Album Sweep: July 27, 2013 - Part One...

Hey gang, it's time to start the first part of this week's "album sweep", where I sample the new albums and ones 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 buy a local record shop (like the Princeton Record Exchange) and show some love!

The top-selling album of the week is by rap king Jay Z, who despite offering his set Magna Carta as part of an app for Samsung, still managed to sell over a half-million copies in its first week of release. It's his 13th #1 album, and only the Beatles have had more (mind you, they had five albums go to #1 since they disbanded in 1969)...(NSFW)

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R&B singer Ciara comes in at #2 with her fifth studio album, Ciara. It's a nice rebound from her last effort Basic Instinct which dropped under the top-40 in 2010 (her only set to not make the top-3). She had topped the album chart back in 2006 with Ciara: The Evolution...

Singer/songwriter Skylar Grey (real name Holly Brook Hafernann) scores her first top-10 album (and first Top 200 appearance) with her sophomore album Don't Look Down...

Neo-soul singer Donell Jones arrives at #20 with his seventh album Forever. Back in 2002 he came in at #3 with Life Goes On...

And what's a week without some metalcore, and this week's din is provided by Columbus Ohio band Like Moths To Flames at #62 with their second full-length album An Eye For An Eye...

Los Angeles progressive metal band letlive. enter at #74 with their third effort and first to make the chart, The Blackest Beautiful...

Brandon and Leah are in at #82 with their EP Cronies. They remind me of hipster pop duo Karmin...

South African-born singer/songwriter Gregory Alan Isikov, who is now living in Colorado, debuts at #102 with his fifth album The Weatherman....

That's it for the first half of the new crop...out of these eight the three I'd pick first are the Ciara, Gregory Alan Isiskov, and Jay-Z sets (just for the timeliness of the last)...

I'll return tomorrow with part two with the Used, Travis Tritt, and more...