(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
That was nice music just now. But why didn't we play Sabrina Carpenter, who was the voice behind two of the biggest songs of this summer, and her new album just debuted at No. 1? Here's NPR Music's Stephen Thompson.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ESPRESSO")
SABRINA CARPENTER: (Singing) Say you can't sleep. Baby, I know. That's that me espresso.
STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE: You'd be forgiven for assuming that Sabrina Carpenter's "Short N' Sweet" would top the Billboard albums chart in its first week of eligibility, especially if you knew that the singer would also have three of the nation's top five songs. "Espresso" has been a hit since April. That's still holding on at No. 4. "Please Please Please" is one spot ahead of that, and "Taste" enters this week's chart at No. 2.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TASTE")
CARPENTER: (Singing) I heard you're back together, and if that's true, you'll just have to taste me when he's kissing you.
THOMPSON: Still, Sabrina Carpenter's journey to the top of the album charts was fraught right up to its final moments as she fended off a furious challenge from rapper Travis Scott. For those who feel like breaking down Billboard's Byzantine metrics, the pair's neck-and-neck battle was unbelievably close. Billboard uses something called album equivalent units. That's a number derived from a mix of online sales, physical sales and streaming. And Carpenter only ended up ahead of Travis Scott by about a thousand units, which is a razor-thin margin.
The strong numbers for Travis Scott's "Days Before Rodeo" are especially striking, given that it was originally released as a free mix tape in 2014. It had never been made available for sales or streaming, so the version that cracked the Billboard charts this week was a 10th-anniversary commemorative edition.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG "MAMACITA")
TRAVIS SCOTT: (Singing) Mamacita, cita, cita.
THOMPSON: Both Carpenter's and Scott's albums were boosted by digital variant additions. Basically, that's an alternate version of an album with one or more bonus tracks. It's a way of getting fans to buy the same record multiple times while also goosing the Billboard stats. But Travis Scott took his efforts to another level. He released eight different versions of the album, most of them digital downloads on his web store. In the end, it wasn't quite enough to topple Sabrina Carpenter. Her fans heard her pleas loud and clear.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE")
CARPENTER: (Singing) Please, please, please don't prove I'm right.
THOMPSON: Stephen Thompson, NPR Music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE")
CARPENTER: (Singing) Please, please, please don't bring me to tears when I just did my makeup so nice. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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