A holiday album offers musicians a chance to adopt — or reinvent — a classic format and show fans a different side of themselves. Here’s a sampling of this year’s releases, from singers exploring the standards and artists rethinking the meaning of the holidays.
Clay Aiken, ‘Christmas Bells Are Ringing’
This is Clay Aiken’s second holiday album; the first arrived two decades ago, the year after he gawkily crooned his way to second place on the second season of “American Idol.” In the intervening time, he’s been on Broadway, he’s run (unsuccessfully) for political office and he’s been on “The Masked Singer.” But he never lost his voice — all these years later, Aiken still sings with a lovely flutter, and with real punch, too. His first holiday collection, “Merry Christmas With Love,” was overflowing with earned pomp — a singer who excelled at targeted bombast given free melodramatic reign. His new one, a covers collection, is a touch more polished, though he does convey true mischief on “Magic Moments” and, on “Do You Hear What I Hear,” accesses the kind of pyrotechnic fifth gear that’s the stuff of “Idol” finales, musical theater blockbusters and Christmas morning celebrations. JON CARAMANICA
Carpenters, ‘Christmas Once More’
The Carpenters’ 1978 holiday release “Christmas Portrait” is not only one of the most enduringly enjoyable Yuletide pop albums of its era, it’s also one of the most ambitious works that Richard Carpenter ever arranged: a grandly orchestrated, elegantly realized suite that weaves together an extended medley of Christmas favorites as though they were a single song. That fluidity is preserved on the new collection, “Christmas Once More,” even though it’s a compilation that features remixed and remastered material culled from both “Christmas Portrait” and its slightly inferior though still lovely 1984 sequel, “An Old-Fashioned Christmas.” These 16 tracks represent most of the highlights from each release, including a festive take on “(There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays” and a rerecording of the Carpenters’ own 1970 holiday hit “Merry Christmas, Darling,” featuring accompaniment from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Streamlining the best material from the two previous LPs eliminates some of the compositional pomp that occasionally distracted from the warm, down-to-earth intimacy of Karen Carpenter’s voice, and the finely executed new mix gives it an added gleam. LINDSAY ZOLADZ
Jacob Collier, ‘Three Christmas Songs (An Abbey Road Live-to-Vinyl Cut)’
Earlier this year the multitalented polymath Jacob Collier recorded a continuous, 14-minute set of three Christmas classics live at London’s Abbey Road Studios. He uses his piano, guitar and voice all in a similarly searching manner, leaping along scales and octaves with a daredevil’s flair. That approach works best here on piano, particularly during a spellbinding deconstruction of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” enlivened by its twinkling cascade of high notes. Collier’s voice is more of an acquired taste than his piano playing, and despite his impressive range, his showy runs can overly complicate the emotions meant to be translated through these songs. Regardless, though, this recording captures a skillfully executed performance and ends with one of its most enchanting moments, as Collier conducts a choir — its members just happened to be sitting in the audience — in a beautifully understated “Silent Night.” ZOLADZ
Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom, ‘A Peace of Us’
“A Peace of Us” brings indie-rock introspection to seasonal sentiments. Dean Wareham, from Galaxie 500 and Luna, and his longtime duo partner and wife, Britta Phillips, collaborated with Sonic Boom, from Spacemen 3, on mostly lesser-known Christmas songs, from John Barry and Hal David, David Berman, Randy Newman, Merle Haggard, Boudleaux Bryant and Willie Nelson, whose “Pretty Paper” is remade as whispery, pulsing electro-pop. The songs play up the mundane aspects of the holiday, and the tone is hushed and hazily retro, with subdued vocals and reverbed guitars alongside the sleigh bells. Even the Lennon-Ono standard, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” drifts away instead of building up. JON PARELES
Ben Folds, ‘Sleigher’
Christmas would seem to present a prime topic for Ben Folds, whose piano virtuosity, keen eye and skeptical but ultimately kindly spirit can turn domestic moments into show tunes waiting for a show. “Sleigher” has one standout: “Christmas Time Rhyme,” a song about the annual family reunion where “We arrive half alive from the last weird trip around the sun.” It’s a jazzy waltz that juggles childhood memories and grown-up insights. The rest of the album — including songs from the Mills Brothers and Mel Tormé — struggles to match it. PARELES
Chapel Hart, ‘Hartfelt Family Christmas’
This family country harmony trio, which had a memorable run on “America’s Got Talent” in 2022, is both pristine and playful on its first holiday album. There’s a cheeky and suave “Blue Christmas,” and “Mary Did You Know?” is soothing like a lullaby. The album features an impressive array of guests, as well: Gretchen Wilson, sounding more raw than she has in some time, on the title track; a robust Darius Rucker on “That Time of Year”; and Rissi Palmer on a “White Christmas” that turns hard to honky-tonk halfway through. CARAMANICA
Jennifer Hudson, ‘The Gift of Love’
On her first holiday album, “The Gift of Love,” the singer, actress and talk show host Jennifer Hudson vamps her way through a collection of gospel, pop, R&B and funk with the requisite razzle-dazzle of a consummate professional. Hudson’s showstopping voice is at its finest on a stunning performance of “O Holy Night” and a towering rendition of “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” but she also knows when to lighten things up with a few fun originals, like the upbeat “Santa for Someone,” on which she winks with a well-placed comedic pause, “I gotta get this paper … so I can wrap these gifts.” Save for a few spoken-word groaners from Common, who makes a cameo on the romantic ballad “Almost Christmas” (“Let’s remain here, through the sun and the rain, dear”), the album’s only true misstep is its opening number, yet another ponderous cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” that misunderstands the wry, deadpan poetry of the source material and transforms it into an overly reverential holiday carol. At this point, “Hallelujah” covers should come with a gift receipt. ZOLADZ
Victoria Monét, ‘A Jaguar II Christmas: The Orchestral Arrangements’
Take away all the vocals — with their raunchy lyrics — and bring in string arrangements, real or simulated, that fill out the chords. Toss in some public-domain melodic quotes from Christmas carols and old heads like Tchaikovsky. And suddenly, Victoria Monét’s “Jaguar II” becomes cozy, G-rated background music for that decorous, multigenerational holiday gathering. This is very savvy, low-effort content generation. PARELES
Megan Moroney, ‘Blue Christmas … Duh’
Here’s a lovely three-song set from the excellent country miserablist Megan Moroney, who has released beautifully morose albums each of the last two years. Unsurprisingly, she sees the holiday season through the lens of loss. On “Christmas Morning,” she sings about the farce of holding it together for the holidays — the family is visiting, the conversation is clipped, the temperature is dipping. “Take down the tree, unplug the lights / It’s colder in this bed than it is outside,” she sighs at the chorus. The other original here, “All I Want for Christmas Is a Cowboy,” is more playful and upbeat, but no less destitute, with a plea to Santa: “When you’re flying over Austin or Abilene, wrap a bow around a boy in some Wrangler jeans.” CARAMANICA
Thalia, ‘Navidad Melancólica’
The Mexican pop hitmaker Thalia, who has ranged through Latin pop styles, titled her holiday mini-album “Navidad Melancólica,” “Melancholy Christmas.” But she doesn’t stay unhappy long. Thalia sounds like she’ll easily get through the loneliness she sings about in the bachata “Nueva Navidad” and the 1950s-flavored ballad “Velitas” (“Little Candles”). Its other new songs touch on reverence (the power ballad “Nació la Luz,” belted with Marcos Witt) and partying (“Barrio Bravo en Navidad” and the New Year’s Eve song “Tengo Lo Que Quiero”), while she closes the album with new takes on warhorses: “Al Mundo Paz,” a country-rockabilly reworking of “Joy to the World,” and an electro-merengue revamp of “Feliz Navidad.” PARELES
Matt Wilson’s Christmas Tree-O, ‘Tree Jazz — The Shape of Christmas to Come’
Fifteen years ago this fall, the drummer Matt Wilson first convened his Christmas Tree-O, a seasonally themed combo featuring the bassist Paul Sikivie and the multi-reedist Jeff Lederer. On its second album, the band amplifies the mixed signals that made its self-titled 2010 debut an offbeat delight in the small but distinguished niche of Christmas jazz. As with many Wilson projects, there’s a strong element of fun here, telegraphed by the hammy cover art and title punning on a pair of Ornette Coleman classics. But there is also real musical heft, especially when Lederer, on tenor, lets fly with a gutsy solo over Sikivie and Wilson’s deep, roomy swing on “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” or when the band zips through “Up on the Rooftop” in a brisk mode that nods to Coleman’s late-50s quartet. A peppy Puerto Rican Christmas song (“Si Me Dan Pasteles”) featuring the so-called Treedom Singers, a klezmer-esque Sephardic Jewish Hanukkah number (“Eight Little Candles”) and a convincing mash-up of “Under Pressure” and “Do You Hear What I Hear?” round out another eclectic offering from a trio with a refreshingly eccentric take on holiday cheer. HANK SHTEAMER
The post 11 New Entries to a Hallowed Catalog: The Holiday Album appeared first on New York Times.
