Cole Swindell has sort of made history with his debut, self-titled album. Cole Swindell was the highest debut album for a solo male country performer since Scott McCreery dropped his debut during 2011. That doesn't sound all that impressive, until you consider McCreery was the highest debuting solo male in the history of the Billboard 200 (58 years). We buy into Billboard's argument that McCreery had an unfair advantage, coming off of American Idol and all. So Swindell deserves some credit for moving 63,000 copies of his album in its first week, sans nationally televised competition advertising his existence for months.
We don't need to list everybody whose debut fell within the last 58 years. Everybody from Johnny Cash to Garth Brooks. So kudos for that.
Swindell came around at the right time however. Eight different solo male country performers have debuted in the top 5 of the Top Country Albums charts during the last year. That stat can be attributed to the rise in popularity of party-going solo performers such as Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan, whose album Crash My Party has been a steady fixture in the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 for six months.
If you've listened to Swindell's album and found a striking similarity between his lyrics and Bryan's, don't be surprised: Swindell got his start writing tracks such as "Beer in My Headlights" for Bryan. The rookie's songwriting is finally paying off for him however. Swindell's track "Chillin' It" has been on top of the Hot Country Songs chart for two weeks now.
