Faith Hill claims billboard crown. (US chartfile).

Faith Hill's new album Cry debuts with consummate ease at the top of the Billboard albums chart, after selling 472,000 copies in its first week. That is a new first-week sales high both for Hill and for any female country artist, although country may not be the best description for the album which features both pop-and R&B-flavoured material.

Cry is Hill's second number one album, following 1999's Breathe, and is one of four new entries to break the Top 10, the others being LL Cool J's 10th album, the aptly named 10, which debuts at number two with sales of nearly 155,000 copies, while Gerald LeVert hits the G Spot at number nine (76,000 sales) and Dave Hollister checks in at 10 with Things In The Game Done Changed (72,000).

With a further 11 debuts dotted around the chart, sales receive a welcome boost, with the Top 200 gaining more than 11% in strength for a combined tally of 4.4m, while the overall albums market expands 5.4% to 11.2m. Anglo-American veterans Fleetwood Mac's (pictured) Very Best Of debuts at number 12 with nearly 65,000 sales, while Britain's classical girl group Bond secure 61st position with nearly 18,000 sales of their latest album, Shine. The Bond album also debuts at number one on the Classical Crossover chart, where it dethrones ...