Kelly Clarkson, Norah Jones & Pistol Annies deliver noteworthy holiday albums
Clarkson's disc is a standout that somehow manages to be both celebratory and downbeat.
HOLIDAY
Kelly Clarkson, 'When Christmas Comes Around' (Atlantic)
The standards on Clarkson's second Christmas album are almost unfair to other interpreters — she is that nimble a singer. (See "Last Christmas," especially, rendered here as a vivid roller coaster.) However, it's the original tunes — which she sings with the kind of verve most singers not named Mariah Carey don't bother putting into their holiday releases — that make this LP truly stand out.
"Santa, Can't You Hear Me," with Ariana Grande, is pure Motown, and "Glow," with Chris Stapleton, is a worthy howl-off between two powerhouse vocalists. It's also striking just how uncelebratory some of these songs are: "Merry Christmas (to the One I Used to Know)" is haunting and "Christmas Isn't Canceled (Just You)" is a blissful tsk-tsk.
JON CARAMANICA, New York Times
Norah Jones, "I Dream of Christmas" (Blue Note)
Jones is slyly understated here as both a singer and pianist. The album intersperses new songs of her own with tunes like "Blue Christmas" and "Run Run Rudolph," which she turns into a slinky rumba. Yet behind the poise of her own new songs, like "It's Only Christmas Once a Year" and the gospelly "You're Not Alone," there's a tinge of genuine loneliness and longing, hinting at the toll of pandemic isolation.
JON PARELES, New York Times
Pistol Annies, "Hell of a Holiday" (Sony Nashville)
The alliance of Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley wrote 10 new songs, dipping into retro styles like Western swing, girl-group rock and Laurel Canyon pop-folk. Their scenarios encompass holiday cheer, faith and flirtations. But they also recognize the holidays can be a strain. Among the handful of covers is Merle Haggard's "If We Make It Through December," about a laid-off factory worker. Pistol Annies also wrote about seasonal depression ("Make You Blue") and family strife ("Harlan County Coal"), with a wife struggling to get through Christmas with a drunken husband and "47 dollars in the gol-durned bank."
JON PARELES, New York Times
