Leonard Cohen's You Want It Darker earns the poetic melodist his 3rd consecutive No. 1 album, and he tops the chart this week the old fashioned way with 19,400 pure album sales. With streams, Cohen's overall tally is 20,000 consumption units.

Interestingly, his sales total is just  800 copies shy of the first week sales reached with his last release, 2014's Popular Problems.  

Cohen is one of six debuts in the top ten on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart this week.

Joanne, Lady Gaga's genreless ode to her aunt (Joanne Stefani Germanotta), debuts in 2nd place with 17,500 total consumption units. The album, which has the third highest on-demand stream total for the week, surpasses the 3rd place peak her last two releases attained--2013's Artpop, and 2014's Tony Bennett collaboration album, Cheek To Cheek.

Placing 3rd is Michael Bublé's Nobody But Me with 15,300 total consumption units. It is the singer's 6th top three debut.

The third Canadian artist in the top five this week is Gord Downie, who enters at 4 with Secret Path. This is the Tragically Hip frontman's highest charting solo release, surpassing the No. 8 peak of his 2010 album, The Grand Bounce.

 

With the release of a new deluxe edition of Sia's This Is Acting, the Aussie singer-songwriter holds her own in 5th place with an 80% consumption increase. The album earned the highest digital song sales and second highest on-demand streams for the week.

Pentatonix's second holiday album, A Pentatonix Christmas, debuts at 6, marking the highest entry to date for the hugely popular US a cappella group. The Texas quintet's 2014 release, That's Christmas To Me, debuted at 8 and peaked at 4. Their cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" debuts in the top ten on both the Digital Songs and Streaming Songs charts.

 

The final top ten debut for the week belongs to Korn's Serenity Of Suffering at 7. It is the Bakersfield, CA "new metal" band's eighth top ten album and surpasses the No. 9 peak of their last, 2013's The Paradigm Shift.

 

Other new releases entering the top 30 include NYC rock outfit The Pretty Reckless's third album, Who Are You Selling For, at 12;  Canadian country star Dean Brody's sixth, Beautiful Freakshow, at No. 15;  Michigan post-hardcore sextet I Prevail's debut, Lifelines, at 17;  and Sarah McLachlan's 2nd Yuletide collection, Wonderland, at 29.

 

-- Data courtesy of SoundScan with additional details provided by Nielsen Music Canada Director Paul Tuch