Chart Watch - Billboard | Seven changed entries for first week of May

The Billboard Reggae Albums Chart valid up to Saturday, May 5, is striking for the number of entries that were not on the previous edition.

Not all of the incoming sets are unfamiliar as some of them have made the chart before. And with seven of the 10 places held by fresh (or refreshed) faces, it naturally means that many an album that enjoyed a spot is missing in action.

Among those that have held on is Damian 'Jr Gong' Marley's Stony Hill but just barely as it is in the number nine spot, down from six last week. Still, in its 40th week on the chart, the 2018 Grammy-winning set is closing in on a year of continuous chart presence. If there was a backhanded award for the week's greatest loser, it would go to the number 10 set, Grateful Dub (Roots of Creation), which dipped like a plane in an air pocket from number three last week. The other album that has kept a presence from last week's ranking is the Bumpin Uglies's Beast From the East, which has lost a place from last week to land at number five. Notable among the sets which that fallen off the chart at least, for now is Chronixx's Chronology, which had been on the listing since being released last summer.

NEW SETS

Topping the new sets is the number one debut from Sting and Shaggy, 44/876, the numbers signalling the respective area codes that have connected them. There is a return at number two with the various-artistes compilation Tropical House Cruises to Jamaica, then new entries at numbers three and four (DJ Spooky Presents Phantom Dancehall by DJ Spooky and the various-artistes Get Ready: Do Rock Steady, respectively).

Two of the three new albums in the chart's lower half have the word 'dub' in common, but with different meaning. Sly & Robbie/Junior Natural have Militant Dub at number six, where dub is the art of manipulating riddim tracks stripped largely of vocals. And at number seven is Studio 1 Dub Plate Special: Box Set, where a dub plate is a customised recording for a sound system. Rounding out the new entrants is the various-artistes Natural High: The Bongo Man Collection at number eight.