That noise you hear, the giant "THUD," is just the sound of albums plummeting after their first week on the Billboard Album charts. It seems to be a common theme, and this week we get to enjoy Smashing Pumpkins falling from #2 to #12, Interpol dropping from #4 to #26, and poor ol' Spoon crashing a stagger 25 spots from #10 to #35.

This, my friends, is what we call a "rabid fanbase" that scoops up the album the absolute moment it is released. I mean, you can loathe them all you like, but after five weeks, an eternity on the charts, the White Stripes are still sitting at a respectable #14. We'll see how the rest of these guys are doing after a month on the charts.

Anyway, another one of those insidious NOW That's What I Call Music compilations rules the charts; I think it's something like NOW 25 or something. Bah! The soundtrack to Hairspray also made its way up to #4 from 20, pretty good leap for the soundtrack - although this cross-pollination of movies/musicals is beginning to bug me, especially when I saw that the original cast recording of Legally Blonde: The Musical debuted at #86.

Couple other fun debuts: The Chemical Brothers still can muster a #65 entry, although We are the Night ain't that good (review forthcoming) and Pacific Northwest punk rockers MxPx made it to #76 with Secret Weapon. They might not be the chick magnet they once were, but they still sell some records.