"FutureSex" sells for Justin

Justin Timberlake's reward for bringing back the sexy: his first number one album.

On the heels of "SexyBack" becoming his first solo Hot 100 chart-topper, the reformed Mouseketeer capped a banner month by moving nearly 685,000 copies of his sophomore album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures for the week ended Sunday.

That marks the biggest sales week of Timberlake's solo career, the biggest sales week of the year by a solo artist and the second-biggest debut of 2006, behind only Rascal Flatts' 722,000-copy first week for Me & My Gang.

Timberlake's new album, which helped bounce Beyonce's B'Day down two spots to three (161,000), also went number one in the U.K., Canada, Ireland, Australia and Singapore and opened Top 5 in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Holland, France, Denmark and Hong Kong. FutureSex/LoveSounds also set the record as the iTunes Store's biggest pre-order album ever and as the biggest selling digital album ever, with nearly 67,000 copies sold via download.

As a member of 'N Sync, Timberlake claims the all-time biggest sales week, with 2000's No Strings Attached moving 2.4 million copies; its follow-up, 2001's Celebrity, moved 1.9 million first-week in second place. Timberlake's inaugural solo offering, 2002's Justified, debuted at number two with 439,000 in sales before going on to sell 3 million copies in the U.S. and winning two Grammys.

Though no competition for the top spot, John Mayer's Continuum still made a strong showing, selling nearly 300,000 copies at number two. His previous studio album, 2003's Heavier Things, debuted at number one with slightly higher sales, 316,000 copies, while his 2001 debut, Room for Squares, was a sleeper hit that didn't chart initially. Both albums went multiplatinum and earned Mayer a total of three Grammys.

With his first studio album in 11 years, old time rock 'n' roller Bob Seger sold 151,000 copies of Face the Promise to debut at four with a (silver) bullet. The Motor City rocker made a national TV performance last week on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno backed by the Silver Bullet Band. Seger's resurgence comes on the heels of his 2004 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the consistent sales of his Greatest Hits collection, a Top 10 regular on the Pop Catalog charts with 616 consecutive weeks (and counting) and over 8 million copies sold.

Lionel Richie, one of the '80s biggest sellers, moved 75,000 copies of Coming Home to open at six--his first Top 10 debut in two decades. During his heyday, the former Commodore topped the album charts, the radio charts and even earned the Album of the Year Grammy for 1984's Can't Slow Down. Surprisingly, after the multiplatinum chart-topping success of 1986's Dancing on the Ceiling, Richie didn't release another studio album for 10 years and became better known among the younger set as being Nicole's dad. Aside from Richie's trademark smooth vocals, Coming Home benefits from some all-star help in the form of Jermaine Dupri and Dallas Austin.

The Mars Volta landed the fifth and final Top 10 bow as Amputechture sold 59,000 copies at nine. The disc, which features the Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante playing guitar on nearly every track, is the first album from the prog-rockers without an overarching storyline, instead containing a series of loosely connected vignettes.

Several other albums also had strong debuts. The Grey's Anatomy 2 soundtrack--featuring tracks by the Fray, Snow Patrol and KT Tunstall--sold 46,000 copies at 14. Papa Roach's The Paramour Sessions just barely stomped past the Barenaked Ladies' Barenaked Ladies Are Me, with only seven copies separating their respective 16th- and 17th-place finishes. Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society shot to 21 with Shot to Hell.

Other notable new entries included Mastodon's Blood Mountain at 32, Madeleine Peyroux's Half the Perfect World at 33, Daz's So So Gangsta at 35, Norma Jean's Redeemer at 38, TV on the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain at 41, Randy Rogers Band's Just a Matter of Time at 61, Sugarcult's Lights Out at 64, Yo La Tengo's I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass at 66, Citizen Cope's Every Waking Moment at 69, N.O.R.E.'s N.O.R.E. Y La Familia...Ya Tu Sabe at 82 and Plain White T's Every Second Counts at 89.

Finally, Guns N' Roses' Greatest Hits remains the Energizer Bunny of the Billboard 200. The collection just celebrated two and a half years on the charts, easily the oldest album on the list. The disc, which spent the week at number 91, sold another 11,000 copies to bring its 30-month tally to nearly 3.2 million.

With so many new releases and Timberlake's enormous debut, album sales for the week--over 10 million total copies--are up 6 percent from last week and up nearly 1 percent from the same week in '05. Still, year-to-date sales are down 5 percent compared to this time last year.

Here's a rundown of the Top 10 albums:

1. FutureSex/LoveSounds, Justin Timberlake
2. Continuum, John Mayer
3. B'Day, Beyonce
4. Face the Promise, Bob Seger
5. Modern Times, Bob Dylan
6. Coming Home, Lionel Richie
7. Extreme Behavior, Hinder
8. Danity Kane, Danity Kane
9. Amputechture, The Mars Volta
10. All the Right Reasons, Nickelback