Harmonium (Vanessa Carlton Album) - Chart Performance

Chart Performance

Harmonium debuted at #33 on the US Billboard 200 with 36,000 copies sold in its first week, before falling out of the top 40 in its second. By the end of 2004 it had sold less than 108,000 copies in the US, and it remained on the chart for just seven non-consecutive weeks. According to Nielsen SoundScan in February 2006, the album had sold 179,000 copies, an amount that compared unfavorably with the platinum sales of Carlton's debut album Be Not Nobody, which reached the top five in the US. Explaining Carlton's "predictable plunge" with Harmonium, the New York Daily News indicated the release date was partially responsible for the album's underperformance, and emphasised the low radio play for "White Houses": "Every holiday season, some acts wind up with nothing but a lump of coal... more importantly, radio found no hits on Carlton's sophomore CD". Slant magazine, also attributing the album's low sales to the failure of "White Houses", alleged a lack of promotion by A&M Records: "Whether wasn't promoted adequately or audiences just didn't connect with the more mature, narrative style of the song, the label decided to let the album languish on store shelves with little support". The album was released on October 21 in Japan, and peaked at #52 on the Oricon album chart, where Be Not Nobody had reached the top 20; it stayed on the chart for six weeks. In Taiwan, the album debuted at #10 on the international albums chart the same week that "Private Radio", which was released as a single there, reached the top ten on the singles chart.