Now That's What I Call Today's Christmas

Now That's What I Call Today's Christmas, released in 2012, followed four volumes of Now That's What I Call Christmas, which were issued from 2001 through 2010. Those four discs reached across several decades for classic and contemporary Christmas music. This one, as the title suggests, leans on later releases and will be useful for younger listeners tired of hearing their parents' and grandparents' established favorites. While many of these songs are OK-to-good originals (Justin Bieber's "Mistletoe," Carly Rae Jepsen's "Mittens," OneRepublic's "Christmas Without You"), many selections are covers of older songs (Demi Lovato faithfully does Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime," for instance) and interpretations of traditional compositions (including Carrie Underwood's "The First Noel" and Sugarland's "Silent Night"). The oldest cut comes from the long-running Trans-Siberian Orchestra, whose "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" (1996) closes the disc in instrumental, theatrical form. ~ Andy Kellman