Album: Alicia Keys – Santa Baby
The charm of Santa Baby isn’t just the range of material, but how well that range captures Alicia Keys’ appeal. She’s playful (“Santa Baby”), she’s seductive (a lounge-y, downtempo revision of “Favorite Things”), she’s sophisticated (“Please Come Home for Christmas”) and earnest (John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s “Happy Xmas [War Is Over]”). And in a turn that’ll surprise anyone who’s heard their share of Christmas pop albums, two of the best tracks are Keys originals: the jazzy, Jackson 5-ish soul of “December Back 2 June” and the piano ballad “Not Even the King”, a track from Keys’ Girl on Fire that captures the gratitude and humility of the holiday without even mentioning snow.