Prazak Quartet gives new Mountain View series a strong start

U2's 'Horizon' sales bring band back to Earth

First-week sales of U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” brought the superstar rock band back down to Earth. The album was essentially preordained to debut atop the U.S. pop charts when it was announced last year, with the only question being how much would it sell.

The Interscope album moved a brisk 484,000 copies in the U.S., according to data from Nielsen SoundScan. It’s the strongest seller of a young 2009 and the biggest first-week tally since Britney Spears’ “Circus” sold 505,000 copies in the midst of the holiday season last year.

But the number everyone will talk about is 840,000. That’s what U2’s “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” sold when it debuted at No. 1 in 2004. Considering that U2-influenced Coldplay scored a 2007 first-week tally that surpassed 700,000, the “Horizon” number may appear a bit startling.

Though the 356,000 sales gap can certainly be attributed to year after year of double-digit declines in album sales, a closer look at U2’s recent sales stats reveals “Atomic Bomb” as a bit of an aberration in the career of the Irish band.

“Certainly this is not the 800 that the last album did, but that was more than four years ago -- in a different kind of economy, a different kind of music-buyer landscape, and it came out Thanksgiving week,” said Billboard chart analyst Keith Caulfield.

U2’s 2000 release “All That You Can Leave Behind,” which was the act’s Interscope debut after years on Island, opened with 428,000 copies. Prior to “Behind,” U2” highest debut in the pre-filing-sharing era came from 1993’s “Zooropa,” which launched with 377,000 copies. SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991.

But “Behind” re-established U2 as a force on rock radio, spawning hits such as “Beautiful Day” and “Elevation.” The trend continued into the release of “Atomic Bomb,” as single “Vertigo” topped Billboard Modern Rock chart, and was the cornerstone of an inescapable Apple iPod commercial. When “Atomic Bomb” was released near Thanksgiving, “Vertigo” was a top-40 hit on the U.S. singles chart.

But that kind of radio success has thus far eluded U2 with “No Line.” When Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends’ topped the U.S. pop chart with 721,000 copies in June, the title cut was on its way to hitting No. 1 on the U.S. pop chart. “No Line,” despite a massive U2 marketing campaign that has taken the act to the Grammys and a week-long stint on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” is receiving largely positive reviews for its return to more atmospheric, adventurous arrangements.

U2’s recent release, “Get On Your Boots,” a song Caulfield says “didn’t do so hot,” has spent only three non-consecutive weeks on the big chart, and most recently was hanging on at No. 96. Additionally, SoundScan reports the cut has sold 188,000 digital copies to date, a number that seems rather quant when rapper Flo Rida is setting digital sales records with one-week totals such as 636,000.

“The last album was kind of an anomaly,” Caulfield says. “Could they have done more? Sure. Lil Wayne did a 1 million, but I don’t think this is going to drop off the chart next week.”

Perhaps not, but the real test for U2 will likely come this summer, when the band begins its upcoming stadium tour “U2360.” A Los Angeles date has not yet been announced for the Live Nation-produced endeavor â€" the first tour as part of its 12-year, multi-faceted arrangement with the promoter. The band’s last tour, the 2005-2007 “Vertigo” outing, was the second-highest grossing tour ever, bringing in $389 million, according to Billboard.

Even if “No Line” has a major sales drop, observers don’t expect the album to have too much of a negative impact on U2’s tour.  “The tour is going to do just fine as long as they don’t over-price themselves,” said Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni. “That’s the danger in this economic climate … U2 does not need a new album [to tour]. It helps, but they don’t need a new album any more than the Rolling Stones need a new album.”

Other notes from this week’s chart:

• One of the best reviewed albums of 2009, Neko Case’s Anti-/Epitaph release “Middle Cyclone,” gives the roots artist her strongest showing ever on the charts. “Cyclone” enters at No. 3 after selling 44,000 copies. Her 2006 effort “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” sold 18,000 copies when it debuted. Case’s high-point comes more a decade into her career, but her profile has steadily increased, thanks in part to her work with acclaimed indie rock act the New Pornographers.

•Further down, electronic act The Prodigy has an 80 percent sales boost for its “Invaders Must Die.” The album showed up on the prior week’s chart due to digital sales, but jumps to No. 58, up from No. 117, after getting a physical release. Of course, being budged-priced for $1.99 for one day on Amazon.com likely didn’t hurt sales.

--Todd Martens

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'ER' vets visit County General -- will Clooney stop by too?

In the clips below, former "ER" cast members Eriq La Salle, Noah Wyle and Julianna Margulies can be seen revisiting their old stomping grounds at County General Hospital. Various veterans of the show, including Anthony Edwards earlier this season, have been stopping by "ER" as the show approaches its series finale April 2.

The Sun-Sentinel's Tom Jicha wonders -- is Thursday's episode the one in which the show's most famous alum, George Clooney, will appear as well? His return to the show has been an open secret for weeks. And Margulies did say it was fun working with him again, so they apparently shared at least one scene.

However, NBC's press site says that "many ER alums" will be in the finale. The summary for the final episode says that "old friends from County General" will come to show their support when Dr. Carter (Wyle) opens a medical facility for the underprivileged in that last episode. (By the way, Alexis Bledel from "Gilmore Girls" and Ernest Borgnine guest star in the finale as well.)

But media speculation has centered on Thursday's episode as being the one featuring Clooney's return.

I guess we'll find out on Thursday whether they're holding Clooney's return or springing it on us this week. 

Clip 1: LaSalle and Wyle

Clip 2: LaSalle and Wyle again

Clip 3: Margulies and guest star Susan Sarandon

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