Album Sweep: October 13, 2012 - Part One...

Hey gang, it's time for the first half of this week's "album sweep" where I sample the new records debuting on the US weekly sales charts according to Billboard magazine.As usual I included links to buy the music on the Amazon mp3 store.

On the Top 200 Albums list, the top album by far this week was English folk-rock band Mumford & Sons, who sell 600,000 copies of their sophomore album, Babel in its first week, more than the second through eighth albums combined. Wow. It's the second biggest pull for the year so far (Adele's 21 did better during its Grammy week), and they have six of its tracks on the Hot 100, with seven more on the "bubbling under" chart. Their debut album, Sigh No More, made it to #2 in its 47th week after their exposure on the Grammys.

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Coming in at #2 is punk giants Green Day, who released the first of their three-part album series Uno! to be followed in November and January with Dos! and Tre!. They sold 139,000 of the set this week. their last two albums, American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown, came in at #1...

No Doubt takes the "show" position this week, as their Push & Shove set comes in at #3 selling 115,000. It's their first studio album in 11 years, and fifth altogether to make the top-10. Tragic Kingdom has been their sole #1 album in 1995...

Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco enters at #5 with another multi-album concept titled Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1. I assume it's a sequel to his debut which went to #8 in 2006. His last album, Lasers, went to #1 last year.

At #6 is Canadian EDM (electronic dance music) artist deadmau5 with his first top-10 US album, album title goes here. He's had two top-10 club hits in America so far in his career...

Coming in right below the top-10 at #11 is San Diego metalcore band As I Lay Dying with their sixth studio set Awakened. The Christian-tinged rockers did go to #8 with their fourth album, An Ocean Between Us, in 2007...

Taking a cue from fellow newcomer Luke Bryan, country singer Jake Owen released an Endless Summer EP as a side project from his current album (the #6 peaking Barefoot Blue Jean Night), and it debuts at #19...

Spanish singer (and heartthrob) Alejandro Sanz sees his ninth studio album La Musica No Se Toca, become his first US top-40 album as it arrives at #26. It includes the hit "No Me Compares" which topped the Latin Songs chart for a dozen weeks...

Another Latin artist, Gerardo Ortiz, works in the genre of music called narcocorrido, a Mexican folk music that often touches on the deadly drug trade in the border region, giving cause for people to compare it to "gangster rap", although unless you knew the language you may not know it for the backing polka beat that usually accompanies it. In fact Ortiz and his father were kidnapped last year by a gang (they escaped).  His new album El Primer Ministro debuts at #31...

...and for something completely different at #35 is the gospel compilation Wow Hits 2013: 30 Of Today's Top Christian Artists & Hits, part of a long-running series of religious pop hits that's been wildly popular, and with reason - six of this week's top-10 Christian Songs are on this set alone, including the #1 "10,000 Reasons" by Matt Redman, so if this is your kind of music then this is essential...

Americana rock pioneer John Hiatt is in at #39 with his new album Mystic Pinball. Even though he has been recording since 1974, this is his first US top-40 album...

Oh, what has Glee wrought? Well for starters, the new movie Pitch Perfect, starring Rebel Wilson, who stole the show in the Bridesmaids movie, and Adam Devine, the cutie from the Comedy Central stoner sitcom Workaholics. It follows two groups of acappella groups at college. The movie just came out in wide release this past weekend, and the soundtrack debuts already at #43...

CCM singer Matthew West debuts at #51 with his fifth studio album Into The Light....

Blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa gets his fourth album into the top half of the chart as his concert set Beacon Theatre: Live From New York album comes in at #56...

The late great Waylon Jennings passed ten years ago, and a collection of unreleased songs called Goin' Down Rockin': The Last Recordings enters at #67. His 1977 album Ol' Waylon was his biggest, peaking at #15...

You'd think with a name like Murder By Death, we'd have another hardcore metal band on our hands, but instead they're an alt-country folk outfit from Indiana, and their second album to make the chart, Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon, comes in at #98...

And at #98 is gospel artist Jonathan McReynolds with his latest, Life Music....

That's it for the first half....there's a lot of good stuff here, but to just narrow it down to three, I'd go with the Mumford & Sons, Green Day, and deadmau5 sets...

I'll be back later today with the newest in the UK on Brit Sweep, and tomorrow afternoon I'll bring you part two of this week's "album sweep" with music from Angie Stone, One Direction, Dokken, and more...