Album Sweep: October 12, 2013 - Part One...

Hey gang, I'm ready to kick off the first half of this week's "album sweep" sampling the records making their first appearance on the Top 200 Albums sales chart in Billboard magazine. As usual, I've included links to buy anything you see if possible, but if you can, get thyself over to an independent record store, they can give you the music love you need!

The top-selling album of the week, with the second-biggest opening of the year behind Justin Timberlake's 20/20 Experience Part 1, is Canadian rapper Drake, with his third full-length album Nothing Was The Same. It's also his third #1 set after Take Care and Thank Me Later. The new album sold over 650,000 copies in its first week...

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Arriving in second-place with over 100,000 copies sold is the alternative rock band Kings Of Leon, with their sixth studio album Mechanical Bull. It's their third consecutive top-5 album, and matches the peak of their last set Come Around Sundown...

Superstar singer/actress/all around diva Cher nets her highest solo album rank at #3 with her 26th album Closer To The Truth. Her first solo album, All I Really Want To Do, went to #16 in 1965. This is her fifth album to make the top-10, the first, Heart Of Stone, came when she was 43 years old. That spells longevity. (She had one top-10 album with then-husband Sonny Bono, Look At Us, in 1965)...

Another pop music veteran, Elton John, lands at #4 with his 31st studio album, The Diving Board. He's topped the albums chart seven times, which were all of his studio releases from 1972's Honky Chateau to Rock Of The Westies in 1975 plus a Greatest Hits set in 1974. His first album to make the chart was his self-titled second set in 1970...

Progressive metal band Dream Theater, from Boston, take their self-titled twelfth album to the chart at #7. It's their third consecutive top-10 album; in 2009 they took Black Clouds & Silver Linings to #6...

Chicago-based dance music trio Krewella's first album Get Wet debuts at #9....

The seventh entry in this week's top-10 is by speed-metal masters Metallica, with the soundtrack to their half-concert half-fantasy thriller Metallica: Through The Never at #9. It's their second "live" album to make the top-10 - in 1999 they reached #2 with S&M with the San Francisco Symphony. Five of their studio albums have topped the Billboard chart, with their 1991 self-titled effort the biggest-selling album since the Soundscan company have been tracking sales with 15 million sold...

Country music icon Alan Jackson returns at #11 with The Bluegrass Album, a side-project with a combo of self-penned tunes and folk standards like Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon Of Kentucky". Jackson has topped the "big" albums chart four times, the last time being 2008's Good Time...

Scottish indie-pop trio Chvrches harken back to the early-80's synthpop boom, and their first set Bones Of What You Believe debuts at  #12...

Sting is back at #13 with his eleventh studio album The Last Ship. It's his first pop/rock oriented album in ten years. Nine of his solo releases have made the top-10, with three of them (his debut The Dream Of The Blue Turtles in 1985, The Soul Cages in 1991, and Ten Summoners Tales in 1993) almost making the top at #2. The new album comes from his upcoming Broadway production...

Sammy Hagar takes a break from Cabo Wabo at #23 with Sammy Hagar & Friends. It's his seventh solo album to make the top-40 on the albums list - in 1987 he went to #14 with I Never Said Goodbye. His "friends" include Kid Rock and guitar whizzes Joe Satriani and Neal Schon (of Journey)...

L.A. pop/rock band R5, which includes four members of the Lynch family, with Ross (who starred in the Disney Channel show Austin & Ally) and brother Riker (who is one of the "Warblers" on Glee), see their debut full-length album Louder come in at #24...

Christian contemporary music singer Matt Redman enters at #28 with his third live album Your Grace Finds Me. It's his first to make the top-40..

Gospel record producer and artist Donald Lawrence comes in at #30 with Best For Last. It includes vocals from Yolanda Adams, as well as R&B Divas Kelly Price, Coko, and Faith Evans...

Jam-rock band Gov't Mule pops in at #32 with Shout!, their first studio album since 2009. It's their second release to make the top-40 and highest rank to date...

The compilation Ray Charles Forever, released in tandem with the commemorative stamps honoring the singer, arrives at #34. Ray has gone to #1 twice on the albums chart, with Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music in 1962 and the collaboration set Genius Loves Company in 2004.

I had predicted a bigger start for Swedish duo Icona Pop's debut album This Is..., but it managed an entry at #36...

and at #38 is the latest release from the TV show Glee, as Glee Sings The Beatles, featuring 14 songs from the biggest group ever, gets covered by the "group" with the most singles ever charted in Billboard (a disputed notion)..

That's it for the first half of the newbies...out of these 18 the three I'll recommend first are the Chvrches, Alan Jackson, and Cher albums...

I'll be back tomorrow with part two, including music from a 90s cult fave, America's current lounge music obsession, and a package marking the 20th anniversary of the album that changed rock in the 90s..