Soul Food Seconds

LSG… That sounds like the stuff health advocates want to keep out of processed foods, but it’s really the stuff that 66,000 fans wanted in their CD players. The all-star team of Gerald Levert, Keith Sweat, and Johnny Gill — together for a sophomore effort six years after LSG’s first hookup — had the highest entry, at No. 6, in a chart week otherwise devoid of significant debuts. The Bad Boys II soundtrack stayed on top for a third week with 155,000 units sold. With no major releases to compete for primacy, whatcha gonna do?

POP ALBUMS

LAST WEEKS ON WEEK CHART

1 1 VARIOUS ARTISTS BAD BOYS II soundtrack, Bad Boy/Universal 3 2 2 VARIOUS ARTISTS NOW That’s What I Call Music! 13, Universal 2 3 5 BEYONCe Dangerously in Love, Columbia 6 4 10 EVANESCENCE Fallen, Wind-up 22 5 6 CHINGY Jackpot, Disturbing Tha Peace/Capitol 3 6 — LSG LSG2, Elektra 1 7 12 50 CENT Get Rich or Die Tryin’, Shady/Aftermath/Interscope 26 8 9 ASHANTI Chapter II, Murder Inc./Def Jam 5 9 3 MYA Moodring, Interscope 2 10 13 NORAH JONES Come Away With Me, Blue Note 75 11 4 JANE’S ADDICTION Strays, Capitol 2 12 15 LINKIN PARK Meteora, Warner Bros. 19 13 14 LUTHER VANDROSS Dance With My Father, J 8 14 19 CHER The Very Best of Cher, Rhino 18 15 8 BRAD PAISLEY Mud on the Tires, Arista Nashville 2

(c)2003 VNU BUSINESS MEDIA, INC./NIELSEN SOUNDSCAN. USED WITH PERMISSION FROM BILLBOARD, AUGUST 15, 2003.

IN STORES AUGUST 19

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IN STORES AUGUST 19

RANCID Indestructible (Hellcat) The sixth CD from the indestructible California band, which back in the 1990s helped fire up new interest in punk.

THE STAR SPANGLES Bazooka!!! (Capitol) If you’re gonna write and play like the Ramones, of course you’re gonna have the legendary band’s producer Daniel Rey oversee your major-label debut.

ALIEN ANT FARM truANT (DreamWorks) The foursome wrote the follow-up to 2001’s ANThology while recovering from their tragic bus crash last year.

THE NEPTUNES The Neptunes Present…Clones (Star Trak/Arista) This new joint is all-star fare. Think Clipse, Jay-Z, and Busta, and you’ll get the picture.

IF YOU LIKE…

EVANESCENCE, get wound up in LACUNA COIL — the group that some fans claim is their post-Goth template — and 2002’s Comalies.

The choral stylings of THE POLYPHONIC SPREE, join the Greatest Hits choir of THE MIKE CURB CONGREGATION, led by the ex — Cali lieutenant guv.

BEYONCE’s ”Crazy in Love” and can’t get enough of that brass sample, horn in on ”Are You My Woman?” on THE CHI-LITES’ 20 Greatest Hits.

The hooky, literate ambivalence of LIZ PHAIR’s self-titled latest, consider the woefully underrated Cockamamie and Gun Shy Trigger Happy by JEN TRYNIN.

The riffy power pop of FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE’s Welcome Interstate Managers, pick The Very Best Of 1970s band THE RASPBERRIES.