Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Two new American Idol albums landed on the Billboard 200 this week.

Both could have, and probably should have, done better.

Crystal Bowersox’s sophomore album, “All That for This,” landed at number 71 on the chart.

The new album features a pair of superb tracks you need to check out — the lead single “Dead Weight” plus “Til the Whiskey’s Gone” — and represents a solid followup to her late-2010 debut.

That album, “Farmer’s Daughter,” debuted at 28 on the Billboard 200 the week after it was released.

Also new to the Billboard 200 this week is David Archuleta’s “No Matter How Far.” It landed at number 101.

David is off on a two-year church mission, but that didn’t prevent the release of an album filled with previously unreleased pop tracks. Among those you should check out: “Don’t Run Away” (the lead single), “I’ll Never Go” and “Hearts Fall Out.”

David’s last pop album, released in the U.S., was the “Other Side of Down” in 2010. It debuted at 13 on the Billboard 200.

An album made up mostly of cover songs — “Begin” — came out last year, after he had left on the mission trip and landed at 28 on the Billboard 200.

In other chart news, Colton Dixon performed on American Idol last week and again proved what such an appearance can do for one’s record sales.

His debut album, “A Messenger,” bolted from 119 to 41 on the Billboard 200 and from 11 to number two on the Christian albums chart.

I’ll add the complete chart rundown, looking at all the Idol albums and singles, here later this week.