When Christmas Comes Around...

Kelly Clarkson's ninth studio album and second Christmas outing, 2021's When Christmas Comes Around... offers a mix of standards and original songs by Clarkson. Along with its 12 new recordings are three bonus tracks originally released between 2017 and 2020, including a version of Vince Vance's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" (not to be confused with the Mariah Carey song). Other covers here include a refreshingly non-infantile "Santa Baby" and a jazz-combo version of Wham!'s "Last Christmas." A vibrant, fully orchestral, high-volume set on average, it sees Clarkson take a momentary break from belting on the tenderer original "Merry Christmas (To the One I Used to Know)," a song she co-wrote with frequent contributor Aben Eubanks, and which still features the singer's precision pitch. More-high-profile collaborators here include Ariana Grande, who joins Clarkson on the upbeat "Santa, Can't You Hear Me," and Chris Stapleton, who duets on the equally exuberant "Glow," thought it regre