Album Sweep: June 29, 2013 - Part One....

Hey gang, it's time to kick off the first half of this week's "album sweep" of the records spending their first week on Billboard magazine's Top 200 Albums chart. As always, I've included links to buy anything if possible, but if you can, stop by an independent record store.

The top-selling record of the week belongs to a seminal heavy metal group that waited over 42 years to get their first #1 album. Before now, Black Sabbath's previous high was 1971's Master Of Reality, which went to #8. The trio of Tommy Iommi, Geezer Butler, and singer/clown Ozzy Osbourne have not been on a studio album together since Never Say Die in 1978. The new set titled 13 (even though it's the 19th studio set under the BS name) sold over 150 thousand copies in its first week...

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The Nickelodeon prefab TV group Big Time Rush hurry in at #4 with their third studio album 24/Seven. So far their debut effort BTR has been their biggest, reaching #3 in 2010...

Punk-gone-pop band Goo Goo Dolls are back at #8 with their tenth album Magnetic. It's their fourth consecutive one to make the top-10 - the first, Gutterflower went to #4 in 2002...

The soundtrack to last weekend big movie release Man Of Steel, the Superman reboot, rockets in at #9 this week. It contains the score to the film from Hans Zimmer....

The fifth album to enter inside the top-10 this week is the third set from comedic musical trio The Lonely Island. The Wack Album, at #10, is the first since member Andy Samberg left the cast of Saturday Night Live. Their last effort, Turtleneck & Chain, went to #3 in 2011.

R&B singer Chrisette Michele arrives at #12 with Better. She topped the albums chart in 2009 with her sophomore set Epiphany...

Boards of Canada are actually an electronica duo from Scotland, and their fourth full-length album Tomorrow's Harvest leaps in at #13...

Emo rockers Jimmy Eat World are back with their first studio album in three years with Damage at #14. They have had two top-10 efforts, with Chase This Light going to #5 in 2007...

NOW That's What I Call Country Volume 6 comes in at #16. It has 18 top-10 country hits, including cuts from Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, and the Band Perry...

Alabama native Jason Isbell places his fourth album Southeastern at #23 on the chart...

Gospel great Hezekiah Walker enters at #30 with Azusa: The Next Generation...

...and what's a week without some metalcore, and this week it's the Black Dahlia Murder, who get their second top-40 album at #32 with Everblack. Two years ago, their Ritual went a notch higher at #31...

On a completely opposite tack, jazz-pop pianist/singer Harry Connick Jr. returns at #33 with Every Man Should Know. Harry has had two top-10 albums, with Only You reaching #5 in 2004...

Coming in right under the top-40 at #44 is Nicholas David, who finished third on the third season of The Voice, and one of the most natural voices on that show. His EP is titled Say Goodbye, right now only available on iTunes...

That's it for the first half....out of these fourteen the three I'd go with first are the Boards Of Canada, Harry Connick Jr., and The Lonely Island sets....

I'll be back tomorrow with part two with new stuff from sax man Dave Koz, New Zealand newcomer Lorde, and more...