Home for Christmas

Originally released as a Hallmark exclusive for the holiday season of 2008, was expanded by a single cut for its exclusive 2010 for Target: taken from 's fine 2010 tribute to Southern soul, . This may be a secular tune, but it fits snugly next to the rest of , as that holiday record was designed as a slow, soulful stroll through seasonal classics, turning in excellent versions of tunes as diverse as and doesn't necessarily reinvent these songs -- is taken at a slightly faster gait than usual, grooves like classic -- but she does inhabit them and her band is tight and dexterous, giving this Christmas album some unexpected and welcome soul. It's a good enough holiday album that it shouldn't be thought of as a thrown-off exclusive: it's one of the better pop Christmas records of the last half of the 2000s. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine