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

Part two of this week's belated and expanded "album sweep" is here, sampling the records making their debut on the Top 200 Albums chart in Billboard magazine. You can check out part one by clicking here, and as before I've included highlighted links to buy anything online when possible, along with some of the artists' other major work...

Try to wrap your head around the fact that punk rocker Billy Idol is 58, and now claims his fifth top-40 album as Kings & Queens Of The Underground is in at #34. Back in the 80s he had a pair of albums (Rebel Yell and Whiplash Smile) reach #6...

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Another hitmaker from another decade, this time R&B vocal giants Boyz II Men, are back at #37 with Collide, their eleventh studio album. Eight of those, plus a Christmas and a remix album, have gone top-40, with top going to #1 - II in 1994 and Evolution in 1997...

Canadian newcomer Kiesza makes her debut at #42 with her first full-length release Sound Of A Woman...

British singer/songwriter and critics' darling Jessie Ware scores her highest rank to date with her second album Tough Love at #50...

California indie-rockers Cold War Kids storm in at #56 with their fifth effort Hold My Home. They reached #21 with both Loyalty To Loyalty in 2008 and Mine Is Yours in 2011...

Italian "Popera" king Andrea Bocelli returns at #57 with Opera: The Ultimate Collection. His last two studio efforts, Passione and Christmas, both went to #2...

An archival release from the Jerry Garcia band, titled GarciaLive Volume Five: December 31st, 1975, Keystone Berkeley, makes it into the chart at #81. Out of the five releases, Volume Four went the highest, to #74 earlier this year....


The seasonal collection A Christmas To Believe In drops in at #86. I can't find any info on it other than it seems to be a Christian music compilation, so fuck it...

71-year-old avant garde singer/songwriter Scott Walker teams up with experimental metal band Sunn O))) for the collaborative project Soused at #88...

Pop singer/songwriter Gavin DeGraw's compilation The Finest Hour: The Best Of Gavin DeGraw, lands at #95. He's accumulated three top-10 albums, with his self-titled sophomore effort going the highest at #7 in 2008...

Run The Jewels, a collab between rappers El-P and Killer Mike, move in at #96 with Run The Jewels 2. El-P's last solo set, Cancer 4 Cure, peaked at #61, while Killer Mike's last, R.A.P. Music, went to #82....

21 Totally 80s Hits, a compilation from Columbia Records, flashes in at #98. All but two of the 21 tracks made the top-10 on the Hot 100 (one of the others reached #11)...

That's all for the second set of the newbies...out of this dozen the three to get first are the Kiesza, Gavin DeGraw, and Billy Idol records...

I'll return tomorrow with the final 13...