Album Sweep: October 5, 2013 - Part One...

Hey gang, I'm ready to kick off the first half of this week's "album sweeps" sampling the records making their first appearance on the Top 200 Albums chart in Billboard magazine. As always, I've included links to buy anything if available, but please get yourself to an indie record store if you can.

The top-selling album of the week is the fourth consecutive #1 set from Hawaiian singer/songwriter Jack Johnson, who pushes 117,000 copies of his sixth studio album From Here To How To You. His first was his soundtrack album to the kids movie Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George in 2006...

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There are three big debuts by country artists this week, and the first in the runner-up position is Justin Moore with his third full-length album Off The Beaten Path. It's the highest rank of his three, all which made the top-10...

Chris Young also has his highest-charting album at #3 with his fourth effort A.M....

MMG: Self-Made 3, a compilation from the rap label Maybach Music Group, drives in at #4, the same place that Self Made 2 came in last year....

Dance music DJ and producer Avicii from Sweden arrives at #5 with his first full-length album, True, which is getting notice for its folkish incorporations...

The third country debut at #10 is by Billy Currington, the most "seasoned" of the bunch, with his fifth studio album We Are Tonight. It's his second top-10 album; his last set Enjoy Yourself came in at #9 in 2010...

Indie-rock group MGMT are in at #14 with their self-titled third album. Their last, Congratulations, went all the way to #2 in 2010..

British alt-rock icon Elvis Costello collaborates with Jimmy Fallon's house band the Roots at #16 for Wise Up Ghost and Other Songs 2013. It's his 17th top-40 album. He made the top-10 once with Armed Forces way back in 1979. The Roots have ten top-10 sets of their own, with six of them reaching the Top Ten, and 2004's The Tipping Point and Things Fall Apart from 1999 both going to #4...

The legendary jam rock band the Grateful Dead have been churning out releases years beyond their dissolution after the passing of leader Jerry Garcia, and yet another live set, Sunshine Daydream: Veneta, Oregon August 27, 1972 is in at #19. Only five of their regular album releases made the top-20, with 1987's pop breakthrough In The Dark reaching #6....(NSFW for some "artistic" random nakedness)..

Dayton, Ohio-based Christian melodic metalcore (yes, it's a thing) group The Devil Wears Prada, enter at #20 with their fifth full-length studio album 8:18. Their last, Dead Throne, went to #10 in 2011...

California alternative rock band Grouplove's second album Spreading Rumours becomes their first top-40 set at #21...

Long Island punk group Stray From The Path come in at #40 with their seventh album Anonymous...

One notch below that at #41 are British "grindcore" outfit Carcass with Surgical Steel. Their first album came in 1985...

Wow. Well, to get as far away from that as possible, we've got gospel singer Earnest Pugh at #46 with The W.I.N. (Worship In Nassau) Experience: Live In Nassau Bahamas. It's his highest-charting album yet...

That does it for the first half of the bunch....out of these fourteen, the three I'd choose first are the Avicii, Grouplove, and Chris Young sets....

I'll return tomorrow with part two with new stuff from another Disney Channel refugee and the most famous costumed metal band ever.