Album Sweep: August 24, 2013 - Part One...

It's time to kick off this week's "album sweep" sampling the records reaching Billboard magazine's Top 200 Albums sales chart, and after a couple lean weeks where only a few LPs made their debut, there's two dozen entries this week, so split in two they are. As always, I've included links to buy anything if possible, but if you can please go down to an indie record store and keep the economy going!

The top-selling album of the week belongs to folk duo the Civil Wars, who sell over a hundred thousand copies of their self-titled sophomore album. It's a testament to the strength of the work, since acrimony between Joy Williams and John Paul White has nipped promotion and touring in the bud. You can definitely feel it in to lyrics to the songs in here, which also include a cover of the Smashing Pumpkins' "Disarm". Their debut Barton Hollow went to #10 after their exposure on the Grammys...

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


The 47th installment of the Now That's What I Call Music various artists compilation arrives on the chart at #2. It only has one Hot 100 #1 hit, Bruno Mars' "When I Was Your Man", but it does have top-10 tracks from Imagine Dragons, Icona Pop, Justin Timberlake, and more. This generation's answer to the "K-Tel record" has sent all of its releases to the top-10...

British heavy metal band Asking Alexandria score their highest rank as their third album From Death To Destiny comes in at #5. It's their second to make the top-10 after 2011's Reckless and Relentless...

The fourth entry in the top-10 this week is by gospel artist Tye Tribett, from Camden, New Jersey, with his fifth album Greater Than....

The singer with the top country song on the radio right now, Brett Eldredge, sees his debut album Bring You Back enter at #11...

British actor Hugh Laurie (House) lands his second top-40 album in the states as his sophomore blues adventure, Didn't It Rain, arrives at #21. His first, Let Them Talk, reached #16 in 2011. Both sets went to #1 on the Blues Albums chart, as well as top-10 in the UK...

....and this week's "metalcore" quotient is supplied by Atlanta suburban band Norma Jean with their sixth album Wrongdoers. It's their third to make the top-40 of the albums chart, with 2008's The Anti Mother reaching #29...

Newsted, named for its leader, bassist Jason, formerly of Metallica, slides in at #40 with their first full-length album, Heavy Metal Music...

The Mexican banda act La Arrolladora Banda El Limón comes in at #48 with Gracias Por Creer. The collective's track "El Ruido De Tu Zapatos" ("Noise In Your Shoes") has spent 7 weeks at #1 on the Mexican-American airplay chart in Billboard magazine...

Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall returns at #64 with her fourth US-released full-length, Invisible Empire//Crescent Moon. In 2007 her sophomore effort Drastic Fantastic reached #9 in the States....

Bluegrass master Chris Thile has had a varied career from being a part of the group Nickel Creek to striking out on his own as well as being part of groups like the Punch Brothers. He also went to #18 on the top 200 chart with his collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma, The Goat Rodeo Sessions. He's back at #72 now with a classical adventure Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol 1. It's his first as a "solo" artist to make the chart...

And at #74 is a jazz-soul great who passed right before the release of his latest album. George Duke's DreamWeaver is an apt testament to his amazing musical and producing talent. Duke placed three of his albums in the top-40 on the albums chart, with 1977's Reach For It topping out at #25..

That's it for the first half of the crop....a lot of amazing stuff out, but to choose the three I'd go for first, it would be the Civil Wars, Chris Thile, and George Duke (with the Brett Eldredge a very close fourth).

I'll be back tomorrow with the second half, with a soundtrack to a Paul Rudd movie you probably have never heard of, a YouTube star strikes out on her own, and the singer in Canada's second-biggest progressive-rock band.