Album Sweep: November 8, 2014 - Part One...

My catch-up from last weekend away continues, as I kick off the first part of this week's over-expanded "album sweep", sampling the records making the Top 200 Albums sales chart in Billboard magazine. Since there are a whopping 37 new sets on the chart, I'll be splitting this up in three parts, and as always, I've included highlighted links to buy any of the new sets when available, along with some of the artists' other major work. Support the talent!

With over 130,000 copies sold in its first week, theatrical heavy metal band Slipknot scores their second #1 album in a row with .5: The Grey Chapter. They also topped the chart in 2008 with their last effort, All Hope Is Gone. This is their fifth studio album, the last four have made the top-ten...

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Rapper and sometimes reality show fodder T.I. returns at #2 with his ninth studio set Paperwork. He had three consecutive #1 albums between 2006 and 2008, the most recent with the similarly-titled Paper Trail...

Neil Diamond is back at #3 with Melody Road, his 32nd studio effort and first since switching to Capitol Records. The legendary pop singer/songwriter went to #1 in 2008 with Home Before Dark (when he was 67, setting a since-broken record at the time). Altogether Neil has placed eighteen releases in the top 10 of the albums chart, dating back to Moods in 1972...

Rapper Logic, from Gaithersburg, Maryland, makes his debut at #4 with his first official full-length album Under Pressure...

Country quartet Little Big Town claim their third top-10 album with Pain Killer entering at #7. Their last release, Tornado, came in at #2 in 2012..

A Cappella titans Pentatonix arrive at #9 with That's Christmas To Me. Their seasonal set is their first full-length album to make the chart; they have placed four EPs on the chart, with the Christmas release PTXmas going to #7 in 2012. Their last EP PTX Vol III went to #5 a couple months ago...

Scottish-born songstress Annie Lennox returns at #10 with Nostalgia, a collection of cover songs. It's her third solo trip to the top-ten; she climbed to #4 in 2003 with Bare...

Missing out on the top-10 at #13 is another cover collection, this time the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, with Sings The Diva Classics. It's her 38th studio album; and her highest charting set since 1985's Who's Zoomin' Who. Remarkably, Ree-Ree has never been to #1 on the Top 200, though she's been in the runner-up spot twice, with I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You in 1967 and Lady Soul a year later...

Scottish singer and Britain's Got Talent viral video darling Susan Boyle is back at #16 with her sixth effort Hope. She had back-to-back #1 records in the U.S. with I Dreamed A Dream and The Gift in 2009 and 2010...

Experimental rock veterans Primus land at #17 with Primus & The Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble. It's their fifth to make the top-40. Back in 1993 they reached #7 with Pork Soda. This new record, as let on by the name, is an homage to the Willy Wonka movie...

The #1 album in the United Kingdom last week was I Forget Where We Are from singer/songwriter Ben Howard. He makes it on to the American chart at #23. It's his first to make the Top 200...

English post-grunge band Bush are back at #33 with their sixth studio project Man On The Run. All six plus a remix album have made the top-40, with a #1 record in 1996 with Razorblade Suitcase...

That's all for the first of this week's three installments...out of this dozen the three to check out first are the Pentatonix, Annie Lennox, and Bush albums...

I'll be back later with the second set...