Album Sweep: December 14, 2013...

I'm ready for today's "album sweep", sampling the albums making this week's Top 200 Albums sales chart in Billboard magazine. Since there's only a dozen new ones on the chart, I'll recap them all in one big swoop, and when possible include highlighted links to buy the albums and the artists' other work mentioned...

The top-selling record of the week is the third consecutive #1 album for British boy-band of the moment One Direction, who sell over a half-million copies of Midnight Memories. It follows Up All Night and Take Me Home...

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Country superstar Garth Brooks returns at #3 with his second big box-set, Blame It All On My Roots: Five Decades Of Influences. The Walmart/Sam's Club exclusive has four CDs of previously-unreleased recordings covering classics of rock, soul, country, and pop, a DVD of his Las Vegas concert and another one of his biggest music videos, and the double CD of Ultimate Hits included. Not bad for 25 bucks, eh? His other box set The Limited Series, containing his first six albums with extra tracks, went to #1 in 1998. The new collection sold over 160 thousand in its first week...

The soundtrack to the #1 movie of the week, Disney's Frozen, lands at #18 this week....

The self-titled debut album from the last season winner of The Voice, Danielle Bradbery, arrives at #19....

The 39-track iTunes exclusive charity collection Songs For The Philippines comes in at #28. It benefits the victims of Typhoon Haiyan earlier this year, and features songs from The Beatles, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Kylie Minogue, and more...

Punk rocker Billie Joe (Armstrong) of Green Day and jazz-pop vocalist Norah (Jones) pair up at #40 with Foreverly, a track-by-track remake of the Everly Brothers 1958 album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us...

Latin singer Gerardo Ortiz enters at #68 with Archivos de Mi Vida....

Rapper and "Mr. Worldwide" Pitbull's Meltdown EP (which also is packaged with the expanded version of his Global Warming album) enters at #95...

Christian ska band Five Iron Frenzy from Denver, Colorado come in at #118 with their sixth studio album Engine of a Million Plots. It's their first to make the top half of the chart...

Another iTunes exclusive charity record, Dance (Red) Save Lives Vol. 2, which benefits the (RED) AIDS charity, dances in at #130. Madonna, Katy Perry, Robin Thicke, Calvin Harris and more appear on the 24-track collection...

Contemporary Christian Music group Sidewalk Prophets sleigh in at #179 with Merry Christmas To You. Their last regular album Live Like That went to #83 last year...

The final debut of the week at #198 is the soundtrack to the holiday musical film Black Nativity starring Angela Bassett, Forrest Whittaker, and Jennifer Hudson....

That's it for the new crop...out of this dozen the three I would pick first are the Garth Brooks, Frozen, and the Billie Joe & Norah sets....