Album Sweep: October 26, 2013 - Part One...

Howdy, clan, it's time to kick off the first half 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 in blue highlights (when available), but if you can, drop in on an independent record store if you can.

The top-selling album with over a quarter of a million copies sold is Miley Cyrus' Bangerz. It is the fifth time she's topped the albums chart; she's done it with three of her Hannah Montana soundtrack albums as well as her Breakout album.

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Coming in at the runner-up spot is modern rock group Panic! At The Disco with their fourth studio album Too Weird To Live, To Rare To Die!. It's their second to reach #2; in 2008 they did it with their second set Pretty Odd...

Rapper and one half of duo Clipse, Pusha T, arrives at #4 with his first solo album My Name is My Name. It matches the peak of his biggest album with Clipse, Lord Willin', in 2002...

Glee lost its star Cory Monteith to a drug overdose a few months ago, and the show's "tribute" episode spins off the first top-10 set since last year's Glee The Music: The Graduation (their 15th to make that level). Glee: The Quarterback EP has six performances from the show and is in at #7...

Neo-metal band Korn return at #8 with their eleventh studio album Paradigm Shift. Ten of those (all except their debut) made the top-10, with 1998's Follow The Leader and Issues in 1999 topping the chart...

Cassadee Pope, who won the third season of The Voice after leaving her band Hey Monday, debuts at #9 with her first full-length solo album Frame By Frame. The only other winner of the show to place an album on the chart so far was season-one champ Javier Colon who took his Come Through For You to #134 in 2011..

Alternative rock band Mayday Parade fly in at #10 with their fourth studio album and first top-10, Monsters In The Closet...

Post-grunge band Alter Bridge, who comprise of the three non-crazy members of Creed along with singer Myles Kennedy, return at #12 with their fourth album Fortress. Their first, One Day Remains, came in at #5 in 2004...

Latin pop star Prince Royce enters at #14 with his third and highest-ranked album Soy El Mismo...

Kentucky-based garage rock band Cage The Elephant come in at #15 with their third set, Melophobia. Their last, Thank You, Happy Birthday, went all the way to #2 in 2011...

Philadelphia native Ryan Massaro, who performs under the alias Amos Lee, arrives at #16 with his fifth studio effort, Mountains Of Sorrow, Rivers Of Song. His last, Mission Bell, went to #1 in its first week at the beginning of 2011...

Country singer Joe Nichols' eighth studio set Crickets chirps in at #17. It's his fourth to make the top-40; in 2005 his album III went to #7...

Alternative hiphop artist Danny Brown (real surname Sewell) gets his first official retail album Old on to the chart at #18. His last 'album' XXX offered for free won Spin magazine's top rap album in 2011...

While the boys in the Stone Temple Pilots are separated from their lead singer Scott Weiland, their EP with Linkin Park's Chester Bennington filling in, High Rise, shoots in at #24. All six of the groups full-length records made the top-10, with Purple topping the list in 1994...

Soul singer Lyfe Jennings is back at #32 with his fifth album Lucid. He's had three top-10 records, with The Phoenix reaching #2 in 2006...

That's it for the first half of the new crop...out of these 15 the three I would recommend first are the Panic At The Disco, Amos Lee, and Stone Temple Pilots sets....

I'll return tomorrow with the second half, with new stuff from a pop/country veteran, a folk-rock critics' fave, an American Idol, and more...