Jason Isbell Hits Multiple #1’s with New Album “Reunions”
Jason Isbell has once again landed at #1 in both country and rock, as well as folk/Americana with his latest record Reunions. This is the third time in a row the Alabama native has landed at the top of all three metrics with an album debut, and all from an artist who rarely makes it onto commercial radio. And this time Isbell does it with a multi-week release that could have put his string of #1’s in peril.
Jason Isbell’s Reunions sold around 31,000 in physical sales, and accrued another 6,000 in equivalent stream and downloads for a grand total of 37,000 total album units, beating out all comers, including Luke Combs who came in 2nd in country with 28,000 units sold of his latest record What You See Is What You Get. Isbell beat out Queen’s Greatest Hits, and a ton of other Greatest Hits packages in rock to take the #1 spot this week. Reunions also comes in at #1 on the all-genre Billboard Top Album Sales chart which doesn’t factor in streaming, and #9 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart.
What made this an especially tough achievement for Isbell this time was his decision to sell physical copies of Reunions via brick and mortar record stores a week early in an effort to help the struggling businesses forced to shut down or only sell via delivery or curbside amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Just with these sales, Isbell was able to move over 7,100 albums and hit #1 on Billboard’s Top Vinyl Albums chart, #6 on Billboard’s all-genre Top Album Sales chart (physical only), as well as #17 on the Billboard Country Albums Chart, and #20 on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart last week.
However the concern was those 7,100 in early physical sales which weight so significantly on album charts would put Jason Isbell at a disadvantage on his official debut week. But Reunions with his band The 400 Unit was still strong enough to overcome all competition on a week with not a lot of other major releases.
Overall, debut sales and streams were slightly down for Isbell from his previous two releases when combining both 1st and 2nd week sales for a grand total of 44,000. His previous record, 2017’s The Nashville Sound came in with a total of 54,000 in sales and streaming equivalents, and his 2015 album Something More Than Free came in with 46,000 total units.
Jack Young
May 27, 2020 @ 8:38 am
Regardless of your opinion on Jason Isbell and his music, this should make everyone that visits this website happy. Another win for real music.
thegentile
May 27, 2020 @ 8:53 am
the album really is quite good. grows on you too. the stream they did for the debut is really good, features the whole album with just him and amanda… great stripped down versions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2ygLmzahTg
Cameron
May 27, 2020 @ 9:02 am
Much like Nashville sound…. This album added a few songs to my isbell playlist but overall it’s just not on the same level as SMTF and Southeastern.
I enjoy River, Dreamsicle, Only Children, and Letting You Go.
The rest are meh to bad.
James
May 27, 2020 @ 9:05 am
Overseas would like a word
Dale Monroe
May 27, 2020 @ 9:32 pm
St. Peter’s Autograph is pretty darn good too.
Cool Lester Smooth
May 28, 2020 @ 1:57 am
It Gets Easier is up there with Flying Over Water, as far as his rocked-up songs go!
Cameron
May 28, 2020 @ 2:56 am
Overseas is what I would qualify as meh. great rock song but shitty lyrics with an isbell cookie cutter song structure. Also If what the waiter did was so bad he should have done something. Not just ponder about what his super badass wifey would have done.
Jared S.
May 28, 2020 @ 9:28 am
The Narrator Isn’t Jason.
This is true of most Isbell songs. Overseas is definitely one of them.
North Woods Country
May 28, 2020 @ 5:55 am
Overseas would have a word if it were recorded as the acoustic version he’s performed live at least once.
Cool Lester Smooth
May 28, 2020 @ 2:01 am
I mean…very few albums released in the 21st century are “on the same level as Southeastern,” haha.
And most of them are hip hop joints.
North Woods Country
May 28, 2020 @ 12:04 pm
Lucero’s All a Man Should Do is the only other record to ever hit me as hard as Southeastern. I don’t even put Something More Than Free in the same class.
I haven’t heard all of Reunions yet, but having first heard Overseas in the acoustic live video, the recorded version makes my blood boil. That electric guitar lick isn’t that good that it necessitated itself as the studio version.
Cameron
May 28, 2020 @ 12:26 pm
I would agree with you if super 8 weren’t on the record. That song is a pile of shit. In the Throes and Purgatory to me are both better than Southeastern.
North Woods Country
May 29, 2020 @ 7:17 am
I think “Super 8” was very intentional, either to have one break from the emotionally heaby songs, or as something of a bait and switch before going back to the weighty material.
I think Country Squire is better than Purgatory, so I can’t agree with you on that one.
RD
May 27, 2020 @ 10:45 am
That is impressive.
JF
May 27, 2020 @ 11:10 am
Good for him. He deserves it.
But not a great record, in my opinion. I have loved everything he’s ever done. He’s probably one of my top 3 current artists. But I just don’t get what he was going for here. Mostly sounds like stuff he made up on the fly and recorded in his garage (with some bright spots, mostly identified above). I am not a Cobb hater but lord Jason needs to work with someone new.
Mike W.
May 27, 2020 @ 1:40 pm
I wonder if the perception of this record is being shaped by the first 2 songs that came off of it as “singles” in What Have I Done To Help & Be Afraid? I say that because for my money those two songs are two of the weakest songs on the album, but that should not overshadow how damn great Dreamiscle, Only Children, It Gets Easier, and Overseas are.
Bennett
May 27, 2020 @ 3:32 pm
I absolutely think so. It’s an interesting concept, using the worst songs of the album as singles, leaving all the goodness as a cohesive work for the rest of the record.
Therhodeo
May 27, 2020 @ 11:57 am
Very happy his music is resonating with people
Corncaster
May 27, 2020 @ 2:18 pm
It’s good for all indie artists to see someone establish a successful model, but ratings mean nothing in that context. Based on that last paragraph, Isbell’s initial sales appear to be dropping year on year. Explain that however you want, but the numbers are a) small compared to sales in the past (and not only his), and b) getting smaller all the time. Sorry to be depressing, but I think we’re seeing the End of Popular Music.
What we’re moving toward is a patronage system for musicians. This isn’t a movement back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries because the patrons are no longer royalty. The patrons are average janes and joes, and the potential patron pool is spread out all over the planet.
Market segmentation is fierce and accelerating. It’s still the wild west, so get in while you can.
Bruce
May 28, 2020 @ 12:53 am
I might agree except that we’re not living in a normal time right now. Marketing just isn’t there for Isbell right now like it would be were we not in a pandemic. An artist like Jason sells a great deal of records as a result of his touring, something he can’t do currently. I would take sales these days with a grain of salt.
Mark Mckown
May 27, 2020 @ 3:43 pm
Fucking Trigger,,,, you asshole . Are you saying something nice or just simply stating the facts this time you fuck? Why don’t you bash him like you normally do? You hate the album and his stance against what he thinks is right because it differs from you. Why don’t you just let the music breathe and let it run its course. It matters not what sales are. They have still accomplished a lot more in this business than you will ever even dream of.
ChrisP
May 27, 2020 @ 6:22 pm
This right here encapsulates the problem with any coverage of Isbell that is anything other than ass kissing. You have a whole army of Isbell trolls who wait for any review of Isbell to pounce. If it isn’t to their liking, they act like spoiled little three year olds.
On the other hand, they would probably bitch just the same – if not more – if you didn’t cover an Isbell release. Honestly, Trigger writes an update on how Isbell just hit #1 again, and you choose to focus on the part about declining sales?! There’s no spin or anything, just reported sales. If you’ve got a problem, go buy the requisite albums to make up the difference between this album and the last one. Otherwise, I don’t get where all the bitching is coming from.
Mark McKown
May 27, 2020 @ 9:05 pm
Ummmmmm Little Trigger has bashed Isbell in his reviews of Be Afraid, when it was first released. He has also given the album nasty reviews cause he’d rather lick Luke Coombs . He’s trying to save country music. The thing is Isbell is not country, so keep him out of this trash rag that y’all read. Go save your country music. You have plenty of Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton out there to worship.
618creekrat
May 28, 2020 @ 6:45 am
Worship?
Project much?
Cameron
May 28, 2020 @ 8:25 pm
It is so weird to me that people melt over shit like this. Grow the fuck up Mark. Not everyone likes the same things you whiny little bitch.
Charlie
May 28, 2020 @ 8:20 am
Instead of fact-checking Twitter feeds, can the internet please install a filter to block any and all ‘what have YOU ever done?’ posts or comments?
Thanks
CountryKnight
May 27, 2020 @ 4:28 pm
He is the Five Guys of independent music.
Decent but drastically overrated.
Brad Smith
May 27, 2020 @ 4:46 pm
Blah blah blah
Mark Mckown
May 27, 2020 @ 9:14 pm
The five guys of independent music????? You’re a fucking genius. So he’s a small franchise that has sold his label to many different people to start their own business? Exactly how many Southeastern artists are their you fucking moron?
CountryKnight
May 28, 2020 @ 6:36 am
I see you can’t grasp the concept of analogies.
Settle down, snowflake. It is OK for people to criticize your golden calf.
kay adkins
May 30, 2020 @ 10:51 pm
Wow. Rough crowd here.
Joe Downey
July 4, 2020 @ 1:01 pm
I am a Jason Isbell fan dating back to Decoration Day with DBT. His amazing ability to me has always been his powerful and unique perspectives on common things and his ability to capture normalcy and send it through a completely different lens. He also used to have many demons I think, that could inspire him. It seems like two things have gradually happened with the last two albums: the production has become overdone and earlier subtle themes have been replaced with overt political rhetoric. In my humble opinion, the more obviously political the song, the worse it is…not necessarily in general, but with respect to isbell. Maybe his life is so comfortable now that his only source of angst is politics. That is just a theory. I dont know what it is but to deny that the quality of both the production and material on the last two studio records has devolved is to be at least somewhat dillusional. I know everyone’s opinion is different, but his recent direction has bummed me out.