V MARKS THE SPOT

Maroon 5’s fifth studio album in 12 years has topped the HITS Building Album Sales Chart.

V, produced and written with the help of Max Martin, Ryan Tedder, Benny Blanco, Shellback and Sam Martin, has raked in 160k in first week sales for222/Interscope after debuting at #1 on iTunes.

Last week’s #1, Ariana Grande’s My Everything (Republic), slips to #4 (-75%) in its second week of release.

Def Jam’s Jeezy overperformed slightly on Seen It All, debuting at #2 with 113k, which has Steve Bartels feeling breezy.

Meanwhile, Capitol’s Counting Crows entered at #6 with 32k, while Bob Marley’s Legend debuted on the chart at #5 with 40k, powered by a 99-cent sale on Google Play.

Speaking of discounts, Hollywood’s Guardians of the Galaxy ST remained in the #3 slot, beaming up another 55k (+13%), powered by a $6.99 sale at iTunes. Capitol Nashville's Luke Bryan also saw a sale-driven bump, grabbing 16k (+9%) in his 56th week on the chart, while NOW’s Now 51 remains in the Top 10 with 28k (+11%).

With an iTunes $6.99 sale and a rerun of his SNL performance under his belt, Capitol’s Sam Smith keeps convincing the chart to "stay with" him, as he pulls in another 30k, down just 1%.

Disney’s Frozen ST had both a TV behind-the-scenes special and sale, and yet, oddly, was only up 12%, making 29k in its 41st week, which is still a reason to celebrate for the snowballing success story since their RTD is already above 3.3m.

For all the stats on the Top 50 selling albums this week, click here.

Streeting at presstime are albums from ARTium/Def Jam’s Jhene Aiko and Reach’s rapper of faith, Lecrae; expect these to cross the finish line neck and neck.

Other 9/9 releases include Curb’s Lee Brice, Nonesuch’s Robert Plant, Blue Note’s Ryan Adams, Harvest’s Banks, Broken Bow’s Dustin Lynch and Meghan Trainor’s EP through Epic, which features her #4 Top 40, #1 iTunes single, "All About That Bass."

In other news, who's got a copy of the new U2 album?