Album Sweep: December 6, 2014 - Part One...

It's time to roll out the first half of this week's "album sweep", sampling the records making their debut on this week's Top 200 Albums sales chart this week in Billboard magazine (I though last week would be their last sales-only frame, but alas here we are). As always, I've included highlighted links to buy any of the new sets, as well as some of the artists' other major work. Support the talent!

The top-selling album in American unsurprisingly comes from the British boyband One Direction, who sell over 387,000 copies of their fourth album Four in its first week. It makes it their third consecutive #1 out of four tries; they topped the chart a year ago with Midnight Memories...

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Bro-rock kings Nickelback return at #4 with their sixth top-ten album No Fixed Address. The Canadian band topped the chart in 2005 with All The Right Reasons...

Gothic metal group In This Moment score their first top-ten album with their fifth studio set Black Widow...

The soundtrack to the biggest movie of the weekend, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, lands on the chart at #18. The first Hunger Games collection went to #1 in 2012. Grammy-winner Lorde put together the rock music in this part of the cinematic series...

 Punk Goes Pop, Vol. 6 enters the list at #19. It's the fourth of the series to make the top-40; Pop Goes Punk 2 went to #15 in 2009. This one has current pop/punk bands covering hits from Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Lorde, and more...

The soundtrack to another blockbuster, the Matthew McConaughey sci-fi epic Insterstellar, sets down at #20. The score was composed by Hans Zimmer...

Brooklyn indie-rock band TV On The Radio beam in at #22 with their sixth full-length album Seeds. Their last two, Dear Science in 2008 and Nine Types Of Light in 2011, both went to #12...

The tribute album The Art Of McCartney arrives at #27. The set includes 34 covers of Beatles/Wings/solo classics by the likes of Heart, Billy Joel, Def Leppard, and even Paul's son James with the Cure on "Hello Goodbye"..

A week after her husband Garth Brooks landed in the top-10 with his Man Against Machine album, country singer Trisha Yearwood returns at #33 with the part-re-recorded hits part-new set Prizefighter: Hit After Hit. Her first compilation (Songbook) A Collection Of Hits went to #4 in 1997. (One thing, why are Garth and Trisha getting Prince-like YouTube-phobic lately?)

Country newcomer Cole Swindell sees his Down Home Sessions EP come in at #36. His self-titled full-length debut peaked at #3 earlier this year...

Gospel singer/producer Fred Hammond enters at #41 with I Will Trust. He went to #26 back in 2009 with Love Unstoppable...

There's got to be an off-kilter TV Christmas tie-in this year, and Christmas At Downton Abbey at #44 fits the bill. The album, which does include singing performances from some of the cast, also has some period-piece English holiday music...

The odds-and-sods collection from indie-folk favorites Wilco, Alpha Mike Foxtrot: Rare Tracks 1994-2014 moves in at #46. The band's last four studio albums reached the top-10, with Sky Blue Sky (2007) and Wilco (The Album) (2009) peaking at #4....

Broadway star Kristen Chenoweth's concert disc Coming Home arrives at #48. It becomes her highest-ranked solo album to date..

David Bowie is back at #57 with a three-CD retrospective Nothing Has Changed. It's his tenth compilation to make the Top 200; in 1976 his classic Changesonebowie went to #10. This set has a couple of unreleased songs on it as well...

That's it for the first half of the new crop; out of this fifteen the five to pick up first are the David Bowie, Kristen Chenoweth, TV On The Radio, Art Of McCartney, and In This Moment records...

I'll be back tomorrow with part two...