Julie Doiron Remains At #1

March brings a flurry of activity on the charts as some of the biggest potential campus radio-friendly albums begin to get played and make their moves.

George Jones sang "The race is on and here comes pride up the backstretch." The top 50 chart seems like a race this week, but I'm still trying to understand who represents pride.

Julie Doiron's I Can Wonder What You Did With The Day remains at #1 and increases its lead over a new #2, Neko Case's Middle Cyclone. Both albums garnered more than 1,000 points, with Doiron receiving 400 points more than Case.

Handsome Furs' Face Control rises 11 places to #3, while A.C. Newman's Get Guilty experiences a slight resurgence and improves by two spots to #4. Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion, a former #1, falls another two places to #5.

Malajube's Labyrinthes jumps two spots to #6, followed by Shout Out Out Out Out's Reintegration Time, which is up 15 spots at #7. DD/MM/YYYY's Black Square falls six places to #8 to make room for a number of upwardly mobile LPs. Propagandhi's Supporting Caste advances a modest two positions to #9 in its sophomore week on the top 50, with Hot Panda's Volcano... Bloody Volcano re-entering the top 10 after a five-place jump.

After a couple weeks of dominating Chart Sizzler Award winners, we have to look down into the teens to find this week's champion: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's Beware at #16. It was a bit of a run-away win for Will Oldham, as the next highest new entry, Swan Lake's Enemy Mine, bowed in at #34.

That led a pack of debuts that make up eight of the final 17 albums on the chart. Josh Reichmann Oracle Band's Crazy Power debuts at #36, Marissa Nadler's Little Hells arrives at #43 and Obits' I Blame You enters at #48.

The specialty charts settled down after a torrent of change over the past couple of weeks.

Mr. Scruff's Ninja Tuna retains its #1 spot on the Electronic chart and Idan Raichel Project's Within My Walls remains atop the World/Folk top 10.

The other three top 10 charts see last week's #2 album move to #1. Buried Inside's Spoils Of Failure does the trick on the Metal/Punk chart and The Bad Plus' For All I Care tops the Jazz/Blues top 10. Both of these titles were previous chart-toppers. Only K'Naan's Troubadour moves to #1 for the first time on the Hip-Hop list.