Album Sweep: August 25, 2012 - Part One...

Hey folks, it's time for the first part of this week's "album sweep", where I bring you samples of the latest records making their way onto Billboard magazine's Top-200 albums chart.

The highest debut this week is the 43rd installment in the American version of Now That's What I Call Music!, which enters at #1. The album culls together the biggest hits right now, including two pop #1 hits, Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" and Katy Perry's "Part Of Me". There are also five more top-10 pop hits (Maroon5, David Guetta, Ellie Goulding, Justin Bieber, and Usher), as well as an added country charttopper in Luke Bryan's "Drunk On You".

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L.A. newcomer Elle Varner debuts at #4 with her critically acclaimed first album, Perfectly Imperfect, which contains her top-10 R&B hit "Refill"..

Country rapper/songwriter Colt Ford comes in at #5 with his Declaration Of Independence album, which tops this week's Country Albums chart. It's his third top-10 country effort, but it definitely isn't my cup of coffee. It's mostly a collection of redneck cliched anti-anything bullshit that cribs from the genre of the people they support effing over again and again...but "Back" is relatively harmless...

John Mayer's iTunes exclusive Complete 2012 Performances Collection is only five songs long, so I'm not sure about the "complete" moniker, but it does contain acoustic versions of his last two singles, "Shadow Days" and "Queen Of California", and it's at #17 this week...

Tennessee-based post-grunge band 10 Years have their fourth charting album at #26 with Minus The Machine. The band is best known for their #1 modern rock hit "Wasteland" in 2005..

American Idol runner-up David Archuleta is out now on his mission for the Mormon church, but in the meantime his fifth album, Begin, comes in at #28. His self-titled debut album went to #2 in 2008...

Another Now franchise, NOW That's What I Call Party Anthems, debuts at #34 this week. It contains remixes of charttoppers from LMFAO, The Black Eyed Peas, Gotye, Katy Perry, Pink, Pitbull, and Kelly Clarkson...

Metalhead and horror movie kingpin Rob Zombie is back with a collection of remixed older tracks called Mondo Sex Head at #45. Zombie scored four consecutive top-10 solo studio albums between 1998 and 2010.

That's it for this half. My recommendations this time out are for the Elle Varner, John Mayer, and Rob Zombie sets...

Stay tuned tomorrow for part two, with Johnny Cash, Marcus Miller and more comin' at ya...Cheers!