Blanco

David Bazan

Bazan has swathed his latest batch of songs in electronic mists that gather and disperse like early morning fog. They function in part as analogues for the “mystery,” the “oblivion,” and the hovering, whispering “specters” that appear in the mood-setting opening numbers. They also distract from Bazan’s frequently dragging tempos and his perpetually depressed vocals. Aestheticians will debate whether the songs, stripped of such garnish, would still have a leg to stand on. The Joy Division fans among them will insist that the question is moot.

Air For Free

Relient K

Move over, Neil Young, Ian Hunter, and Chrissie Hynde—Matt Thiessen has just eclipsed you in the quintessential-songs-about-Ohio sweepstakes. The song mysteriously titled “Mrs. Hippopotamuses’” is impossible not to sing along to and will mean the world to anyone who knows what and where Sandusky is. Elsewhere, the never-ending task of redressing the damage caused by one’s shortcomings gets likened to local construction (an Ohio Turnpike reference?). And 1 Corinthians 13:11 and God get impossible-not-to-sing-along-to songs of their own.

Beneath The Clay

Muriah Rose

What sets Bill Mallonee’s wife apart from her many Americana-purveying peers isn’t her lyrics (which demonstrate as much brain as they do heart and flaunt neither) or her melodies (which tend to work minor-key variations on simple country-rock chord changes). It’s not even her salt-of-the-earth alto voice. It’s her self-overdubbed, two-part vocal harmonies. Without them, her songs might seem like high-quality demos rather than like the exemplars of craftsmanship that repeated listening reveals most of them to be.

Brave Enough (Deluxe Edition)

Lindsey Stirling

The nondeluxe edition of this Mormon violinist’s latest album concludes with the eloquently sad instrumental “Gavi’s Song” and thus ends more artistically than the deluxe edition, which just ends. But the bonus tracks are worth hearing if only because Stirling herself is worth hearing. The electro-beats and other pop sound effects that threaten to overwhelm her end up functioning instead as a collective duet partner and foil. And although she could do with fewer guest vocalists, Christina Perri is a definite keeper, Lecrae a definite curiosity.

Encore

Hard rock makes an ideal vehicle for protesting oppression in part because its volume and aggression are sublimated forms of resistance and rebellion. And now that society’s most oppressive norms are directed against Christians, it makes sense that aggression and volume-driven Christian rockers should be making the most natural-sounding music of their careers—rockers, for instance, such as Skillet and Thousand Foot Krutch.

Skillet’s Unleashed (Atlantic) is a steel-wool blizzard shot through with jackhammer guitars and pummeling beats, its fiercest songs “The Resistance” and “Back from the Dead.” In the latter, John Cooper urges listeners to “feel the rush of adrenaline,” and only the hopelessly numb won’t comply. Thousand Foot Krutch’s Exhale (The Fuel Music) is lighter and more groove-oriented, but it has an adrenaline song too: It’s called “Adrenaline.” “There’s nothing that can stop it,” rails Trevor McNevan, “until we’re in the coffin.” And, considering McNevan’s faith, maybe not even then. —A.O.