This Is Christmas, Kutless (BEC)

This hard-rock Christian band offers half a dozen holiday tunes on this new CD EP for 2011. The title song, an original, is a straight recitation of the reason for the season, the birth of the Christ child, with a "Gloria" quote on the bridge. "Beautiful" is another original, also about the baby Jesus, and "Breath of Heaven" is an Amy Grant cover. "Mary Did You Know," "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" and "O Holy Night" all get the modern rock power ballad treatment. The whole disc has that same overly earnest sound that U2 has had to distance itself from for years, but that doesn't make it bad, just a bit monochromatic for the wider audience outside the Christian rock crowd.