Album Sweep: August 9, 2014 - Part One...

It's time for the first half of this week's "album sweep", sampling the records making their first appearance on Billboard magazine's official Top 200 Albums sales chart. As usual, I've included highlighted links to buy anything you see, as well as some of the artists' other major work. Support the talent (and visit in indie record store if you can)!

The top-selling record of the week is the self-titled first full-length album from Australian boy-band 5 Seconds Of Summer, who shift over a quarter of a million copies in its first week (so One Direction, I guess you've been shifted up)...

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Rapper Common returns at #6 with his tenth studio album Nobody's Smiling. It's his third top-ten effort - he topped the chart in 2007 with Finding Forever...

Texas metalcore band Crown The Empire reign at #7 with their second full-length album and first to hit the big chart, The Resistance: Rise Of The Runaways...

Floridian hard rockers Anberlin are back at #11 with their seventh album Lowborn back in 2010 they had their sole top-ten effort with Dark Is The Way, Light Is A Place...

English synthpop act La Roux, who go from a duo to a moniker fronted solely by singer Elly Jackson, lands at #20 with its sophomore album Trouble In Paradise. It's the first for the act in the top-40...

Suburban Chicago emo-punkers Real Friends debut at #23 with their first full-length set Maybe This Place Is The Same And We're Just Changing...

Progressive rock veterans Yes are back at #26 with Heaven & Earth. It's their first with new lead vocalist Jon Davison. Back in the day the band has placed seven albums in the top-10 in the U.S., with Close To The Edge reaching #3 in 1972...

Thrash-metal band Overkill got their first charting album back in 1987, and this week score their first top-40 set with White Devil Armory at #31...

Kierra Sheard, a gospel singer from Detroit, also nabs her first top-40 album with Graceland at #33...

Former teen star Jesse McCartney is back at #35 with In Technicolor. The former soap opera kid star and Disney fodder had there consecutive top-20 records last decade, the latest being Departure hitting #14 in 2008....

More current Disney stars R5 get their second top-40 appearance with their third EP Heart Made Up On You at #36. Their first full-length Louder went to #24 last year...

Indie-rockers RX Bandits arrive at #39 with Gemini, Her Majesty. It's their first trip to the top-40...

Melodic hardcore act Four Year Strong take their EP Go Down In History to #47 this week. It matches the peak of their best album showing, 2010's Enemy Of The World...

Atlanta-based heavy metal group Fozzy claim their first album to make the top half of the chart as Do You Want To Start A War comes in at #54...

Another metalcore band, Within The Ruins, has their first album reach the top 200 as Phenomena appears at #72...

That's it for now, out of these 15 the four I would recommend first are the La Roux, Common, Yes, and Real Friends albums....

I'll be back tomorrow with the second half of the new bunch....