Holidays Rule 2, various artists (Capitol)

Major-label Christmas compilations used to rule the season, but in an age when major labels are all but irrelevant, they've become scarce as hen's teeth. So wave hello to an exception, this one being a sequel to a decent entry of the same name from five years ago. For 2017, they've once again gathered up a collection that mixes familiar names with up-and-comers, although the biggest name is a bit of a cheat -- an extremely short "Wonderful Christmastime" as done for an episode of "The Tonight Show" a year or more ago featuring Jimmy Fallon and the Roots backing Sir Paul McCartney, although the mostly a capella backing is nice enough. Sir Paul gets another bite of the apple in MUNA's pensive cover of his "Pipes of Peace." Albin Lee Meldau takes on Mariah's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" in a more 20th century soul music style than the original, Barns Courtney teams with Lennon Stella for a mash-up of old-school jazz and modern synth rhythms behind "Baby It's Cold Outside," and Callum Scott does a mostly American Songbook rendition of "It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas." More jazz is offered by Kandace Springs with "(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With the Bag" and Norah Jones takes on Horace Silver's "Peace" in a live take. Grace Potter and an orchestra serve up an original holiday ballad called "Christmas Moon," Rosanne Cash gets swingy with a more mellow cover of Louis Jordan's "May Ev'ry Day Be Christmas," and Judah & the Lion take an indie-pop approach to "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)." A straight-up Eighties synth-pop version of "Blue Christmas" comes from U.S. Girls, Flor de Toloache do a compelling synthesis of Latin and Eastern European rhythms on "That's What I Want For Christmas," and Vera Blue does the indie-girl-singer take over heavy computer beats for "A Winter Romance." The Decemberists pay tribute to Big Star with a faithful cover of "Jesus Christ" and music-school nerds Lake Street Dive go all merengue on a cover of "I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas." As you might expect, the collection goes out with a New Year's song, in this case Andrew McMahon's quite traditional version of "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve." Much more pop than rock, but a fair number of highlights.