New Dixie Chicks album flies to No. 1

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Despite a cool reception from country radio, the Dixie Chicks returned to No. 1 on the pop and country charts with their first album since publicly criticizing the president three years ago.

The album Taking the Long Way took the top spot on country albums chart and the Billboard 200 overall chart — which are based on sales rather than radio airplay — with 526,000 units sold in its first full week.

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Their new album didn't simply "[fly] to no. 1," it entered the chart at number one, the kind of thing Led Zeppelin used to do back in the 70s. It's extremely nice to know that Clear Channel has a limit to its corporate-conservative ideological power--to the best of my knowledge, the Chicks are still banned by the radio slumlord. If you didn't already know, the bland and blonde country trio encountered ferocious criticism during the run-up to the Iraq invasion when member Natalie Maines, a Texan, said that she was ashamed that George Bush is from Texas. And, frankly, I'd be ashamed, too, if it weren't for the fact that I've already been ashamed for years about the great number of truly dispicable individuals coming out of my home state, but I digress. This is pretty cool, a strong sign that things have indeed changed a great deal since the dark days of early 2003: things still suck greatly, but at least most Americans are coming around to how bad things actually are. I really think that a lot of people are buying this record just because of their anti-war stance. Alas, I will not be joining the crowds of Dixie Chicks record-buyers. I really like what they have to say, and I'm glad that they have the balls to stick to their guns, but I just don't like their music. It's not even really country, for god's sake. I'll take Willie any old day over the Chicks.

None of this is to be construed as dissing them, however. I'm not hurrying out to buy any Kanye West, either, and he's my newest pop culture hero.

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