Let It Snow, 98 Degrees (Universal)

Uh, wait a minute, didn't this boy band thing happen back in the 90s? Why yes, it did, and these guys were players, nipping at the heels of Backstreet Boys and N'Sync. So when I saw this listed with a 2017 release date, I assumed they'd just dredged up the original 1999 album and reissued it. But no, it's the same guys 20 years on, and they haven't really changed; my take on their previous Christmas album was that it played at R'nB sounds but was a lot more at home in the pop realm, and this album gets exactly the same review. Where the previous album was mostly from the trad carol playlist with one original, this one splits the choices among pop/rock favorites and carols. They do reasonably well with Stevie Wonder's "What Christmas Means To Me," the Beach Boys' "Little Saint Nick," and their harmonies are a welcome addition to Joni Mitchell's "River." They just manage to get away with their version of "Please Come Home For Christmas," considering there's not much blues in these guys' background. A lowlight is their "Run Rudolph Run," which sounds like something you'd hear at high school musical theatre camp. The one original here, "Season of Love," is right out of the 90s boy-band craze and is nicely upbeat. The rest of the album is trad carols like "Let It Snow," "What Child Is This," "The First Noel," "Mary, Did You Know," "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "Away in the Manger" and "Silent Night," all good vehicles for showing off the group's prowess with vocal harmonies and singing, but still more pop than rock or soul.