Kenny Chesney [ tickets ]'s "Lucky Old Sun" debuts atop the US album chart thanks to sales of 176,000 copies during its first week in stores.

Chesney's showing ends a two-week residency at No. 1 for rapper T.I. [ tickets ]'s "Paper Trail," which moved 132,000 copies during its third week out and falls to No. 2 on The Billboard 200. Billboard bases its flagship album chart on Nielsen SoundScan retail reports.

Ray LaMontagne's "Gossip in the Grain" enters the chart at No. 3 with sales of 60,000, easily the singer/songwriter's best sales week ever, according to billboard.com.

Metallica [ tickets ]'s "Death Magnetic" slips from No. 2 to No. 4 on sales of 51,000, while Jennifer Hudson [ tickets ]'s self-titled debut drops one notch to No. 5 on sales of 46,000.

Rounding out the Top 10 are Kid Rock [ tickets ]'s "Rock N Roll Jesus" at No. 6, Keane [ tickets ]'s "Perfect Symmetry" at No. 7, Ne-Yo [ tickets ]'s "Year of the Gentleman" at No. 8, Lucinda Williams [ tickets ]' "Little Honey" at No. 9 and James Taylor [ tickets ]'s "Covers" at No. 10.

• Get real-time updates on Twitter
• Visit us at Facebook