Album Sweep: August 4, 2012 part one...

Hey guys, thanks again for dropping by! It's time for part one of this week's "album sweep", where I sample the debuting sets on the Top 200 Albums chart in Billboard magazine this week.

Debuting in the #1 spot is New York rapper Nas, with his fifth charttopping set (and third consective #1) with Life Is Good. But while all his CDs have sold truckloads, he has only managed three top-40 pop hits, the biggest being 2003's "I Can". So far none of the tracks from Life Is Good have made Billboard's Hot 100 yet, though "Daughters" has lingered in the lower half of the R&B chart...

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360 degress from Nas at #3 is Kidz Bop 22, where children and session singers bleach out current pop hits, in case the regular version of "Call Me Maybe" is too hard. This time out they tackle Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger", Nicki Minaj's "Starships", The Wanted's "Glad You Came", and Train's "Drive By" (!?) among others. Oh lord.

Coming in at #8 is the soundtrack to the latest Batman movie Dark Knight Rises. Back in the 90s, the Burton/Schumacher Batman movies put three albums in the top-10, but they were compilations of rock and pop tracks. This time out it's just the score from composer Hans Zimmer, who has scored all three of the current reboot trilogy.

San Diego hard rock group Pierce The Veil have their biggest album to date at #12 with their third effort, Collide With The Sky.

Matisyahu, who was born Matthew Miller in Pennsylvania, got his break as a niche artist being an Orthodox Jew who incorporated rap and reggae music, even scoring a top-40 hit with "King Without A Crown" in 2004. In the past year, though, he has personally veered from that rigid life, and redefining his spirituality as well as his look, cutting his hair and dyeing it blond. His first studio release in three years, Spark Seeker, comes in at #19 (the same peak as his last album, so yay for him)...

Heavy Metal supergroup HellYeah contains members from hardcore bands Damageplan, Mudvayne, Nothingface, and Pantera. Their first two sets were top-10 albums (with a top-5 rock radio hit from each), and their third, Band Of Brothers, enters at #20...

And for something different, Americana group the Old Crow Medicine Show, from northwestern Virginia, see their fourth consecutive #1 bluegrass album become their first top-40 all-genre album as Carry Me Back comes in at #22...

Mark Tremonti, lead guitarist from the rock bands Creed and Alter Bridge, goes the Daughtry route with an album under his last name titled All I Was at #29...

Southern hardcore group Baroness hail from Savannah, Georgia, and their third full-length album, Yellow And Green, is their first to make the top half of the chart at #30...

Washington, DC singer/songwriter Citizen Cope (real name Clarence Greenwood) has had his music featured in a ton of commercials and TV shows, and that exposure was sure to have helped his newest, One Lovely Day, debut all the way up at #39...

Mississippi-based post-grunge band Saving Abel's last album, Miss America, brought them their first #1 mainstream rock radio hit in "The Sex Is Good", and made the US albums top-40. Their followup, Bringing Down The Giant, starts more modestly at #74...

Well that takes care of the first half of the new albums....I would recommend the Old Crow Medicine Show (for sure!), Citizen Cope, and the Saving Abel sets.

Tomorrow I'll bring you part two, with new stuff from reggae giant Jimmy Cliff, Aussie Missy Higgins, and more. But stay tuned later tonight I'll bring you the best from Olympic-town in England with "Brit Sweep". Take care!