New and Improved

New Edition has come back stronger than ever. Eight years after the R&B; dream team of Bobby Brown, Ralph Tresvant, Johnny Gill, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe and Ricky Bell embarked on solo careers, they’ve reformed and, surprisingly enough, proved skeptics wrong. The group’s “Home Again” sits atop The Times’ Southern California chart for the second consecutive week. Meanwhile, the No. 1 single on the local chart is the incendiary “Bow Down” by the Westside Connection, which features Ice Cube, WC and Mac-10.

TOP 10 ALBUMS

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Title, Artist (Nat’l Rank) Last Week 1 Home Again, New Edition (2) 1 2 New Adventures in Hi-Fi, R.E.M. (3) 2 3 White Light . . . , Social Distortion (27) -- 4 Another Level, Blackstreet (5) 3 5 All Eyez on Me, 2Pac (6) 7 6 Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette (4) 6 7 Tragic Kingdom, No Doubt (11) 9 8 Falling Into You, Celine Dion (1) 10 9 Three-Eleven, 311 (13) 12 10 No Code, Pearl Jam (7) 5

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TOP 10 SINGLES

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Title, Artist (National Rank) Last Week 1 Bow Down, Westside Connection (10) 1 2 Macarena (B. Boys Mix), Los Del Rio (1) 2 3 Twisted, Keith Sweat (2) 3 4 How Do U Want It, 2Pac (3) 5 5 Only You, 112 (12) 4 6 Loungin’, LL Cool J (6) 6 7 I Love You Always..., Donna Lewis (5) 8 8 What’s Love Got to Do..., Warren G (15) 9 9 Last Night, Az Yet (9) 13 10 If Your Girl Only Knew, Aaliyah (8) 12

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TOP 10 COUNTRY ALBUMS

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Title, Artist (National Rank) Last Week 1 Blue, LeAnn Rimes (1) 1 2 Woman in Me, Shania Twain (2) 2 3 Crank It Up, Jeff Foxworthy (3) 3 4 Everybody Knows, Trisha Yearwood (7) 4 5 Borderline, Brooks & Dunn (6) 5 6 Ten Thousand Angels, M. McCready (5) 7 7 Blue Clear Sky, George Strait (4) 6 8 Restless Kind, Travis Tritt (8) -- 9 Hits, Garth Brooks (12) 9 10 Road to Ensenada, Lyle Lovett (19) 8

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Source: SoundScan, for week ending Sept. 22