As expected -- and cheered roundly here in Music City -- Luke Bryan’s Kill the Lights killed the competition on both Billboard’s country and the Billboard 200 all-genres album charts this week.

Topping the country airplay songs chart is the Zac Brown Band’s “Loving You Easy.” It arrives at that eminence just 17 weeks after it first cracked the charts.

Kill the Lights sold an astounding 345,211 copies its first week out, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That number overwhelmed its expected chart adversary, Dr. Dre’s Compton, which, nonetheless, moved an impressive 294,600 units during the same period to cinch the No. 2 slot on the Billboard 200.

I first met Bryan in December 2003 when he and two other writers were showcasing their songs at a BMI luncheon. This was before he had a record deal and was pretty much just another face in the crowd.

The songs he sang that day were “Good Directions,” which became a No. 1 for Billy Currington four years later, and “Tackle Box,” which Bryan would include on his 2007 debut album, I’ll Stay Me.

He’s done right well over the past dozen years, wouldn’t you say?

The week’s other new country albums are Michael Ray’s self-titled project (No.4) and Lindi Ortega’s Faded Gloryville (No. 39).

There are also two new songs: The Band Perry’s “Live Forever” (No. 36) and Cassadee Pope’s “I Am Invincible” (No. 60).

The No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 albums, in that order, are Sam Hunt’s Montevallo, Jason Isbell’s Something More Than Free and the Zac Brown Band’s Jekyll + Hyde.

Following “Loving You Easy” within the Top 5 songs cluster are Frankie Ballard’s “Young & Crazy,” Hunt’s “House Party,” Dustin Lynch’s “Hell of a Night” and Ray’s “Kiss You in the Morning” (last week’s No. 1).

So who’s buying the first round?