Album Sweep: March 16, 2013 - Part One...

Hey gang, it's time to roll out the first half of this week's "album sweep", where I sample the records spending their first week on Billboard magazine's Top 200 Albums sales chart. As before, I've included links to buy anything you see, but if you can, take thyself to an indie record store. They'll love you for it!

This week, Bruno Mars finally reaches #1 with sales of just under a 100 thousand with his sophomore album, Unorthodox Jukebox, thanks to the popularity of his latest single "When I Was Your Man" combined with a deep-discount mp3 sale at Amazon.

The top debut at #2 is a alt-rock "supergroup" featuring Thom Yorke of Radiohead and "Flea" from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Named "Atoms For Peace" from an old Eisenhower speech, the band sells 50,000 of their first project, Amok...

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Arriving at #5 is Australian religious music group Hillsong United with their third studio album Zion. This is their first time in the top-10, their last effort Aftermath reached #17 in 2011...

Another beneficiary of the Amazon supersale offering it for $1.99 for a day, the Rhino Records compilation Joel Whitburn Presents: Billboard #1s: The 70s comes in at #11. It's nice to see Joel's name on the charts, being the author of many of the "chart books" that are my "bibles" for music. It's still on sale for $4.99, which is quite a bargain for a newbie with 30 certified chart-toppers...

Country treasure Emmylou Harris is no stranger to having collaborative albums reach the charts, and she does it again at #29 with Old Yellow Moon with singer/songwriter Rodney Crowell. Emmylous has placed seven solo sets in the top 40 of the albums chart since 1975, as well as two other collab albums, with the classic Trio effort with Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton reaching #6 in 1987. This is Rodney's first time in the top-half of the chart, though his Diamonds And Dirt album reached the top-10 of the country albums list in 1988...

Singer/songwriter/former mullet Michael Bolton returns at #38 with Ain't No Mountain High Enough: A Tribute To Hitsville U.S.A. Between 1989 and 1993, he had four consecutive top-5 albums, including the first #1 album after the magazine switched to electronically detecting sales with SoundScan, Time, Love & Tenderness. The new collection features duets with Kelly Rowland, Melanie Fiona, and Michael Lington...

The album I was most looking forward to last week, the return of alt-country gods the Mavericks, arrives on the chart as In Time debuts at #39. Their sixth studio album is the first to reach the main chart's top-40, though three of their efforts in the 90s made top-10 on the country albums genre chart, with What A Crying Shame reaching #6 in 1994...

Contemporary Christian artist Plumb scores her biggest album at #56 with Need You Now. Previously, the singer who has had big success on the dance chart as well reached #177 in 2006 with Chaotic Resolve...

Progressive rock guitarist Steven Wilson arrives at #57 with his third solo studio set The Raven The Refused To Sing And Other Stories. He made it to #85 two years ago with Grace For Drowning...

..and coming in at #65 is the Christian rock group responsible for "The Christmas Shoes", NewSong, with their latest, Swallow The Ocean. Their last, 2011's One True God, topped the Christian Albums chart and peaked at #27 here..

That's it for this first half of the list....out of these nine I'd implore you go get the Maverick's new one first, as well as the Plumb and Steven Wilson sets next.

I'll return tomorrow with part two, with new music from Johnny Marr from the Smiths, the Moody Blues' Justin Hayward, and more.