Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.
Kelly Clarkson, ‘You for Christmas’
Kelly Clarkson is no stranger to the modern Christmas classic (see: the jubilant “Underneath the Tree” and her festive Ariana Grande duet “Santa, Can’t You Hear Me”). This year, she added two new tracks to her 2021 holiday album, “When Christmas Comes Around”: a laid-back take on “Sleigh Ride,” and this soulful original, on which an impassioned Clarkson pleads, “It’s cold out, I need your arms now / Wrap me all night long.” Come for the Yuletide cheer; stay for the climactic key change. LINDSAY ZOLADZ
Charlie Puth, ‘December 25th’
Chugging along with soothing keyboard chords at a cozy mid-tempo, “December 25th” harks back to Wham!’s “Last Christmas,” and it’s even more forlorn. Charlie Puth sings about how snow, holiday music and Christmas lights only remind him that “Santa didn’t bring me nothing but pain,” because Dec. 25 was “the night that you told me you had to go.” Unlike Wham!, he’s not even thinking about moving on; in neatly ascending melody phrases, he insists he’d rather be alone, moping and pining. JON PARELES
Bartees Strange, ‘Xmas’
In “Xmas,” Bartees Strange sings about “Christmas at the end of the world,” when “you don’t even want me at all.” It’s indie-rock with a boom-bap beat, computer-tuned backup voices and syncopated guitar riffs. Strange tries to get over his separation by compulsive traveling and keeping his own mind “on airplane mode” — above it all, but alone. PARELES
Jessie Reyez, ‘Merry Nothin’
A breakup shortly before Christmas has Jessie Reyez miserable and fuming, with her disillusion spiraling out: “Santa Claus ain’t real, he’s fake just like most people,” she pouts. A slow bounce behind her, with mocking doo-wop harmonies, only exacerbates her seasonal spite. PARELES
GloRilla and Kehlani, ‘Xmas Time’
“This as merry as I’m gettin’,” GloRilla promises in her signature drawl on “Xmas Time,” a tough-talking but surprisingly poignant holiday duet with Kehlani. “It’s all I need, moments like this with my family,” Kehlani croons sweetly — just before the beat drops and GloRilla switches up her flow from nice to naughty. “Come sit on my lap,” she raps. “I ain’t Santa, but I stay giving it.” ZOLADZ
Coco Jones, ‘Santa Is Me’
Finally, a sprinkle of realism for a holiday that often leads to disappointment and dashed expectations. In Coco Jones’s world of self-empowerment, waiting for someone else to track down the items you desire is a fool’s move. Instead, on this brassy soul number, she takes care of her own needs: “Nothing else on my wish list, got all I want this Christmas / I get it for myself ’cause baby, Santa is me.” JON CARAMANICA
Kassi Ashton, ‘Your Angel’
Kassi Ashton treats a closing-time barroom hookup for the holidays as something with divine potential in “Your Angel.” It’s a torchy waltz with electric-guitar crescendos, sung on the bluesy, smoldering side of country. “I’ll light up your midnight on Christmas Eve,” she offers, and when she gets to her partner’s (undecorated) place, she instructs, “Turn an old sad black-and-white movie on / And love me until we decide Santa’s come.” PARELES
Trace Adkins, ‘Naughty List’
Trace Adkins made hay in the 2000s as a country-music beefcake — his ode to the “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” remains an all-timer for bawdiness in the genre. Naturally, his holiday wishes are frisky. This slow waltz-ish flirtation suggests there’s better things than what’s under the tree: “I got a tractor painted Christmas red / You oughta see me in my old sleigh bed.” CARAMANICA
Dawes, ‘Christmas Tree in the Window’
The latest character study by Dawes has Taylor Goldsmith imagining himself as a burglar who backs off a planned break-in when he sees a Christmas tree and thinks about “the love within a family.” Instead, he calls his parents for the first time in years. Parlor piano chords and a faraway church bell make it heartwarming without mawkishness. PARELES
Daffo, ‘Winter Hat’
The indie-rock band Daffo telegraphs its jaundiced but still yearning attitude toward Christmas from the first lines of “Winter Hat”: “Kill a tree and force it through the door / Feed it faucet water from the floor.” With Gabi Gamberg’s scratchy voice over sputtering drums and lo-fi distorted guitars, the song seesaws between remembering the wonderment of “the kid in you” and an adult realization that “there’s nothing I can do” — the holiday season’s tensions laid bare. PARELES
Madi Diaz, ‘Kid on Christmas’
“Something ’bout the way this year went / I wish I could just feel like a kid on Christmas,” Madi Diaz sings, mourning the naïveté and anticipation of childhood. The production is minimal: just voice and guitar, each double tracked for a little harmony in the song’s second half. She clings to hope, gamely but uncertainly. PARELES
Orville Peck, ‘Happy Trails’
Orville Peck sometimes deploys his baritone vibrato and retro, reverby country arrangements for irony and anachronism, but not in “Happy Trails.” Only the sound of sleigh bells marks this slow-dance ballad as holiday fare, as Peck sings about being separated from “my guy.” Whether or not they’ll ever reunite is ambiguous; all he can wish for is “happy trails ahead” for both. PARELES
Saweetie, ‘I Want You This Christmas’
A genuinely bizarre holiday track from Saweetie, who’s almost speed-rapping her way through a dedication to a lover. But there’s barely enough space in the verses for breathing, or flirting, and the song is stitched together with a saccharinely crooned chorus that sounds uncomfortably like an elegy. CARAMANICA
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