American chartwatch. (International).

The most lively albums chart of 2002 to date welcomes four new entries to the top five and, while that is cause for celebration following the recent stagnation, sales are worryingly low. Now That's What I Call Music! 9 makes its expected debut at the top of the chart, making short work of dispatching former incumbent 0 Brother, Where Art Thou? to number three.

Now! 9 sold more than 419,000 copies last week and although that is nearly treble the previous week's best tally, it is significantly down on the 621,000 opening staged by Now! 7 last August and is also well below the 549,000 start made by Now! 8 in November. Now! 9 is the fourth album in the series to reach number one and features 20 tracks on a single disc. The only UK-signed act this time around is U2, who contribute Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of.

The pairing of Jay-Z and R. Kelly was expected to produce a massive pay day for both stars and, although their Best Of Both Worlds set lands at number two, its sales of just 223,000 are significantly down on the first week tallies of both men's last studio albums. Kelly's last outing was November 2000's TP-2.com, which sold a massive 543,000 in its first week, while Jay-Z's fourth straight number one, The Blueprint, secured 429,000 sales on its debut ...