Creed's Chart-Topper Is A Bit Experimental

NEW YORK (AP) - Creed successfully defended its Number One status on the Billboard 200 album chart this week with sales of more than 417,000 copies of Weathered. The album hasn't been officially certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association Of America, but figures show that total sales for the album have already topped 1.3 million.

Vocalist Scott Stapp told the album is a bit experimental. "There's symphonies on this record, there's choirs on this record, there's a female vocalist on this record--various different guitars played, various different drum kits and drum heads to give different tonality for each song. I experimented with various different microphones, stuff like that," he said.

In other chart news, Smash Mouth's self-titled album was the fourth highest debut of the week on the rock chart, landing at Number 48 on sales of more than 40,000 copies, with only Ludacris, Busta Rhymes, and Concert For New York City debuting higher.