The Christmas Album is Glee’s fifth release in 2010, and the first of two full-length albums to be issued in November alone. Appearing several weeks after another holiday-themed record --
The Rocky Horror Glee Show -- it features a handful of wintertime tunes, from the standard crop of Christmas carols to more secular fare like
Frank Loesser’s “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and
the Carpenters’ “Merry Christmas Darling.” Most of the carols are what you’d expect: slick, sentimental, and performed in Glee’s familiar Broadway-pop style, with solos by the cast members and backup vocals by a group of unseen professionals. Other songs are “jazzed up” to a questionable degree, including an urban mash-up of “Deck the Halls” and “Up on the Rooftop” that sounds like something from a Disney starlet’s catalog. On “O Holy Night,” though,
Lea Michele belts out the high notes like the second coming of
Kristin Chenoweth, and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” melts under the warmth of Chris Colfer’s duet with
Darren Criss, who plays Kurt’s openly gay love interest. A duet between two male characters -- with lyrics like “Gosh, your lips look delicious,” no less -- is a refreshingly risqué move for Fox TV, not to mention an album highlight. After all, Glee became popular by pushing boundaries and ignoring convention, so it’s reassuring to see the spark still burning. ~ Andrew Leahey