Album Sweep: October 4, 2014 - Part One...

Hey gang, I'm ready to roll out the first half of this week's "album sweep", sampling the records making their debut on the official Top 200 Albums sales chart in Billboard magazine. As usual, I've included highlighted links to buy the new crew if possible, as well as some of the artists' other major work. Support the talent!

Speaking of talent, the top-selling album in America comes from a national treasure, singer/actress/producer/all-around awesome Barbra Streisand, with her thirty-fourth studio album Partners. The collection of collaborations sells close to 200,000 copies in its first week. It's her tenth release to reach the top (including a greatest hits set and the Star Is Born soundtrack with Kris Kristofferson), her first being People back in 1964. As opposed to her Duets release from 2002 that collected songs from older albums with a couple of new tracks, this is all-new with duets with the likes of Lionel Richie, John Mayer, and Billy Joel...

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A second album also sells over 100K this week, as Chris Brown's sixth studio set X (confusing, eh?) lands in the runner up spot with close to 150,000 copies sold. His last two records, F.A.M.E. in 2011 and Fortune in 2012, both went to #1, though his last did so with a smaller number..

Country star Tim McGraw returns at #3 with his thirteenth album Sundown Heaven Town. Every one of his studio albums since his second one have made the top-5, and four of them went all the way to #1, the latest being Let It Go in 2007...

Another country superhero, George Strait, caps off his "retirement" tour with the concert album The Cowboy Rides Away: Live From AT&T Stadium at #4. It's his third live album (and highest-charting of them) to reach the chart. It sports a host of special guests including Alan Jackson, Jason Aldean, and Kenny Chesney...


Entering at #5 is the pop/rock band Train, who score their fifth top-10 record with Bulletproof Picasso. Only their last effort, California 37, has been higher by a notch...

Motionless In White, an industrial metal group from Scranton, Pennsylvania, are in the top-10 for the first time with their third release Reincarnate at #9...

Former Guns N Roses guitar ace Slash is back at #10 with his second collaborative album with Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, World On Fire. The first, Apocalyptic Love, went to #4 in 2012, while his self-titled solo debut topped off at #3 in 2010...

Christian rock duo For King & Country, a pair of Australian-born brothers who live in Nashville since their youth, debut at #13 with their second effort Run Wild, Live Free, Love Strong. It's their first to make the "big" chart...

Scottish singer/songwriter Paolo Nutini lands his first top-40 album with his third try, Caustic Love. The record has already topped the British albums chart...

Veteran death metal band Cannibal Corpse, once one of the most reviled acts on conservative leaders lists of destructive music, prove they live on with their second top-40 album in a row with their 13th studio set A Skeletal Domain at #32...

On the other side of the metal coin, Christian hard rock band Flyleaf are back at #33 with their fourth album Between The Stars. It's their first with new lead singer Kristen May after Lacey Sturm left in 2012. In 2009 the act went to #8 with Memento Mori...

Rapper Joell Ortiz, who had originally been a part of the collective Slaughterhouse, sees his third solo record House Slippers arrive on the list at #45, his highest away for the group

Vegas rockers Otherwise also get their highest rank with their fourth release Peace At All Costs...

Progressive metal band the Contortionist, from Indiana, twist in at #52 with Language, their third effort. It's their first in the top half of the chart...

That's all for the first half of the new bunch....out of these fourteen the four I would go for first are the Paolo Nutini, Barbra Streisand, Flyleaf, and George Strait albums...

I'll be back tomorrow with the second half....