Santa Baby, Alicia Keys (Alicia Keys Records)

Alicia has had  a couple Christmas tunes out before, "Little Drummer Girl" and "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)," but this is her first full album of holiday tunes, out for 2022. While she sports a fine expressive voice, she's also a fine instrumentalist, prone to demonstrating this with forays into jazz, which she does here on the title song, "Christmas Time Is Here," "Favorite Things," and the previously released version of  "Chestnuts." Her R'nB roots show through on "Please Come Home For Christmas" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," not to mention the feature cut from this collection, "December Back 2 June," an Alicia original that receives help from Tayla Parx. She also gets writing help from Natalie Hemby on the ballads "You Don't Have to Be Alone" and "Old Memories on Christmas," and from Emile Sande on "Not Even the King." The album closes on a traditional version of  "Ave Maria" sung in Latin. More on the pop side than we like here, but this album features strong original tunes that deserve to live past this holiday season.