Photo by Anthony Pidgeon/Redferns
With his first album in five years, Wasteland, Baby!, Irish singer-songwriter Hozier has topped the Billboard 200, selling 89,000 album equivalent units.
Hozier improved greatly on the first week sales of 2014’s self-titled album, moving 58,000 units largely behind the success of his single “Take Me to Church.”
Wasteland, Baby! is preceded by the September 2018 Nina Cried Power EP, which contained “Nina Cried Power” and “Shrike.” In an interview with Billboard, Hozier talked about both the sonic and subject matter influences of his second album.
“The influences are all still there—the influence I had growing up—blues music and soul music, etc,” he said. “Thematically, not that it was intentional, but it’s definitely informed quite a bit by the political climate of the last 12 months, 18 months.
Ariana Grande’s fifth album thank u, next appeared at the No. 2 spot on the chart. Per Billboard, the record moved 86,000 units, beating out new releases from 2 Chainz, Solange, and Lil Skies.
2 Chainz followed Grande and the A Star is Born soundtrack at No. 4, moving 65,000 units of his album Rap or Go to the League. His numbers are a dip from 2017’s Pretty Girls Like Trap Music which moved 106,000 units in its first week.
The week’s other high-profile releases, Shelby by Lil Skies and When I Get Home by Solange debuted at No. 5 and No. 7, respectively. Skies sold 54,000 units, while Solange moved 43,000.
2 Chainz appeared on Genius' series For The Record to discuss the making of Rap or Go to the League.
Read the full lyrics to “Nina Cried Power” and the rest of Hozier’s discography on Genius now.
