A Very Backstreet Christmas, Backstreet Boys (K-Bahn)

The most famous of the turn-of-the-millenium "boy bands" previously provided us with a couple holiday singles, 1999's "Christmas Time" and 2012's "It's Christmas Time Again," but this 2022 release is their first full holiday album. No surprises, it's got their modern R'nB sound with strong group harmonies; if they grew up in the 50s they'd have been a doo-wop group. Give them credit for the opening song, "White Christmas," in which they borrowed the Drifters' arrangement while dressing it up current millenium style. They also acquit themselves well with uptempo arrangements on "Winter Wonderland," "Last Christmas," and "This Christmas." They go downtempo on classics like "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)," "O Holy Night," "Silent Night," "I'll Be Home For Christmas," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." An unexpected but well-done choice for this album was Dan Fogelberg's "Same Auld Lang Syne." The album closes with three holiday originals, "Christmas In New York," "Together," and "Happy Days." Feel free to graze this for your playlists, especially if you enjoy today's R'nB sound. I've linked to Amazon, as is the custom here, but there's a Target exclusive version that adds "It's Christmas Time Again"and a version of "Feliz Navidad" if you're a completist.