Yeah, releases differ from place to place, usually to give the album a better shot at the chart. Lots of mainland Europe releases albums on a Friday, so yeah, you'll be getting all of your albums a good four days ahead of general worldwide release. UK, Australia and... er, some other places (France, maybe?), release albums on a Monday, 'cause the charts are compiled on Sundays, so I'll be getting it on the Monday. Also on a Monday is the Billboard update, so the US tends to get their CDs last, on Tuesdays.