Eric Church Hits A New Career Low
Eric Church's Evangeline Vs. the Machine debuts at No. 30 on the Billboard 200, becoming his ... More lowest-charting studio album in the U.S. Indio, CA - April 27: (GETTY SYNDICATION OUT) Friday headliner Eric Church performs on the Mane Stage on the first day of Stagecoach Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio Saturday, April 27, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
After a break of four years between album releases, Eric Church returns to the Billboard rankings with his brand new full-length, Evangeline Vs. the Machine. The project appears on a number of tallies in the United States, and performs well across most of them. That said, when it comes to total consumption, the country superstar's latest effort doesn't quite live up to the success of his earlier releases. While fans are surely enjoying the new collection, it has not turned out to be one of his biggest commercial triumphs.
In its first full tracking frame, Evangeline Vs. the Machine moved 20,500 equivalent units in the U.S. That figure comes from Luminate, which gathers streaming and sales data, which is used to compile the Billboard rankings. Of that sum, just under 13,000 were pure purchases, with streaming activity accounting for the rest.
That total is enough to send Evangeline Vs. the Machine to No. 30 on the Billboard 200, the magazine's list of the most consumed albums in the U.S. For many musicians, reaching No. 30 would be a major win, as it still lands within the top 40. For Church, though, it's a disappointing placement.
Evangeline Vs. the Machine now stands out as Church's lowest-peaking studio album on the Billboard 200. Previously, that distinction belonged to his debut full-length, Sinners Like Me. Released in 2006, the set reached as high as No. 29 — a respectable showing for a new artist at the time.
This is also Church's first album to miss the top 10 on the Billboard 200 in well over a decade. Only his first two releases — Sinners Like Me and Carolina in 2009 — did not reach the upper tier. The latter peaked at No. 17, which at the time marked a new high for the singer-songwriter.
Over the course of his career, Church has sent 14 projects to the Billboard 200. Seven of them have climbed into the top 10, with two — Chief and The Outsiders — rising all the way to No. 1. The only other projects from the country musician to peak lower than Evangeline Vs. the Machine are non-traditional studio LPs: his compilation 4 Album Collection and three EPs — Caldwell County, Mr. Misunderstood: On the Rocks Live & (Mostly) Unplugged, and the simply-titled & — none of which broke into the upper quarter of the Billboard 200.
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