Album Sweep: September 21, 2013 - Part Two...

I'm ready to serve up part two of this week's "album sweep", sampling the records reaching the Top 200 Albums chart in Billboard magazine. You can check part one by clicking here, and as before I've included links to buy anything if possible.

Debuting at #65 is reggae-rock group Pepper, originally from Hawaii, with their self-titled sixth studio album. It's their third so far to make the chart and highest rank to date...

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Alt-country indie band Okkervil River, from Austin Texas, named themselves from a Russian book, and their in at #66 with their seventh album The Silver Gymasium. Their last, I Am Very Far, was their first top-40 album, reaching #32 in 2011..

"Alt-country" in the opposite end of the spectrum is newcomer Frank Foster with Southern Soul at #67...

British singer Natalia Kills has a surprisingly high entry at #70 with her sophomore album Trouble. Her first set, Perfectionist, yielded a top-3 dance hit with "Mirrors" and two big worldwide hits (the aforementioned and the will.i.am assisted "Free"), but stalled out at #134 two years ago. The buzz from her after post-MTV Video Awards concert may have helped...

Gospel singer and pastor Deitrick Haddon, originally from Detroit but now in California, comes in at #71 with R.E.D. (Restoring Everything Destroyed).

The Starbucks exclusive Opus Collection by Fleetwood Mac brings together 15 of their songs, mostly classic with a couple of rarities slipped in as well. It has nine of their top-40 singles, and it's in at #72 (btw they do a great version of this in their latest tour)...

Country singer Craig Morgan twosteps in at #78 with his second "greatest hits" collection The Journey (Livin' Hits). It has eight of his previous hits, including his #1 "That's What I Like About Sunday" (which was Billboard's top country single of the year in 2005), as well as four new songs. Morgan has seen two of his albums to the top-40 of the main albums chart, with That's Why reaching #39 in 2008...

Folk duo Over The Rhine, named for the section of Cincinnati they're from, drop in at #80 with Meet Me At The Edge Of The World...


Reckless Kelly is another Americana-folk act who moved from Oregon to Austin, Texas, and they enter at #106 with their eighth studio album Long Night Moon. It follows Good Luck & True Love, which so far is their biggest, peaking at #78 in 2011...

Electropop duo (well, more like "glam goth") Blood On The Dance Floor enter at #137 with Bad Blood. Their last, Evolution, made it as high as #42 last year...

The blues-rock jam band North Mississippi Allstars debut at #146 with World Boogie Is Coming. They opened for Dave Matthews on his tour this year...

The final debut of the week at #182 is Korean rapper G-Dragon with Coup D'Etat, Part 1, a 5-track EP to introduce the artist. Right now it's only available at the iTunes store...

That's it for the second half of the new crop...out of this dozen the three I'd recommend first would be the Natalia Kills, North Mississippi Allstars, and Reckless Kelly sets...