Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift launch new Album: From an R&B sex kitten and a country-pop pixie to a pair of TV-bred singing sensations young and old, female artists are dominating the holiday music offerings this Christmas season. Well, that is if you don't include the unstoppable -and fast becoming unbearable -- Glee juggernaut.
Mariah Carey's second Christmas album, Merry Christmas II You and Taylor Swift's Sounds of the Season EP, first released in 2007, but available for the first time in Canadian stores, are among the most notable yuletide platters of 2010. Meanwhile, The Gift, from matronly Britain's Got Talent contestant Susan Boyle, and O Holy Night, by classical singing 10-year-old Jackie Evancho, runner up on this year's America's Got Talent, are topping Billboard and Soundscan charts alike. As for Glee? Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album, is the seventh disc to be spun off from the Glee franchise (an eighth was released shortly after the Christmas disc came out). OK, fine, this one has its place. But is anyone else beginning to bristle at the extreme overkill on all things Glee? Not legions of Glee lovers, apparently. (The album is also firmly ensconced near the top of the charts.
Here's Heath McCoy's guide to notable albums for the holiday season:
Mariah Carey
Merry Christmas II You
The Mariah Carey who released 1994's Merry Christmas, one of the bestselling Christmas albums of all time (at 12 million copies sold) was a different sort of pop star from the Mariah of today. Compare the cute little crumpet on the cover of that album to the overripe mistletoe fantasy presented on Merry Christmas II You.
One thing both incarnations have in common, however, is the stunning vocal range, and Carey puts that to work pretty tastefully for the most part on this light, fun Christmas record. (Although, I'm positive Vince Guaraldi never imagined his Charlie Brown Christmas could be this hot-to-trot).
Taylor Swift
The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection
Taylor Swift was just 17 with one full-length album under her belt when this EP first came out in 2007, originally a limited release sold through the Target chain.
Naturally, now that she's the biggest country star in the world, the disc, just under 20 minutes long, is available everywhere.
Any hints within as to the force she'd become? A few. Swift's two originals -- one tender, the other pop sweet -- hold up very well next to the holiday staples covered here, including a likable version of Wham's Last Christmas and a cutely countrified White Christmas.
Susan Boyle
The Gift
The Scottish star of reality TV applies her sweetly soaring vocals to a number of Christmas choir standards here. But what makes the album stand out is the inclusion of non-holiday classics of the rock world (by Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen and Crowded House) and the way Boyle makes them fit.
Jackie Evancho
O Holy Night
She's adorable. She sings like an angel. If adorable angel-singing isn't your cup of tea, however, take a pass.
Glee
The Music, The Christmas Album
If you've enjoyed the jazz-hands Glee-ification of every popular tune known to man, dig in. Otherwise steer clear. (And k. d lang's quite unspectacular guest appearance on You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch saves nothing.)
Annie Lennox
A Christmas Cornucopia
This is certainly the most ambitious holiday album of the season, with lush, epic arrangements, big social statements and a vast world music sound that touches down across the globe. It's also overly earnest and, as such, not as warm as we might hope. Still, Lennox's authoritative, distinctive voice is welcome throughout.
Celtic Thunder
Celtic Thunder Christmas
This popular Irish vocal group brings their puffed up amalgamation of Celtic folk and adult contemporary pop to classics of the season. Their fans will love it but anybody else will find these lads impossibly smarmy.
Sheryl Crow
Home For Christmas
Not a new release but rather a re-release of Crow's 2008 Christmas album, with sexier packaging (sneaky record company) and one fresh track pulled from this year's 100 Miles From Memphis record. A funky track it is, though, and an inviting album all around with gospel, blues and roots enriching the vibe.
The Priests
Noel
Three Catholic priests from Northern Ireland singing classical odes to our Lord. Who would've predicted the crossover appeal in that? But here come The Priests with platinum level sales in Europe and a gold album in Canada, even.
On Noel, the trio takes on popular Christmas carols with a charm that largely cuts through any boundaries between popular music and classical.
A winning duet with hard living Celtic-punk Shane MacGowan of The Pogues on Little Drummer Boy/ Peace On Earth hits this home wonderfully.
We Wish You A Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year
Yet another reissue (the album originally came out in 2008) it may be of new interest to metal heads now that the revered Ronnie James Dio has passed away. There's a version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen here that teams Dio up with his Black Sabbath/Heaven and Hell amigo, guitarist Tony Iommi, and the song summons up all the menace of those two bands.
Because that's what you want on Christmas. Menace. A newly recorded bonus disc, meanwhile, finds Lips Kudlow from resurrected Canadian metal band Anvil laying down the hammer on Frosty The Snowman.