Under the Mistletoe, Justin Bieber (Island)

Just to prove what an old man I am, I used to prowl the import sections of my favorite record stores for releases on the then-only-British Island label, from Sparks and Robert Palmer to Brian Eno and Bob Marley. This is about as far from those days as you can get. Yeah, we insufferable music snobs are supposed to get our noses out of joint over teen idols like The Beeb, but hey, if we're all about the music, shouldn't our opinion stand or fall on that? So here it is: this is your basic modern R'nB workout, which is the basis for many of today's top pop chart songs. I can't claim to be an expert on whether Justin really has the pipes or whether he's been autotuned and ProTooled to a fare-thee-well -- the real tell for me is the fact that you seldom hear him singing by himself, other than on "Silent Night." If your thing is chart music circa 2011, this stands up -- in part because a big contingent of chart stars make guest appearances here. Usher duets on "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)," Busta Rhymes raps "Drummer Boy," Boyz II Men sing "Fa La La," The Band Perry adds the country touch on "Home This Christmas," and, the big get, Mariah Carey shows up for a rendition of her mega-holiday-smash "All I Want For Christmas Is You." The lead single, "Mistletoe," is a nice piece of work, although our pal Stubby notes it sounds kinda like a Jason Mraz song was plagiarized for the cause, and I tend to agree. The disc comes in standard and enhanced versions with four extra songs and video content, although only the standard edition is downloadable. Can't leave without mentioning that Justin plans to donate proceeds from this album to a number of popular charities, listed at his website. Not exactly what this site's readers are looking for, but I'm sure some of them have teenaged sisters and daughters.