Album Sweep: November 16, 2013 - Part One...

Hey gang, it's time 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 this week. I've included highlighted links to buy any of the albums and the artists' other sets  if possible, but if you can, please visit an indie record store. It'll do you good.

The top-selling album belongs to Canadian modern rock band Arcade Fire, whose Reflektor sells over 140,000 to become their second consecutive #1 album after Grammy-winning The Suburbs....

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Now that Halloween is over, the Christmas music rush is in full swing, with four holiday sets debuting in the top 40. At #3 is the first Christmas album from American Idol season-one winner Kelly Clarkson, with Wrapped In Red. All six of her studio albums have made the top ten, with both Thankful in 2003 and All I Ever Wanted in 2009 both reaching #1...

And on the other side of the quality spectrum at #4 is Duck The Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas from the Robertsons, the cast members of the "reality" show Duck Dynasty. Yeah. That's right. I'm sure Lou Reed is already spinning. Country stars George Strait, Luke Bryan, and Alison Krauss (!) guest on this product...

Country singer Thomas Rhett puts his first full-length album It Goes Like This on the chart at #6. His father, Rhett Akins, managed to place one record on the Top 200, Somebody New, which topped out at #102 in 1996...

Right under that at #7 is Toby Keith with his seventeenth album, Drinks After Work. Altogether its his 14th to make the top ten here, with four of them going all the way to #1 (the most recent being Bullets In The Gun in 2010). To put in perspective, when Thomas Rhett's dad had his biggest album, Toby was on his third record already...

Nu-metal group Linkin Park rock in at #10 with their second remix album Recharged. The compilation has reworks from Steve Aoki, Rick Rubin, Paul Van Dyk, and more. Their first mix set Reanimation went to #2 in 2002...

The Robert Glasper Experiment's Black Radio 2 arrives at #16 this week. The first Black Radio, which won the Grammy for Best R&B Album last February, came in at #15...

Susan Boyle, the viral video success story from Britain's Got Talent, puts her second holiday album Home For Christmas in at #19. The first, The Gift, was her second #1 album in 2010. As opposed to the latter set, her new one is all Christmas music...

Canadian progressive metal band Protest The Hero leaps in at #20 with Volition, their fourth studio album and first to make the top 40....

South African post-grunge band Seether enter at #22 with their first greatest hits set Seether: 2002-2013. Their last studio album Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray is their highest-charting of their three top ten albums so far at #2 in 2011..

Reggae-fusion rock group The Dirty Heads come in at #27 with Home/Phantoms Of Summer: The Acoustic Sessions. The band's second album Cabin By The Sea went to #18 last year...

Indiana University a cappella alums Straight No Chaser ring in at #33 with Under The Influence: Holiday Edition, an eight-song EP of Christmas nuggets, including cameos from Colbie Caillat, Paul McCartney, and Cee Lo Green. It's their third top-40 album; their last album With A Twist went to #29 in 2010...

Singer/songwriter Sky Ferreira debuts at #45 with her first full-length album Night Time, My Time...

The Vertical Church Band place their first album The Rock Won't Move on the chart at #58...

And next up by chance at #62 is black metal group Skeletonwitch with their fifth studio album Serpents Unleashed. It's their biggest to date and first to make the top half of the chart..

And a 180 back to Australian Christian act Hillsong United with Zion: Acoustic Sessions at #88...

Hip Hop collective Odd Future spin-off trio MellowHigh pop in at #89 with their self-titled debut set...

That's it for the first half of the new crop....out of these seventeen the three I would recommend first are the Arcade Fire, Straight No Chaser, and Robert Glasper Experiment albums....

I'll return tomorrow with part two, including more Christmas stuff, a collection from a just-passed legend, and more...