Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the last song to become a holiday standard, arrived in 1994 — and didn’t top the charts until 25 years later. That hasn’t stopped artists from all corners of popular music from giving it a go. This year brings entries from country stars, comedians and a supermodel.
Herb Alpert, ‘Christmas Time Is Here’
Herb Alpert, 90, sticks by his holiday favorites. On “Christmas Time Is Here” he revisits seven songs from his 2017 album, “The Christmas Wish,” and four that he recorded with the Tijuana Brass in 1968. They’re all completely rearranged, emphasizing relaxation and straightforward melody over the orchestral portentousness he favored eight years ago, dipping into bossa nova, New Orleans R&B, finger-snapping swing and nods to 1960s Tijuana Brass. He and his wife, Lani Hall, offer modest vocals on “Sleigh Ride.” JON PARELES
Tyra Banks, ‘Santa Smize, Santa Smize’
In the future, all music will be like this: a hip-hop song that’s also a comedy song that’s also a set of dance-floor exhortations that’s also a motivational speech that’s also a celebrity expansion to a new medium that’s also an avatar-ization of the human to the post-human that’s also a brand tie-in to a product that primarily exists in the world of memes and jokes that’s also what happens when you feed Nicki Minaj’s catalog into an artificial intelligence large language model and then pour hydrochloric acid on the computer that’s also a craven attempt to pander to untold demographic groups that’s also an intellectual property marketing scheme that’s also a go-go song. JON CARAMANICA
Luke Bryan, ‘Luke Bryan Christmas’
The three-song Christmas EP from the country and “American Idol” star Luke Bryan has all the hallmarks of obligatory holiday gifts — something deeply comforting and familiar (a by-the-numbers “O Holy Night” sung with a robot warble); a repackaging of something old (“Run Run Rudolph,” his renamed version of Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run,” which was originally released in 2008); and something with just the tiniest suggestion of original thought (the handful of minor melodic choices in “Winter Wonderland,” a duet with Ella Langley). CARAMANICA
Melissa Carper, ‘A Very Carper Christmas’
The Texas songwriter Melissa Carper sometimes calls herself HillBillie Holiday — a tipoff to the sly, retro tone of “A Very Carper Christmas.” The production centers on Western swing but also ambles into Memphis soul and a Cajun waltz. Carper lends the wiry sincerity of her voice to songs (like “Dumpster Divin’ on Christmas Eve”) that often revolve around enjoying the holiday on a very low budget. PARELES
Mickey Guyton, ‘Feels Like Christmas’
Sleigh bells tinkle and chimes chime on Mickey Guyton’s eight-song “Feels Like Christmas,” which aspires to the exuberant seasonal bliss of Phil Spector and Mariah Carey. Karen Kosowski, who has been one of Guyton’s go-to songwriters, produced and collaborated on most of the songs. Over expansive wall-of-snow arrangements, Guyton belts her way through pleasure-seeking titles like “Sugar Cookie” and “Mistletoe Kisses,” and Michael Bolton joins her to promise “I’m coming home to you” in “Christmas Isn’t Christmas.” PARELES
Kyle M, ‘Winter’s Wish’
The high point of this charming and fragile holiday EP — by the “Saturday Night Live” star Kyle Mooney, in a musically serious but not emotionally stuffy side quest — is “Mrs. Claus Is Getting Down.” A no-fi take on early ’80s electro-rap as if delivered by Steven Wright, it’s a story about what happens when Santa leaves for work. Does Mrs. Claus find freedom? She does. Do the elves cheer her on? They do. Does she come to taste freedom? Somewhat. Does Santa get mad when he returns home early to find everyone partying? Not really. The most generous Christmas gift is understanding. CARAMANICA
Kylie Minogue, ‘Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped)’
This “Fully Wrapped” edition of the Aussie pop star Kylie Minogue’s 2015 album “Kylie Christmas” is its second rerelease (in 2016, the “Snow Queen Edition” added six tracks). This time around, some familiar and rather traditionally executed covers (a breathy “Santa Baby,” a whimsical “Let It Snow”) are joined by three new originals of varying quality. The rather maudlin ballad “This Time of Year” tamps down Minogue’s signature sass, but the electro-poppy “Hot in December” makes better use of her effervescent persona. Best of all is the jazzy “Office Party,” which gives Minogue an opportunity for some comic vamping. “You know, I’ve never been to one, but I hear they’re lots of fun,” she admits — because a true diva is one who has never seen the inside of a cubicle. Sleigh, queen. LINDSAY ZOLADZ
Old Crow Medicine Show, ‘OCMS Xmas’
The inaugural holiday release from the long-running string band Old Crow Medicine Show is a rollicking 13-track LP heavy on imaginative original material. “OCMS Xmas” features plenty of festive, spirited tunes driven by the band’s signature lightning-quick fiddles and banjos (“Corn Whiskey Christmas,” “Krampus Night”), but also a few ballads that pluck the heartstrings. The bittersweet “Store-Bought Christmas” is a portrait of a family whose patriarch is struggling to provide, while the guitar-driven tear-jerker “Grandpa’s Gone” reflects upon Yuletide grief. The band captures a more lighthearted kind of mourning on the foot-stomper “December 26” (the first OCMS tune ever written by the band’s longtime bassist, Morgan Jahnig), a rare song about the post-holiday emotional hangover: “Don’t wanna listen to the fading sounds of reindeer, ’cause it’s the day after Christmas, and we ain’t out of cheer.” ZOLADZ
Brad Paisley, ‘Snow Globe Town’
Christmas is a season for homey nostalgia, cozy gatherings, upbeat honky-tonk and deft guitar solos on “Snow Globe World.” It mingles Brad Paisley’s own songs with countrified versions of seasonal staples. His new ones offer hometown comforts (“Snow Globe Town”), comedy (“Lit,” about a nightmare family Christmas) and fond wintertime romance (“Falling Like the Snow”), while his earnest versions of holiday standards also happen to be lead-guitar showcases. PARELES
Gwen Stefani, ‘Hot Cocoa’
Gwen Stefani piles simile atop festive simile on a rather relentless new track tacked onto an Amazon-exclusive deluxe edition of her 2017 album, “You Make It Feel Like Christmas.” “You and me, we’re just like hot cocoa — hot cocoa and marshmallows,” she sings. Over the following three-and-a-half minutes, she says they are also like “Paper wrapped in ribbons,” “stockings in a row,” “children staying up late to hear a ho ho ho,” “milk and sugar cookies,” “prayers and candles,” and, most surprisingly, “Grace Kelly and Cary Grant.” I was aware that some people think “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie, but “To Catch a Thief”? ZOLADZ
Sofia Talvik, ‘Wrapped in Paper’
For two decades, the folky Swedish songwriter Sofia Talvik has been writing and recording an annual Christmas song. “Wrapped in Paper” collects her efforts since 2018, as she sings about snow, solitude, love and the passage of time. She’s cautiously hopeful in “Alone at Christmas,” pensive in “Poem at Year’s End.” But she’s increasingly pessimistic in more recent songs like “This Mess We’re In” and the new “Let Peace Be the Song,” even as the melodies chime. She’s ending her tradition with “Merry Christmas, Adios, So Long,” a waltzing warning about tunes generated by A.I. PARELES
Jon Caramanica is a pop music critic who hosts “Popcast,” The Times’s music podcast.
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