Album Sweep: November 3, 2012 - Part One...

Hey gang, it's time to kick off this week's two-part "album sweep" where I sample the new records making their debut on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart this week. I've included as always links to buy anything you like on Amazon mp3 if available...

The top-selling album this week is the first #1 album for country singer Jason Aldean, with his fifth full-length album Night Train. It sold over 400 thousand copies last week, the second largest first-week sales sum after Mumford & Sons' Babel.

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Coming in at #3 is R&B singer and actress Brandy, with her first album in four years, Two Eleven. Two of her efforts, Never Say Never and Full Moon, her 2nd and 3rd albums, went to #2 on the albums chart...

The biggest Christmas album of the year so far is American Idol winner Scotty McCreery's Christmas With Scotty McCreery, which jumps in at #4. His debut album, Clear As Day, topped the chart last year...

The third country album to debut in the top-5 this week is by traditionalist Jamey Johnson, with Living For A Song: A Tribute To Hank Cochran at #5. The legendary songwriter had died in 2010, and while as a performer he hadn't even reached the top-40 of the country albums chart, he is responsible for penning classic songs like "I Fall To Pieces", "Make The World Go Away", and "The Chair". This is Johnson's second consecutive top-5 record; his The Guitar Song reached #4 in 2010...

Coming in at #10 are the "Archies of metalcore", Dethklok, who can be seen both on an animated show on Adult Swim called Metalocalypse, and live with a band led by Brandon Small. Their Metalocalypse: Dethalbum III is their highest debut album as yet...

Half of the classic jazz-rock duo Steely Dan, Donald Fagen's fourth solo album, Sunken Condos, arrives at #12. His excellent Kamakiriad made it to #10 in 1993...

 Hard-Rock semi-Christian group Anberlin is at #16 with their sixth fulllength album, Vital (it's the top "Christian" album this week). Their last LP, Dark is a Way, Light Is A Place, was their first top-10 effort...

Singer/musician Ben Gibbard, member of two amazingly influential alt-pop-rock act, The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie, has his first proper solo album, Former Lives, jump in at #34. Amazon's been promoting the heck out of this, offering it for five dollar the first week...

Canadian experimental music group Godspeed You Black Emperor, from Montreal, score their first charting album as Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! enters at #45...

Singer/songwriter and personal fave MIKA is back with his third full-length, The Origin Of Love, at #47. His last album, The Boy Who Knew Too Much, peaked at #19 in 2009. I'll tell you what, this is and the Jason Aldean sets are the only ones I preordered sound unheard...

Fusion rock champion Trey Anastasio is on and off with the band Phish, but for now he's here at #51 with Traveler, his ninth studio album...

San Diego indie-rock duo Pinback debut at #71 with their fifth album, Information Retrieved...

...and at #72 is indie pop singer ZZ Ward, with her debut album Til The Casket Drops...

That covers the first half of the debuts..out of these the three I would most recommend are the MIKA, ZZ Ward, and Jamey Johnson set (I think the latter is a shoo-in for a Grammy for Country album of the year nomination)..

I'll be back tomorrow with part two, with more music from Bassnectar, Dada Life, and more...