Album Sweep: September 27, 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. As always, I've included highlighted links to buy any of the new sets (support the talent!), but if you can, get over to an independent record store and show some love...

The top-selling album in the U.S. is the first album that went to #1 on the Gospel Albums chart to also top the all-genre list as his seventh studio album Anomaly sells over 88,000 copies in its first week. It's also the first Christian albums #1 to top the chart from an African American, and the third year in a row a Christian album has topped the Top 200 without a pop single attached (last year Chris Tomlin did it, and in 2012 TobyMac did). Also as an actor, he is starring in the just-released Believe Me (which also stars a certain Glee alum named Max Adler). This is his second top-10 album...

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R&B singer Jhené Aiko comes in at #3 with her first full-length album Souled Out. Earlier this year an EP of songs from her, Sail Out, made #8...

Alternative rock musician Ryan Adams nabs his third top-10 album with his self-titled fourteenth studio album, which enters at #4 (his highest yet)...

Country hunk Lee Brice returns at #5 with I Don't Dance, his third full-length album and second in a row to reach that rank after 2012's Hard 2 Love...

Post-punk group Interpol comes back from a four-year break with their third top-10 effort, El Pintor, at #7. Their 2007 set Our Love To Admire went to #4...

Country singer Dustin Lynch arrives at #8 with his second album Where It's At. It's his first to make the top-10...

Robert Plant scores his fifth solo top-ten album with Lullaby...and the Ceaseless Roar at #10. It matches the peak of his first, Pictures At Eleven from 1982. Apart from his Led Zeppelin work, he also has made the top-10 with projects from the Honeydrippers, two albums with bandmate Jimmy Page, and a collaboration with Alison Krauss, Raising Sand, that went to #2 in 2007...

Not to be confused with the 2012 album from the Interpol leader Paul Banks titled just Banks, singer (Jillian) Banks makes her debut at #12 with her first studio full-length set Goddess...

"Southern" rapper Rittz drops in at #14 with his second album and second to make the top-40, Next To Nothing...

The young woman with the #1 pop hit in America, Meghan Trainor, sees her EP Title come in at #15...

Australian indie-rock singer/songwriter Vance Joy sails in at #17 with his debut album that went #1 in his homeland, Dream Your Life Away...

In Flames, a Swedish melodic death metal act, lands their third consecutive top-40 album in the U.S. at #26 with Sirens Charms...

Canadian dance-punk band Death From Above 1979 reunite after ten years for a second album, The Physical World, at #28...

Former Child of Destiny Michelle Williams lands her first top-40 album with her fourth solo album (and gospel effort) Journey To Freedom at #29...

The Cracker Barrel-affiliated collection from country vets Alabama, Angels Among Us: Hymns & Gospel Favorites, ascends to #33. It's now their thirteenth release (including a tribute album) to make the top-40 on the main albums chart; one of them, The Closer You Get, went to #10 in 1983...

Christian-tinged alternative rock band Switchfoot enter at #39 with Fading West: The Edge Of The Earth - Unreleased Songs. The seven-song EP contains songs left off of their Fading West soundtrack album, which went to #6 at the beginning of the year...

Another alternative rock band that started in the 90s, Better Than Ezra, are back at #43 with their eighth album All Together Now. Their debut, Deluxe, went to #35 in 1993...

That's all for the first half of the new crop....out of this seventeen the four I would recommend first are the Vance Joy, Interpol, Better Than Ezra, and Death From Above 1979 albums...

I'll return tomorrow with the second half....