Billie Eilish vs Taylor Swift: Who Will Score Next Week's No.1 Album?

The contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top Advertising sign charts and the strategies behind their efforts. Next week (for next Billboard 200 due June 1), is a superstar showdown between Billie Eilish's new album and Taylor Swift's mainstream blockbuster.

Billie Eilish, Hit with hard and soft (Darkroom/Diascope): Perhaps this month's most anticipated release, Billie Eilish's third LP Hit with hard and soft debuted on Friday (May 17). The sequel to the acclaimed 2021 sophomore set Happier than ever was a first for Eilish, as it did not include any previous singles, as the artist encouraged her fans to experience the album – focusing heavily on her self-discovery of identity and sexuality as she enters her 20s – at the same time.

And it seems many have done just that. Hit me – which has perhaps collected the strongest reviews yet of her already celebrated young career – performed very well on streaming in its first five days of release, with each of its 10 tracks still charting in the top 25 of Spotify's Daily Top Songs USA chart, with each garnering over a million revolutions each. Of course, having only 10 tracks on the album may mean the album still ends up with a relatively modest overall streaming total compared to some recent blockbusters with more gargantuan tracklists, but its impressive endurance throughout the week will should lead to some pretty solid first week numbers.

The set should also sell quite well, with Eilish a reliably strong performer there – Happier it sold 154,000 copies in its first week, making up over half of the set's total first week performance (238,000 equivalent album units). To help with those numbers, Eilish released nine vinyl releases Hit me (one of which, a webstore exclusive, was signed), all in different color variants. There are also four separate CD options (a regular CD, a signed CD exclusive to her store, a “splatter” CD where Eilish put paint on the CD booklets en masse and then assembled them into their packaging, and a Target-exclusive CD that contains a poster), as well as a cassette version, and a digital deluxe album that also includes individual vocal tracks for the album's 10 songs.

taylor swift, Department of Tormented Poets (Democracy): But of course, to land her third consecutive No. 1 album, Eilish will have to topple the album that topped the chart for the past month: Taylor Swift's record sales Department of Tormented Poets. This week, in its fourth week at the top, poets posted 260,000 units – mostly in streams, with the set consistently remaining a dominant DSP performer with its 31 tracks Anthology version. (It was also helped in the latest frame by added interest following the resumption of Eras' European tour on May 9, with six Poets tracks recently added to the setlist.)

Reinvigorated live attention won't be the only thing that can help poets performance on next week's chart, however. On May 16 — at the end of the last week of tracking — Swift posted pre-orders on her website for a May 17 delivery of new digital editions of her latest album, with three different variants all also offering a “First Draft Phone Memo” edition of each from the album tracks (“Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?”, “Cassandra” and “The Black Dog”). In addition, her sales week could also be affected by a variety of CD editions – with bonus tracks and/or other collectibles – posted on her website for pre-order in May ahead of this tracking week, whose exact shipping dates are currently unknown.

The race could be close as excitement for Eilish's brand new release rivals the sheer volume of Swift's reigning behemoth. It's something that's sure to get a lot of attention in the pop community – especially after Eilish's comments on one Advertising sign The March interview decrying the artist's wastefulness in releasing excessive vinyl variations was interpreted by many Swifties as a shot at Taylor. (Eilish clarified later (that she wasn't singling out any artists with her comments and acknowledged that she was guilty of the practice herself.)

IN THE MIX

Zayn, Room under the stairs (Mercury/Republic): Elsewhere in the world of pop: Zane goes country! The One Direction alum's latest set is influenced by his love of Willie Nelson and Chris Stapleton, and is even fronted by the latter artist's producer Dave Cobb. The album isn't expected to do particularly well — Zayn hasn't had a hit on the Billboard Hot 100 since 2020 — but it will sell respectably, thanks in part to the availability of six vinyl and four CD variants, as well as a deluxe digital album with five bonus tracks. “Z sides” tracks.

New kids in the neighborhood, Still Kids (BMG): Speaking of boy band vets: Nearly four decades into their career, NKOTB are still going strong and just released their eighth album Still Guys, still with the classic lineup of Donnie, Joey, Jordan, Jonathan and Danny. The new set – their first since 2013 10which reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 — features collaborations with fellow late '80s survivors Taylor Dayne and DJ Jazzy Jeff, and is available on four vinyl and two CD variants.

cage the elephant, Neon pill (RCA): Kentucky hitmakers Cage the Elephant have been making it big on rock radio and touring for over 15 years now, and even though their days are competing for the top spot on the Billboard 200 – their 2011 set Thank you … happy birthday hit a career-best No. 2 – likely to finish, will still make an impact every time out. Sixth album Neon pillfeaturing the chart-topping song of the same name Alternative Airplay, is the band's first album in five years and is sold in five vinyl variants and a standard CD edition.