Album Sweep: January 3, 2015....

I'm ready to run through this week's "album sweep", sampling the records making their debut on Billboard magazine's Album Sales chart this week. As always, I've included links to buy the new sets, along with some of the artists' other major work, but if you can, stop by an indie record store. It'll do you good!

The top-selling album of the week for the sixth non-consecutive week is 1989 from Taylor Swift, who sold over 331,000 copies in its eight week out...

The top newbie is the third album from Nicki Minaj, The Pinkprint, which moved almost 200,000 in its first week on sale. Her first two releases, Pink Friday and Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded both went to #1...

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Neo-soul singer D'Angelo returned after fourteen long years with his third album Black Messiah, which sold over 100,000 and lands at #5. His last album Voodoo topped the albums chart in 2000...

Australian boy-band 5 Seconds Of Summer are back at #10 with LIVESOS, their third release (one studio album, one EP, and one live album) to make the top 10. Their self-titled studio debut topped the chart earlier this year...

The movie adaptation of the fantasy musical Into The Woods made its debut on Christmas Day, and the soundtrack, which went on sale the week before, enters at #22...

For the life of me I'm not sure how British pop singer Charli XCX's second album Sucker landed on so many "best of 2014" lists, especially since it just came out last week, but it does manage to place at #30 on the sales chart...

Louisiana rapper Kevin Gates arrives at #38 with his mixtape Lucas Brasi 2: A Gangsta Grillz Special Edition. His last studio release By Any Means went to #17 last year...

Video-game focused comedy synthpop group Starbomb drop in at #46 with their second effort Player Select....

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies soundtrack makes its claim at #69. The first two soundtracks from the series both made the top-40, with the first, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey reaching #30...

Southern jam band Gov't Mule return at #77 with Dark Side Of The Mule. Last year they had their highest-charting album with Shout! with peaked at #32. This new set is all Pink Floyd covers, as predicted in the title...

Rapper YG takes the final debut of the week at #95 with the soundtrack to the movie he appears in, Blame It On The Streets. His studio debut My Krazy Life went to #2 earlier this year...

That's all for this week's new crop...out of these ten the three to check out first are the D'Angelo, Into The Woods, and Gov't Mule sets...