Album Sweep: Feburary 7, 2015 - Part One...

It's time for the first half of this week's "album sweep", sampling the records making their debut on Billboard magazine's Top Album Sales chart this week. As always, I've included links to buy any of the new sets when possible, as well as some of the artists' other major work, but if you can, get down to an indie record store and show some love...

Pop/punk kings Fall Out Boy score their third #1 album as American Beauty/American Psycho sells over 192,000 copies in its first week. Their last release Save Rock and Roll also topped the list in 2013, as did their 2007 set Infinity On High...

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Brooklyn rapper Joey Bada$$ makes his debut at #4 with B4.DA.$$, his first full-length album...

The Decemberists from Portland, Oregon return at #5 with their seventh full-length album What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World. Their last release The King Is Dead topped this chart in 2011...

Making a comeback at #6 is shock-metal act Marilyn Manson with The Pale Emperor, their ninth studio album. Led by the titular goth king, the band topped the albums chart in 1998 with Mechanical Animals and again in 2003 with The Golden Age Of Grotesque...

The new 2015 Grammy Nominees compilation arrives at #7. It has selections from Taylor Swift, Sam Smith, and all nominees for song and record of the year, as well as a smattering of other categories...

Rapper Lupe Fiasco enters at #9 with his fifth album Tetsuo & Youth. He went to #1 here in 2011 with Lasers....

Veteran all-female indie-punk trio Sleater-Kinney are back at #13 with No Cities To Love, their eighth album and first in ten years. Member Carrie Brownstein stars on the funny IFC show Portlandia. It's their first to make the top-40 here...

Icelandic siren Bjork pops back on to the chart at #15 with her ninth studio set Vulnicura. Her last seven have made the top-40 on the American albums chart, with Volta reaching #9 in 2007...

Scottish indie-pop band Belle & Sebastian also make a welcome return at #20 with Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance. It's their second to make the top-40; their last regular studio release, Belle and Sebastian Write About Love, peaked at #15 in 2010...

There are some great, great finds in these nine, but if I had to whittle down to three I would go for the Decemberists, Bjork, and Belle and Sebastian records first...

I'll be back tomorrow with the second half...