Album Sweep: August 17, 2013...

It's time to kick off this week's "album sweep", sampling the songs making the Top 200 Albums sales chart in Billboard magazine, and since there's only fifteen debuts, I'll tackle it all in one shot. As usual, I've included links to buy anything if you want, but please get yourself down to an indie record store....it'll do you good!

The top-selling album corresponds to the top-selling "song of the summer" "Blurred Lines", as Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines album comes in at #1 selling over 175,000 copies. Out of his six albums it's his fourth to make the top-10 and first to reach the summit. His previous high was his 2008 set Something Else, which went to #3...

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Also selling over 100K this week at #2 is Los Angeles-based heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch, with their fourth effort, The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 1. It's their third in a row to make the top-10. Their last, American Capitalist, peaked at #3 in 2011...

The rapper who is featured on the above album's remake of LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out", Tech N9ne, arrives at #4 with his 13th studio album Something Else. It's his second to reach the top-10 - in 2011 his All 6's and 7's also went to #4...(NSFW)

Going 180 degrees from that, the first album to feature all five members of the Backstreet Boys since 2005's Never Gone makes a big splash as In A World Like This arrives at #5. It's their eighth record to make the top-10 - as in ALL of their released albums in the US. Two of those, Millenium in 1999 and Black & Blue a year later, went to #1, with both being cases of those rare albums which sold over a million copies in their first week...

Debuting at #7 is boyband Emblem3, who placed fourth in the last season of the X Factor, which their first album Nothing To Lose....

Country treasure Vince Gill returns at #25 with Bakersfield, a collaborative album with steel guitar virtuoso Paul Franklin. It's his tenth studio album in a row to make the top-40 on the big album chart; in 1994 his When Love Finds You album went to #6...

And right under that at #26 are the Grateful Dead, who come in with Dave's Picks Volume 7: Horton Field House, Illinois State University, Normal Illinois. It's a limited edition set with their show from 1978...

77 year-old blues legend Buddy Guy is back at #27 with his latest set Rhythm & Blues. It has guest appearances from Kid Rock and Keith Urban...

Rapper turned alt-rocker Michael Franti and his band Spearhead come in at #30 with All People, his third to make the top-40 on the albums chart. His last, The Sound of Sunshine, peaked at #17 in 2011...

Cleveland heavy metal act Chimaira enter at #52 with their seventh set Crown Of Phantoms. In 2009 they took The Infection to #30, their only one so far to make the top-40...

One-man electropop act Owl City charts his second EP as The Midsummer Station EP - Acoustic arrives at #99. It has a few toned back versions of songs from the album that went to #7 in 2012 (all three of his major-label full-lengths have made the top-10)...

I'm not sure what's going on with British singer Jay Sean's career moves with his label. He's had two singles make the top-20 on the dance chart, yet neither are available to buy as a remix. Hence, his profile has took a tumble, and his new album Neon sputters in at #116. His last, All Or Nothing, made it to #37 in 2009...

The contemporary gospel compilation James Fortune Presents: Kingdom Music, Volume 1, enters at #166.


British indie-folk singer/songwriter Passenger (Mike Rosenberg) debuts at #169 with his big breakthrough album All The Little Lights. It contains his worldwide smash "Let Her Go"...

The final entry on the chart at #184 is R&B/jazz singer Chante' Moore with her sixth solo set Moore is More. She took two of her records, This Moment Is Mine in 1999 and Things That Lovers Do with Kenny Lattimore in 2003, to #31 on the albums chart...


That does it for the new crop of albums...out of these fifteen, the four I'd go with first are the Vince Gill, Five Finger Death Punch, Michael Franti, and Robin Thicke sets...