Feels Like Christmas, Mickey Guyton (MCA Nashville)

Guyton is nominally supposed to be country, and being Black she has had to work pretty hard to be noticed in Nashville. This 2025 collection, featuring some new songs and some old ones, isn't going to strengthen her case to be recognized as country, however; this is straight-up 2020s pop-rock with just the tiniest bit of soul added, that element being her voice. (I'll spare you an extended essay on how country is just whatever Nashville says it is on any given day.) Strong uptempo performances characterize such tunes as "Save a Little Christmas For Me," "Sugar Cookie," "It Won't Be Christmas," and the Michael Bolton duet "Christmas Isn't Christmas." "Mistletoe Kisses" is more of an old soul ballad, although the tempo is jacked up a bit compared to how this might have been approached at, say, Stax or Atlantic. The title song is more of a ballad, as is a pretty soulful take on "O Holy Night" and "Do You Want to Build a Snowman." Streaming and downloads everywhere, of course. Missing from this collection is another 2025 single, a duet with Drew Baldridge, "Joy to Your World," another midtempo pop-rocker with the kind of modern production you'll recognize instantly.