Billboard beauty

Time for our irregular look at America's hottest twenty albums this week:

20 Gwen Stefani - Love Angel Music Baby
These bananas are shit. Also worth a mention, the aforementioned here Kidz Bop 8 at 31 having entered at 6.

19 Sugarland - Twice The Speed Of Life
A surprising amount of new bands around this week. This lot are a country singing-songwriting trio from Atlanta and therefore are unlikely to cross over here.

18 Bow Wow - Wanted
Formerly of Lil' status, although we stopped caring when he grew up.

17 Fall Out Boy - From Under The Cork Tree
Pop-punk's not dead! Contains song called 'I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me'.

16 Rascal Flatts - Feels Like Today
Not Dizzee's newly purchased apartment block but another country hoedown trio, experiencing a sales renaissance after an American Idol guest spot.

15 The Click Five - Greetings From Imrie House
A new entry, and watch out for these, not least as they were on Popjustice the other week. The American McFly, essentially.

14 Gorillaz - Demon Days
Shaun returns from the embalmers'.

13 Green Day - American Idiot
Wake Me Up When September Ends is currently making a huge impact on US MTV, their audiences perhaps appreciating the sap quotient more.

12 Coldplay - X & Y
Out of the top ten after ten weeks. In that gig shown in the Fix You video, which looks like it's their Bolton concert from early July, did Chris actually have to go off stage halfway through that song so he could be filmed coming back on?

11 Killers - Hot Fuss
Not sure why this has just climbed back up 18 places as All These Things That I've Done hasn't taken off as a US single just yet. Were you aware Brandon Flowers is a Mormon? (no, The Bravery, we wrote 'Mormon')

10 Young Jeezy - Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101
Charming. Def Jam Atlantan who's featured Jay-Z on a remix, as with every other rap record of the last five years.

9 Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway
Stop screeching, girl!

8 Faith Hill - Fireflies
Christ (literally), is she still going? This is her return to roots country after her spell as a pop-Nashville diva, which having been in The Stepford Wives she should know all about.

7 Staind - Chapter V
Nu-metal will never die! This was actually number one last week, scarily. Even mentors Limp Bizkit would struggle for that these days.

6 Black Eyed Peas - Monkey Business
Facts That First Hand Evidence Bears Out But Still Can't Possibly Be True: Fergie was the voice of Sally in Charlie Brown & Snoopy.

5 311 - Don't Tread On Me
A hundred short of the Mary J Blige album and already forgotten girl group, a full six hundred behind the Bodyshakin' auteurs, the veteran rap-rockers enter.

4 Various - Now 19
1 Thing, Hollaback Girl, Switch, Girlfight, Speed Of Sound, Feel Good Inc. Only one CD, which isn't keeping to the original Now! spirit. Our Now 19 came out in March 1991, the lightweights.

3 Mariah Carey - The Emancipation Of Mimi
We came across her appearance in Ant and Dec's final Chums (you know, off SMTV) the other day, where she deals manfully with pretending to know who any of these people were. Even we didn't recognise some of them five years on.

2 Brad Paisley - Time Well Wasted
...is not usually spent listening to new entries by makeweight country singers, we find.

1 Hilary Duff - Most Wanted
A new entry, so the brand extension has been successful. We must check with celebrity picture sites whether she has accomplished the 'skank ho' tag yet.