Baby, it's cold outside and all those activities in this winter wonderland feel a little warmer with a soundtrack of tunes from 2013's crop of holiday albums. Pop (Kelly Clarkson), R&B (Mary J. Blige), rock (Nick Lowe), traditional (Susan Boyle), and even plenty of eclectic choices abound this year -- Bad Religion's punk-tastic "Christmas Songs" or Duck Dynasty's "Duck The Halls" anyone? Tis the season to check out these 10 key 2013 holiday albums.
 
Kelly Clarkson - "Wrapped in Red"
If you're looking for holiday release with big pop star appeal, Kelly's "Wrapped in Red" is a great bet. Its jubilant single "Underneath the Tree" has already topped the Adult Contemporary chart, and sounds like it could have a home in Christmas radio playlists for years to come.





 
Mary J. Blige - "A Mary Christmas"
For fans of R&B divas, Mary J.'s holiday album is your go-to pick. She puts a soulful touch on standards like "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," but there's also a fusion of other genres. Plus, Barbra Streisand, Jessie J, and Marc Anthony are featured as guests.





Erasure - "Snow Globe"
For fans who might be looking for a more non-traditional take on holiday standards, there's "Snow Globe," from the long-running synth duo. The songs sound darker, sparser, dancier, or just otherwise different from their original counterparts. "Everything about Christmas has been written already," synth player Vince Clarke told Billboard in October. "We thought it would be more interesting to look into the darker side of the season."



 
Bad Religion - "Christmas Songs"
What started out sounding like a joke has become a reality -- Bad Religion has issued a Christmas album. The veteran punk band has railed against organized religion for years, but here they've ironically crammed eight Christmas classics into two-minute, frantic punk songs, leaving it up to the listener to make sense of it all.





Duck Dynasty - "Duck The Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas"
If you're a country music fan or just shopping for one, check out "Duck the Halls," which features 14 covers and originals sung by the cast of the A&E show, along with guest appearances from Luke Bryan, Alison Krauss, George Strait and more.




 
Leona Lewis - "Christmas, With Love"
Billed as having a "Motown vibe," "With Love" marks the first Christmas album from the "Bleeding Love" songstress. Included in the collection are Lewis's take on a number of classics like "White Christmas" and "Winter Wonderland" along with the originals "One More Sleep," "Mr. Right, and "Your Hallelujah."



 
Susan Boyle - "Home For Christmas"
The "Britain's Got Talent" phenom turned multi-platinum singer has followed up her 2010 seasonal release "The Gift," with a new album of holiday tunes sung in her traditional mezzo-soprano, "Home For Christmas." The new set features her rendition of "O Come All Ye Faithful," a "duet" with Elvis Presley, and the Scottish songbird is also offering the ability for listeners to personalize their copy of the album with text and a photo.


 
Nick Lowe - "Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family"
For something in an iconoclastic rock vein, try Lowe's 12 "sleighbell-free" tunes. "Quality Street" is mixture of familiar standards ("Silent Night") and new songs written for the album, among them Lowe's collaboration with Ry Cooder "A Dollar Short of Happy" and the Ron Sexsmith song "Hooves on the Roof."



 

Straight No Chaser - "Under The Influence: Holiday Edition"
The a cappella group teamed up with a variety of notable singers (Colbie Caillat,  CeeLo Green) to cover festive chestnuts like "White Christmas" and "Everyday is Christmas" on their new eight-song release.






Tamar Braxton - "Winter Loversland"
Braxton has just the thing for a merry R&B Christmas music experience. Tamar's first Christmas album features her putting her soulful stamp on holiday favorites like "Santa Baby," as well as new songs "No Gift" and "She Have You."

The album's latest single, “The Monster,” featuring Rihanna, rules for a second week at No. 1 on R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, keeping Drake’s “Hold On, We’re Going Home,” featuring Majid Jordan, at No. 2. Eminem's “Rap God” flies 8-2 back to its peak position, pushing Jay Z’s “Holy Grail,” featuring Justin Timberlake (3-4), and Mike WiLL Made It’s “23,” featuring Miley Cyrus, Wiz Khalifa and Juicy J (4-5), down one spot each.
Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” featuring T.I. and Pharrell (5-6), also drops one position, as does Eminem’s “Berzerk” (6-7). YG’s “My Hitta,” featuring Jeezy and Rich Homie Quan, steps up 9-8 thanks to a 26% increase to 9.3 million listener impressions, according to Nielsen BDS. Chris Brown’s “Love More,” featuring Nick Minaj, moves 10-9 in its 16th week and fittingly, Em’s “Survival” rounds out the top 10 with a 7-10 tumble.
An additional six songs from "The Marshall Mathers LP 2" set debut on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs: "Beautiful Pain," featuring Sia (No. 30), "Love Game" (No. 31), "Headlights," featuring Nate Ruess (No. 35), "Bad Guy" (No. 38), "Rhyme or Reason" (No. 41) and "Legacy" (No. 44).
Since the chart adopted its current sales/airplay/streaming methodology 13 months ago, Eminem is the fourth artist (and they're all rappers) to have 10 or more songs chart concurrently. Drake accomplished the feat four times (most recently on the Nov. 2 chart), Jay Z did so in July, 2 Chainz in January, and Kendrick Lamar in November 2012.
Over on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, as previously noted, "The Marshall Mathers LP 2" rules the top of the list, as it zooms from No. 67 to No. 1. (It debuted last week due to early sales, as some retailers broke street date and started selling the album early.)
This is his seventh chart-topper on the list out of eight appearances. His only album to miss the top was “Curtain Call: The Hits,” which debuted and peaked at No. 2 on Dec. 24, 2005.
Eminem’s move pushes Drake’s “Nothing was the Same” (37,000, down 3%) out of the top spot to No. 2 and Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience (2 of 2)” down 2-3 with 20,000 (a 1% drop). New to the region is Tech N9ne’s “Therapy: Sessions with Ross Robinson” debuting at No. 4 with 10,000 to mark his 11th top 10 title on the chart. His “Something Else” debuted at No. 3 with 58,000 this past August.
Tamar Braxton’s “Love and War” closes out the top five Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums with a 37% percent rise to 8,000 units. Since its release on Sept. 3, the set has sold a total of 233,000 copies.

Lorde's "Royals" rules the Billboard Hot 100 for a seventh week, while new Billboard 200 leader Eminem rises 3-2 with "The Monster," featuring Rihanna. Meanwhile, Lady Gaga scores a second top 10 from her just-released album "ARTPOP," as the set's "Dope" debuts at No. 8.

Let's run down the numbers, as we do each Wednesday.

"Royals" tops the Radio Songs chart for a fourth week with 168 million audience impressions, down 2%, according to Nielsen BDS. The track leads the subscription services-based On-Demand Songs chart for a sixth week with 2.5 million on-demand U.S. streams, according to BDS (up 3%), while dropping from its No. 2 peak to No. 3 on the overall Streaming Songs chart (7.2 million U.S. streams, up less than 1%). "Royals" rebounds 3-2 on Digital Songs (186,000 downloads sold, down 5%, according to Nielsen SoundScan), which it led for five weeks.

"Royals" crowns Hot Rock Songs for an 11th week.

Eminem's "The Monster" lifts 3-2 in its second week on the Hot 100 with the chart's top Airplay Gainer award. The track blasts 31-12 on Radio Songs with a 53% increase to 56 million. It's Eminem's highest rank on the chart since his prior Rihanna collaboration "Love the Way You Lie" spent eight weeks at No. 1 in 2010. As parent album "The Marshall Mathers LP 2" debuts atop the Billboard 200, "Monster" drops 1-4 on Digital Songs (150,000, down 60%); its sales slide is owed to iTunes' customers who opted to "complete" the "Marshall" album by upgrading their earlier purchases of "Monster" to a full album. Effectively, consumers who completed the album were returning a song, thus augmenting the song's sales drop this week. (For the purposes of Hot 100 rankings, aggregate sales and returns contribute to the song's overall point total.)
"Monster" soars 18-7 on Streaming Songs (4.9 million, up 115%) and 41-3 on On-Demand Songs (1.9 million, up 235%). The track spends a second week in charge of both Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Rap Songs.

Could "Monster" be close to scaring "Royals" out of the Hot 100's top spot soon? An 18% difference in overall Hot 100 chart points separate the songs, with the latter down by 3% and the former up 3%.

Miley Cyrus' former two-week Hot 100 No. 1 "Wrecking Ball" drops 2-3. It falls 1-2 on Streaming Songs, which it led for six weeks (7.9 million, down 9%) and holds at No. 5 on Radio Songs (111 million, down 3%). On Digital Songs, it rebounds 10-7 (121,000, down 1%).

Perry's fellow former two-week leader "Roar" stays at No. 4 on the Hot 100, while remaining in the top five of the three main Hot 100 component charts, holding at No. 3 on Radio Songs (129 million, down 8%) and dipping 3-5 on Streaming Songs (5.4 million, down 3%) and 4-5 on Digital Songs (136,000, down 3%). Meanwhile, "Unconditionally," the second single from Perry's album "PRISM" (down 2-4 in its third week on the Billboard 200), jumps 25-21 on the Hot 100 and 18-14 on Radio Songs (52 million, up 10%).

Avicii rounds out the Hot 100's top five, as "Wake Me Up!" keeps at No. 5. It stays at its No. 2 highpoint on Radio Songs (150 million, down less than 1%) and rules Dance/Electronic Songs for a 10th week. Since the latter tally's launch earlier this year, only one other title has racked a reign of double-digit weeks: Daft Punk's "Get Lucky," featuring Pharrell Williams (13 weeks).

Drake's No. 4-peaking "Hold On, We're Going Home," featuring Majid Jordan, reverses course, rising 7-6 on the Hot 100. (As noted in this weekend's "Ask Billboard" reader mailbag, by peaking at No. 4 with the song, Drake is just the fifth artist ever to boast a string of hits that have peaked at each position in the top 10, joining Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Madonna and Ludacris.)

"Hold" tops R&B Songs for a seventh week.

OneRepublic's "Counting Stars" reaches a new Hot 100 peak (9-7). It charges 9-3 on Digital Songs 152,000, up 16%) and 17-11 on Radio Songs (62 million, up 33%).

Lady Gaga's "Dope" storms onto the Hot 100 at No. 8, fueled most heavily by its No. 1 arrival on Streaming Songs (marking her first leader on the list) with 8.2 million first-week streams; 95% of that sum stems from YouTube (non-VEVO) views of the live video of Gaga performing "Dope" at the YouTube Music Awards on Nov. 3. The ballad also begins on Digital Songs at No. 60 with 31,000 downloads sold.

"Dope" marks Mother Monster's lucky 13th Hot 100 top 10. She first reached the bracket with "Just Dance" five years ago next month. Dating to her first week in the top 10 (Dec. 6, 2008), only Rihanna (16) claims more top 10s, while Gaga ties Drake for the second-most. Taylor Swift is next with 12, followed by Lil Wayne, Bruno Mars and Katy Perry (11 apiece).
Gaga remains in the Hot 100's top 10 with the No. 4-peaking "Applause" (10-10). Both songs appear on "ARTPOP," released on Monday and due on next week's Billboard 200. ("Applause" has spent each of its 13 weeks on the Hot 100 in the top 10.) Meanwhile, the set's next radio single, "Do What U Want," featuring R. Kelly, rebounds 58-48 on the Hot 100 after debuting at No. 13 two weeks ago. It pushes 64-51 in its second week on Radio Songs (23 million, up 22%).

In between Gaga's current top 10s, Imagine Dragons' "Demons" slides to No. 9 from its No. 8 Hot 100 peak, but with gains in all of the chart's metrics. It reaches the Digital Songs top 10 (14-10; 110,000, up 12%) in its 27th week on the chart, completing the fourth-longest trip to the tier. (Florida Georgia Line set the longevity mark earlier this year when "Cruise" arrived in the top 10 in its 35th frame. In 2007, Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" required 32 weeks to reach the top 10 and KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See" needed 29.) "Demons" climbs 8-6 on Radio Songs (95 million, up 17%) and drops 19-21 on Streaming Songs but with a 16% lift to 2.6 million.

Just outside the Hot 100's top 10, duo A Great Big World bows at No. 16 with "Say Something," featuring Christina Aguilera. The impact of NBC's "The Voice," on which Aguilera serves as a coach, is evident, as the ballad starts at No. 1 on Digital Songs with 189,000 sold (up 1,761%). The song benefits from the pair's performance of it last week on the show, along with a newly-released version with Aguilera; the remix featuring her accounts for 86% of the song's overall download sales in the chart's tracking week.
Excluding the one-off superstar assemblage Artists for Haiti ("We Are the World 25: For Haiti," 2010), no act had debuted atop Digital Songs with a first chart entry since 2008 "American Idol" champ David Cook" opened at No. 1 with his coronation song "The Time of My Life" (June 7, 2008). A Great Big World is the first duo or group to begin at No. 1 on Digital Songs on its first try, excluding Artists for Haiti and Linkin Park, whose "Numb"/Encore," co-credited to Jay Z, marked the band's first appearance on the chart when it started at the summit the week of Nov. 27, 2004; however, Linkin Park's career predated the chart's inception.

Other Hot 100 debuts this week include Justin Bieber's "Bad Day" (No. 53), the fifth offering in his "Music Mondays" series; "The Voice" contestant James Wolpert's cover of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You" (No. 72); and Britney Spears' "Perfume" (No. 76). It's the second single from her eighth studio album, "Britney Jean" (due Dec. 3), following "Work B**ch!," which peaked at No. 12.

Visit Billboard.com tomorrow (Nov. 14), when all rankings, including the Hot 100 in its entirety and Digital Songs, Radio Songs, Streaming Songs and On-Demand Songs will be refreshed, as they are each Thursday. The latest charts will also appear in the next issue of Billboard magazine (on sale on Friday, Nov. 15).

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