At No. 3 this week is Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Leonard Cohen with the debut of “Old Ideas” (41,000). It’s the icon’s highest charting album ever and best sales week since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991. The beloved artist’s new album is his first studio effort since 2004’s “Dear Heather,” which debuted and peaked at No. 131 (9,000 in its first week).
Oh yeah, Lana Del Rey debuted at No. 2. But who cares? To put this in perspective: Cohen’s next-highest-charting album, “Songs From a Room,” came out 43 years ago. And it charted at No. 63. Props to L. Cohen for finally getting a big enough cult to actually move album units.
To be fair, it’s not that Cohen got big enough, it’s that the record-buying public got small enough and old enough.
