Album Sweep: June 21, 2014 - Part One...

Hey gang, it's time to roll out the first half of this week's "album sweep", sampling the records making their debut on the Top 200 Albums sales chart in Billboard magazine this week. As always, I've included highlighted links to buy any of the sets plus some of the artists' other major work, but if you can, stop by an indie record store and show them some love.

This week's top-selling album is the first #1 album for country singer Miranda Lambert, who does the trick with her fifth major release Platinum. All five have topped the country albums chart, while the last four made the top-10 of this one...

(Click below to see the rest of the post)




Rapper 50 Cent returns at #4 with his fifth regular studio album (and first in five years), Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire To Win. All five have made the top-5, and the first two, Get Rich Or Die Tryin' in 2003 and The Massacre in 2005, topped the chart...

(As a side note, the first three albums from legendary hard rock band Led Zeppelin re-enter the chart all in the top-10 due to their expanded re-release.)

Now! That's What I Call Country: Volume 7  twosteps in at #11 this week. It has 18 of the biggest hits of the format plus one up and coming artist....

Actress and singer Lucy Hale stars in the series Pretty Little Liars, and her debut album Road Between drives in at #14...

A beneficiary of last week's Tony Awards is the cast recording to the musical If/Then, starring Idina Menzel, which arrives at #19. The show was nominated for best original score, as well as Menzel for Best Actress...

British indie-pop singer Birdy flies in at #24 with her second full-length effort The Fire Within. It's her first to make the top-40 on the albums chart.

Christian worship collective Jesus Culture ascends to #25 with their latest, Unstoppable Love. It's their first in the top-40 as well...

The latest unknown act getting the reality-show push is country-rapper Big Smo, and his Kuntry Livin' shuffles in at #31...

Jewish rapper Matisyahu places his fifth studio album Akeda at #36. Including a live set this is his fifth top-40 album. He went to #4 with his breakthrough album Youth in 2006...

South African alternative hip-hop act Die Antwoord score their first top-40 album in the U.S. at #37 with their third full-length project Donker Mag...

Hardcore punk pioneer Bob Mould also nabs his highest chart placement and first top-40 album as Beauty And Ruin enters at #38...

Scranton, Pennsylvania-based indie-rock band Tigers Jaw come in at #49 with their fourth album Charmer, their first to make the chart....

Pre-fab boyband Emblem3, who finished fourth on The X Factor, had a top-10 album with Nothing To Lose last year. However, they did lose their record deal, and now have their independently-released EP Songs From The Couch Vol. 1 arrive at #53..

Brooklyn post-punk act Parquet Courts move in at #55 with their third set Sunbathing Animal...

While former American Idol finalist and Rupaul's Drag Race finalist Adore Delano didn't take home the crown, she can be proud of the fact that her debut album Till Death Do Us Party arrives at #59, much higher than any other contestant, and more importantly, higher than RuPaul herself has ever been. Werq!

Soul singer Kelly Price cashes in at #64 with her sixth studio album Sing Pray Love Vol 1: Sing. She's had two top-10 albums so far, with Mirror Mirror, her second, going to #5 in 2000...

That's it for this packed first half of this week's new album recap...out of these sixteen the four I would go for first are the Birdy, Bob Mould, Miranda Lambert, and If/Then sets...

I'll be back tomorrow with part two!