Album Sweep: October 19, 2013 - Part One...

Hey gang, Sunday has arrived, and it's time to kick off the first part of this week's "album sweep", sampling the records making their first appearance on Billboard magazine's Top 200 Albums chart. As always, I've included links to buy anything you see if possible, but if you can, make your way to an indie record store (like my local Princeton Record Exchange). It'll do you good.

Justin Timberlake follows country star Luke Bryan in having two albums debut at #1 this year, as his 20/20 Experience, Part 2 sells three hundred fifty thousand copies this week, a little more than a third the amount that Part 1 pushed the first time out. Along with FutureSex/LoveSounds, this makes 3 out of four #1 success rate for him as a solo artist. (PS This tally includes sales of the combined 1&2 package)...

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 The young woman with the current #1 single on the Hot 100, Lorde (born Ella O'Connor), has two of her efforts arrive on the albums chart this week. First, her debut full-length album Pure Heroine comes in at #3. She also sold enough of her earlier EP to pop in on tomorrow's second half of the "sweep". Heroine sold over 100K in its first week...

Country newbie Tyler Farr debuts at #5 with his first effort, Redneck Crazy. The title track is currently ranks at #3 on that format's airplay chart...

Indie-rock group Haim, named for sisters Alana, Danielle, and Este, place their first full-length album Days Are Gone at #6....

St. Louis rapper Nelly put his first six studio albums in the top-10, including three #1 records with his debut Country Grammar, second set Nellyville, and the Suit half of his double-release in 2004. His (unlucky) seventh M.O. just misses the mark at #14...

The Australian Christian music collective Hillsong enters at #22 as "Hillsong Young & Free" with the pop-oriented We Are Young & Free.

Another (and more veteran) Contemporary Christian music artist Steven Curtis Chapman scores his seventh top-40 album on the Top 200 Albums chart with The Glorious Unfolding at #27. Ten years ago, he took All About Love to #12...

Canadian progressive rock heroes Rush made it to #6 in the US with their 2002 album Vapor Trails. The album has been redone due to complaints over sound, and Vapor Trails Remixed jumps in at #35...

Alt-hiphop "supergroup" Deltron 3030, featuring rapper Del The Funky Homosapien and producer Dan The Automator, come in at #41 with their second album, Event 2. It features cameos from artists like Damon Albarn and Zach De La Rocha along with actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Amber Tamblyn...

Grrrl rocker Joan Jett is back with the Blackhearts and gets her first charting studio album since 1990's The Hit List as Unvarnished is in at #47. In 1982 they went to #2 with I Love Rock & Roll...

Neo-psychedelic rock group Dr. Dog, from the southeastern Pennsylvania town of West Grove, jam in at #50 with their eighth album B-Room. It's their third in a row to make the top-50; in 2010 they took Shame, Shame to #44...

Dustin Kensrue, the singer in experimental rock group Thrice, comes in at #52 with his third solo effort The Water And The Blood.

Hank Williams III is 40 now, and his newest, Brothers Of The 4X4, enters at #61. In 2008 his Damn Right, Rebel Proud went to #18...


That's it for the first half of the new crop... Out of these 13 the three I would pick first are the Lorde, Haim, and Tyler Farr sets....I'll be back tomorrow with the second half with new music from an electronica legend, two soul brothers are back, a country icon turned tabloid fodder, and more.