Cheers, It's Christmas (Deluxe Edition)

Now that he's a big television star, Blake Shelton decided it was time that he acted the part. And so, Cheers, It's Christmas, a holiday album timed for the Christmas season of 2012, just so happens to arrive during the thick of The Voice's third season. Shelton does not play it cozy and country here; he takes the time to make this a splashy celebration, inviting his wife Miranda Lambert in for a duet on one track and her band Pistol Annies for another, keeping it country with Reba McEntire and keeping it Sinatra with Michael Buble, perhaps straying a bit too far from home by singing with Trypta-Phunk, but feeling right at home with Kelly Clarkson. Such a long list of guests can't help but bring to mind those star-studded seasonal variety shows from the '70s and, in a sense, the record is stuck in that notion of cross-platform crowd-pleasing, trying to be a little bit of everything to everyone, but that's by no means a bad thing, as Shelton has an easy charm that carries through any bumps in the road. It's designed to be classically Christmas, with even its handful of new tunes constructed to sound classic, and Cheers, It's Christmas does indeed wind up somewhat out of time, sounding like a perennial even upon its first listen. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine