When it comes to positive music picks, at least on the album side of things, 2013 proved to be a bit lean. OK. At least that made this year’s winners easier to spot! And more so than was the case last year, they tended to come from avowedly Christian rock bands or from artists who’ve talked openly about their Christian convictions. Track-wise, things trended more toward pop, with a couple of my picks reflecting the surge in electronic dance music.
So these are the five albums and five tracks that stood out to me while reviewing right at 100 musical offerings in 2013 (listed in alphabetical order):
ALBUMS
Alabama Shakes, Boys & Girls: 
Alabama Shakes enjoyed a moment in the spotlight early in the year, thanks to stints on Saturday Night Live and Austin City Limits. Fronted by 24-year-old Brittany Howard, the band’s debut immediately invites comparisons to Janis Joplin and Dusty Springfield, not to mention fellow lo-fi hipsters Jack White and The Black Keys. In my review, I noted, “Alabama Shakes rambles unapologetically down a rambunctious, ramshackle musical road, one that’s devoid of pretense and stripped down to an almost primal essence as Howard blasts out odes to love, loss, hope, faith and perseverance.” A lone f-word paired with an angry threat mars the song “Be Mine.” The rest of the time, though, Brittany Howard and Co. inhabit fierce, faith-infused territory that’s about as far from another famous Britney as you can get. (Note that this disc actually came out in 2012, but didn’t really hit stride or its peak chart position until 2013.)
Daughtry, Baptized: 
Since placing fourth on the fifth season of American Idol, Chris Daughtry and his eponymously named band have consistently pumped out some of the more positive material you’re likely to find in the mainstream rock world these days. Daughtry continues that trend on its fourth album, Baptized. A few mildly problematic bumps along the lyrical road do need to be navigated. But for the most part, Daughtry strives to tell the truth about how hard life can be sometimes while simultaneously pairing that honesty with encouragement to keep on keepin’ on—even when we’re tempted to throw in the towel. A decidedly ’80s production feel this time around will bring to mind arena stalwarts of that era such as Journey, Bon Jovi and Def Leppard.
Killswitch Engage, Disarm the Descent: 
If you’ve never journeyed into the sonically brutal, growl-infested environs of modern metalcore, you might assume a band with the ominous-sounding moniker Killswitch Engage wouldn’t have much good to say to its fans. In fact, however, the group is fronted by former and once again current lead singer Jesse Leach who says of his Christian faith, “It’s ever-present—just ’cause it’s who I am.” Though Leach never actually refers directly to Jesus on the band’s latest effort, I noted in my review, “Everything on this album, lyrically speaking, bears witness to his Christian faith. Themes of redemption, salvation, deliverance, forgiveness, truth, light, hope and grace claw their way out of the cacophony in just about every single song.”
RED, Release the Panic: 
This band bridges the gap between faith and hard rock. RED has become one of the stalwart acts in the Christian rock scene since arriving in 2006, often contrasting the brokenness of this world with the hope that God alone offers us. We hear the juxtaposition of those two ideas on “The Moment We Come Alive,” for example: “We’re living in a desperate time/Our only hope/Is believing there’s another side/To all we’ve known/A truth hidden before our eyes/A vision of a life beyond our view.” Release the Panic embraces an ever-so-slightly poppier sensibility at times, with songs that occasionally bring to mind acts such as The Fray or Lifehouse. That said, there are still plenty of drum loops, spacey sounds and heavy guitars pummeling away too, offering fans of bands like Nine Inch Nails, Linkin Park and even Slipknot a more redemptive alternative.
Skillet, Rise: 
A veteran group in the heavyweight Christian rock division, Skillet serves up another helping of bombastic hope and spiritual encouragement on its ninth effort. “Madness in Me,” for instance, finds a young girl paraphrasing much of Isaiah 53, which prophetically envisions the sacrifice Christ would make on behalf of a lost humanity: “He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us like sheep have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord has laid on Him the sins of us all.” (It doesn’t get much more straightforward and positive than that!) Elsewhere on the album, songs with titles such as “Salvation,” “What I Believe,” “Good to Be Alive” and “Not Gonna Die” repeatedly remind listeners to keep looking up.
TRACKS
Capital Cities, “Safe and Sound”: 
Every now and then a new track comes along that prompts this delightfully simple thought: What a nice song! “Safe and Sound” is the first of several such songs, and it comes courtesy of the Los Angeles-based synth-pop duo Ryan Merchant and Sebu Simonian, aka Capital Cities. Set to a beat that somehow melds sounds from the ’70s, the ’80s and the EDM-driven music of today, the pair repeatedly tells us, “I could lift you up/I could show you what you wanna see/And take you where you wanna be/You could be my luck/Even if the sky is falling down/I know that we’ll be safe and sound/We’re safe and sound.” As things progress, the two singers imagine increasingly dramatic threats to a romantic relationship, yet each time they reaffirm their steadfast commitment. “I could show you love/In a tidal wave of mystery,” they say. “You’ll still be standing next to me.”
Emeli Sandé, “Next to Me”: 
Speaking of “standing next to me,” that’s exactly where Scottish singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé says we’ll find her faithful beau. As I noted in my review, “Pop songs by female singers chastising lyin’, cheatin’, heart-breakin’ cads are myriad. It’s arguably less often that we hear the polar opposite: a song earnestly and unabashedly singing the praises of a man’s faithfulness, fidelity and commitment to his lady, no matter what.” In a manner that’s surprisingly parallel to Capital Cities’ “Safe and Sound,” Sandé also imagines an apocalyptic array of foes seeking to tear a couple apart. But that just ain’t happenin’: “When the end has come and buildings falling down fast/When we’ve spoilt the land and dried up all the sea/When everyone has lost their heads around us/You will find him, you’ll find him next to me.”
Lorde, “Royals”: 
She’s just turned 17. And she’s arguably the biggest breakout success story anywhere in the entertainment world this year. I’m talking, of course, about Ella Yelich-O’Connor—better known by her stage name, Lorde. The New Zealand teen’s smash hit “Royals” just finished a nine-week run at No. 1 in the United States. And it made me happy to see that her first big hit also has an air of countercultural positivity to it. The song, in a nutshell, contrasts the bling-encrusted way of life often celebrated in rap music with the more Spartan existence that Lorde and her friends have grown up with: “But every song’s like gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin’ in the bathroom/Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin’ the hotel room/We don’t care, we’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams.” Then, she adds a few more luxury items to the list, insisting at the end that she and her posse are just fine without them. In her words, “We don’t care/We aren’t caught up in your love affair.” With that, Lorde wryly and refreshingly repudiates materialism, offering a healthier, down-to-earth vision of contentment in its place.
P!nk, “Just Give Me a Reason”: 
Now here’s an artist I never thought would end up on this list as 2013 got rolling all those months ago. After all, I’ve spent lots of time over the last decade deconstructing this flamboyant woman’s lyrical miscues. So note that one positive-leaning track does not a career of positivity make! But this year, the singer (whose given name is Alecia Beth Moore) topped the charts with a poignant, vulnerable song about sticking it out in a tough relationship—a message of perseverance likely informed by her own difficult marriage to motocross racer Carey Hart. In 2008, the couple separated. Then in 2010, they reconciled. So in the song, P!nk begs her man (musically portrayed by .fun’s frontman Nate Ruess) to give her anything that will help her give him one more shot: “Just give me a reason/Just a little bit’s enough/Just a second, we’re not broken, just bent/And we can learn to love again.” (Oh, and stick to the song and give the video a pass if you decide to check the track out. I talk about why in my full review.)
Swedish House Mafia, “Don’t You Worry Child”: 
One of the sweetest songs of the year was also both the biggest hit and the last track from the band that performed it. Swedish House Mafia, an influential trio of Swedish electronic dance music practitioners, has now called it quits. But not before piercing the pop chart’s Top 10 with an exuberant, pulsating tune in which a father encourages his struggling son not to let fear and disappointment paralyze him. The surprising foundation for that encouragement? The father’s conviction that God has everything under control. In a young boy’s first brush with heartbreak, his wise father lovingly says to him, “Don’t you worry, don’t you worry, child/See, heaven’s got a plan for you.” And that uplifting counsel in the song’s chorus is repeated over and over amid the infectious beats—a message EDM fans would do well to take to heart. (Like Alabama Shakes’ album, this song actually came out in 2012, then built its U.S. audience in 2013.)
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