set a record this week for having the first two albums since 2000, when Britney Spears’ Oops, I Did It Again came out the week before Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP, to debut back-to-back with more than 700,000 units sold. And that was back when people actually bought albums.

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Last year, one of the biggest music stories was the historic head-to-head battle between Kanye West and 50 Cent. Their fight? First-week record sales dominance. The victor? Kanye West, as if you could possibly forget. During its first week in stores last fall, Kanye’s Graduation sold 957,000, a huge sum that was partly a result of the insane amount of hype surrounding his record release. These days, things are different. Our country has fallen on hard financial times, and supposedly people are spending less money on entertainment.

The best album debut so far this year was the 463,000 Mariah Carey’s E=MC2 sold. It is in this climate that Lil Wayne released his long-awaited, but less-publicized-than-Graduation, album, Tha Carter III, and it is in this climate that the young rapper sold over a million records. Compare this to his previous biggest sales week, when he sold 258,000 copies of Tha Carter II in 2005. It seems that I, and many others, have sorely underestimated the power of Weezy. Record execs say one of the reasons for the huge sales is that the frequent leaks and changing release dates created a lot of hype that benefited the star. And maybe, in addition to Lil Wayne’s core fans, he picked up quite a few TRLers who were swooning over “Lollipop.” Oh, well. Even Kanye is impressed.

Also this week: Plies opens at No. 2, N.E.R.D. take the No. 7 spot, and Usher falls from No. 3 to No. 5.

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CD buyers made a declaration last week, and it was that they’d rather buy Disturbed’s Indestructible, NOW 28, Usher’s Here I Stand, and Weezer’s new album than Ashanti’s The Declaration, which sold 86,000 copies in it’s first week. This mostly before the buzz created by her “gotchagram,” so maybe she’ll benefit from the controversy on next week’s charts. Her last album, 2005’s Concrete Rose, sold 254,000 in its first week.

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Usher’s Here I Stand, his first album in what seems like forever, opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this week with the second best opening-week sales of 2008. With 433,000 albums sold, he’s right behind Mariah Carey’s E=MC2, which sold 463,000. It all goes to show that when pop stars fire their moms, impregnate and marry seemingly unpleasant women who definitely rub their fans the wrong way, completely alienate their biggest supporters, and briefly disappear off of the face of the earth, all will be forgiven as soon as they release a simple tune about a desire to engage in sexual intercourse at a dancing/drinking establishment. It’s the new formula for success!

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It was a big week for Mariah Carey — she lost her single status and her No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200. In her defense, there was really no competing with Madonna’s Hard Candy.

Also debuting new albums last week were Lyfe Jennings, whose Lyfe Change debuted at No. 4, and the Roots. Their album, Rising Down, debuted at the No. 6 spot. I haven’t listened to it yet, but from what I hear, it’s definitely better than it’s spot on the charts suggests. But that’s just the way it works in the music industry.

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Say what you will about her personality and, uh, wardrobe, Mariah Carey is a force to be reckoned with in the pop world. It’s undeniable. Her album, E=MC2 sold 463,000 to open at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, bumping Leona Lewis to second place. Not only is it Mariah’s biggest debut sales week ever, it’s also the largest of the year, and she is now tied with Madonna and Janet Jackson for the second most No. 1 albums of any female artist. Barbara Streisand holds the title, and Madonna will probably pull ahead of Janet and Mariah with her newest album. Still, Mimi’s doing big things.

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Already-famous-in-the-UK Leona Lewis has officially crossed over to the U.S. market with her album Spirit, which opened at No. 1 this week. Ray J had a very good showing — for Ray J, I mean — with the 7th highest selling album this week. They should all prepare to be bumped next week, if the fact that Mariah Carey has just sold 154,000 albums in her first day is any indication. I can make fun of her at times, but Mariah is Mariah.

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For the second time in a row, Danity Kane debuted an album at No. 1. Selling 236,000, Diddy’s homemade pop group had the second biggest debut of 2008, behind Jack Johnson. It’s a good week for our man Diddy, this triumphant debut for his protegees and, after being dragged through the mud by the LA Times’ Chuck Philips, his name has been cleared. Oh, and he settled that smacking-flames-out-of-asses case. Good week. See the top 10 albums after the jump.

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The struggles of an aging rap superstar: Snoop Dogg’s Ego Trippin’ debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 this week, behind Rick Ross, who’s Trilla took the No. 1 spot, and the eight millionth NOW album. Fat Joe’s aptly-named Elephant in the Room was No. 6. Rick Ross actually sold 198,000 copies, which is more than Snoop, with 137,000, and Fat Joe, with 46,000, sold combined. Florida’s vote has officially been counted. Check out the top 10 after the jump.

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Janet Jackson does it again, taking the top spot on the Billboard chart after selling 181,000 copies of her new album, Discipline. This marks Jackson’s sixth time at the peak position, but her first since 2001’s All for You.

Erykah Badu came in second with her record, Amerykah, which moved 123,900 units.

Fourth was a band named Webbie, of whom I’ve never heard. And I’m now officially my father.

The complete Top 10 is after the jump.

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What a difference a Grammy makes. The presence of Amy Winehouse’s Herbie Hancock’s albums in the top 10 of the Billboard Top 200 is a direct result of their huge Grammy wins last week. Selling 115,000 copies, Winehouse’s Back to Black jumped from the No. 24 spot last week to the No. 2 spot this week. And Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters, which won album of the year, made the crazy leap from No. 159 to No. 5.

There’s a notable new release missing from the Billboard 200 — Michael Jackson’s much-anticipated re-release of Thriller that hit stores last week. With 116,000 copies sold, it would have stolen the No. 2 spot from Amy Winehouse. Instead, it was relegated to Billboard’s catologue chart, where re-releases go to die, apparently. Sony is very displeased, arguing that the new tracks on the Thriller album make it eligible for the main chart. Billboard says MJ gets no special treatment!

Billboard chart guru Geoff Mayfield tells us: “We were approached by Sony and Sony BMG to consider ‘Thriller 25′ as a current album. But we had to be consistent with hundreds, if not thousands, of reissues that have come to the market. There have actually been new issues of classic albums that include even more new material. We didn’t just make the decision on our own. We contacted major retailers [like Wal-Mart and Best Buy], and that was the consensus.”

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Score one point for the Kravitz family! Lenny’s album debuted this week at No. 4 (behind Jack Johnson, Sheryl Crow, and Alicia Keys). But the Kravitz family loses a point for Zoe’s haircut. So it’s back to square one.

Also debuting on the charts this week: Step Up 2: The Streets. Wow, it’s just a slow week all around. The top ten after the jump.

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Blame it on a lack of any viable new competition or the fact that she’s pretty great (or both), but Alicia Key’s As I Am is back to number one on the Billboard 200 in her 12th week on the charts. She sold 61,000 albums this week. Also gracing the top 10 are Mary J. Blige at No. 5 and Keyshia Cole at No. 10. Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana is on it twice. Can I be this kid’s agent?

The list after the jump.

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Christmas is over, which means everyone’s back at work, depressed about their holiday weight gain, and broke from presents and travel. It also means that Oprah-endorsed Josh Groban and his Noel album no longer have a place at the tippy top of the Billboard 200.

In her second week on the charts, Mary J. Blige takes her rightful spot at No. 1, and Alicia Keys holds strong at No. 2. Chris Brown also crept up the charts from 10th to 5th place. It’s nice to see that this isn’t negatively affecting his sales. [BB]

All the pain and suffering and joy and jubilation that Mary J. Blige no doubt put into her latest album, Growing Pains was enough to sell 629,000 albums in her first week, but not enough to beat out Josh Groban’s Oprah-backed Noel, which was No. 1 for the fifth week in a row. Don’t sleep on the O Factor, y’all.

Jaheim’s album, The Makings of A Man,” also debuted this week at No. 11. And Lupe Fiasco’s “The Cool” sold 143,000 units to debut at No. 15. This is the price one pays for not “dumbing it down.”