Today's CD releases include vintage Christmas reissues and some albums of covers of old chestnuts. Lizzie Goodman, editor-at-large of Blender, talks about a few favorites.
Merle Haggard's Hag's Christmas takes those tunes everyone knows and makes them a little dark. "If We Make It Through December" feels intimate because it carries that tinge of sadness that so many people feel around the holidays.
Cheering people up, though, is Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown Christmas Piano Tribute really can't go wrong. The songs sound the same as they always have, and people love them.
Kellie Pickler is a bit of a surprise, as her "Santa Baby" reveals shades of her hero, Dolly Parton. And then there's Michael Buble, whose smooth style perfectly suits the standards he covers and warms up the Christmas songs on the bonus disc.
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