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Views From the 182: Blink 182 End Drake’s 9 Week Stint At No. 1

This is an opening line I can absolutely say we did not expect to be writing in 2016: After nine weeks at the top of the Billboard charts with his record-breaking album Views, Drake has lost the top spot to Blink 182 and their new album California.

In their first week of release, California debuted at no. 1 with an impressive 1860,000 sales and equivalents. Interestingly, 170,000 of that were traditional album sales, not streaming. In terms of first week sales, it’s the third highest selling rock record of 2016 after Radiohead (173,000) and David Bowie (174,000). It also marks the pop punk band’s first no. 1 in fifteen years, and only their second ever, the first being Take Off Your Pants and Jacket back in 2001. Take Off Your Pants held the top spot for one week, and it will be interesting to see if California can outlast it.

The album marks a massive return for the band, whose frontman Tom DeLonge left last year, and has now been (somewhat controversially) replaced by Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio.

 

Drake now sits at no. 2, followed by Maxwell‘s wonderful new album blackSUMMERS’night (which he will be showing off live in Australia next month), Beyoncé‘s Lemonade, Blurryface by Twenty One Pilots and Anti by Rihanna.

Congratulations for the massive comeback Blink 182! It’s also nice to know that the band themselves have realised how strange the times are:

Read our Flashback Friday feature on Blink 182’s Take Off Your Pants And Jacket

Image: Supplied