Christmas is just around the corner, so we’re sharing with you the latest carols and reimagined covers—culled from the latest albums of some of our most exciting recording stars—that can help you spread the Yuletide cheer:
After more than 20 years as a soloist, Toni Braxton reunites with her talented sisters, Trina, Towanda, Traci and Tamar, in The Braxtons’ “Braxton Family Christmas.”
The soul-tinged set isn’t just notable for its stirring covers of “This Christmas” and Wham’s “Last Christmas,” but also for its solo and harmony-garnished rendering of “Mary, Did You Know,” gorgeously sung in five-part harmony.
The quintet’s finely tuned a cappella rendition of “O Holy Night” is a high-wire vocal act that demands to be heard. And, in the lush original, “Under My Christmas Tree,” Toni is joined by brother Michael, who gives his self-penned tune a refreshingly soothing masculine heft.
For something more contemplative and sobering, you can’t go wrong with pop and adult contemporary pianist Jim Brickman’s “Comfort & Joy: The Sweet Sounds of Christmas,” which enlists prodigious vocalists to breathe life into holiday staples and some of his well-loved original tunes.
The skillfully arranged instrumental tracks (“Angels We Have Heard on High,” “Do You Hear What I Hear?”) are guaranteed to soothe frayed nerves, but the album’s best tunes are those with vocals, like Broadway actor Leslie Odom Jr.’s “Hallelujah, I Believe” and country songstress Rebecca Rebecca Lynn Howard’s exceptional cover of Brickman’s “Simple Things.”
Even more impressive are Johnny Mathis’ “Sending You a Little Christmas,” sung for a loved one who’s far away, and the homey “Night After Christmas,” featuring a rare singing stint for Hall & Oates’ John Oates.
In “Today Is Christmas,” LeAnn Rimes gives carols a “countrified” spin, even when she’s singing with hip-hop artist Aloe Blacc (“That Spirit of Christmas”) and R&B-leaning Gavin DeGraw (“Celebrate Me Home”).
Even if you aren’t partial to country fare, you don’t want to miss LeAnn’s soaring numbers, “Christmas Time Is Here” and a slowed-down incarnation of “We Need a Little Christmas.”
If you prefer something less “reverential,” RuPaul’s second Christmas collection, “Slay Belles,” is guaranteed to make your humbug disappear: In between zany quips in judiciously placed interludes, the irrepressible drag queen dishes fierce and irreverent jams of disco-fueled music that channels the hip-swaying repertoire of CeCe Peniston.
Top tracks: “Merry Christmas, Mary,” “Christmas is About Love,” the naughty “You’re the Star (On My Christmas Tree)” and the fun-filled “Jingle Dem Bells.”
The winking humor of RuPaul is bracingly spot-on. When his so-called Pit crew asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he said he just wanted one thing: “I want Oprah Winfrey’s money!”