I’d have to say the answer is yes (duh). Radiohead’s In Rainbows made a stunning “official”debut, coming out at number 1 on the Billboard chart with 122,000 US sales in the first week.
But Radiohead’s last album, Hail to the Thief, debuted at number 3, selling 300,000 copies in its first week.
The band must be disappointed with those sales numbers. Number 1 or not (and I’m pleased to see it doesn’t take all that much to bump Mary J. Blige from the top spot), that’s a huge decrease in initial sales, especially for an album so critically lauded and with such a spectacular media following at the end of last year (including this very influential blog).
Of course it didn’t make my top 25, which probably explains the whole thing, come to think of it.