Album Sweep: June 15, 2013 - Part One...

Hey gang, it's time to roll out part one of this week's "album sweep" sampling the records spending their first week on Billboard magazine's Top 200 Albums chart, as Daft Punk's Random Access Memories spends a second week at #1. As always, I've included links to buy anything if I can, but please check out an indie record store if you live near one...

The biggest new record of the week belongs to the reincarnated Alice In Chains, whose second studio album released after Layne Staley's death in 2002, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, comes in at #2. They topped the charts twice, with 1994's Jar Of Flies EP and a year later with their (final Staley) self-titled set. William DuVall is the new (and very capable) vocalist...

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Former Creedence Clearwater Revival leader John Fogerty returns at #3 with his biggest album in 28 years, Wrote A Song For Everyone. He had a solo #1 disc in 1985 with Centerfield, and with CCR topped the album chart twice..This new set is a "nostaglia" set with John covering his old songs with "special guests" like Jennifer Hudson and Foo Fighters, with two "new" tracks..

Leaping in at #4 is UK X Factor winners Little Mix with their first US album DNA. It includes four of their five British top-20 hits...

R&B singer/songwriter The-Dream is back at #16 with IV Play, his fifth album. In 2009 his second, Love vs. Money, reached #2...

L.A. rapper Kid Ink sees his EP Almost Home enter at #27. His full-length debut from last year, Up & Away, topped out at #20...(NSFW)

Pop/punk band Man Overboard have their biggest record yet with Heart Attack at #46...

English indie-folk singer/songwriter Laura Marling appears at #49 with her second US hit, Once I Was An Eagle. The disc already went to #3 in the UK...

What probably will claim all the Tonys this year, Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein's Kinky Boots musical, has its original cast album enter the chart at #51...expect a big rush after the broadcast of the awards..

Las Vegas modern rock band Imagine Dragons come in at #56 with their exclusive iTunes Session. Their Night Visions album went to #2 last year...

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Texan rock band Eisley's fourth full-length album Currents washes on to the chart at #66. It's their best showing yet of the three they took to the top half of the chart...

 That's it for the first half...out of these ten the three I'd pick first are the Little Mix, Alice In Chains, and Laura Marling discs....

I'll be back tomorrow with part two, including music from a classic San Franciscan, a British band named for a French landmark, and a dubstep veteran...