A serious Christmas album is probably the last album most people expected to find on Rodney Carrington’s list of ‘to-dos’ yet here Make It Christmas is.  While I never expect it, it is a sweet, unassuming holiday album that follows-up the humor album El Nino Loco from earlier this year.  While mostly in strong voice throughout, there are a couple places on the album where pitch correction (aka autotune) was used to ‘help’ Rodney, particularly on “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” a song which is so well-known that the one really glaring use of the digital editing device derails the song.  Thankfully, aside from these few ‘instances,’ Rodney proves to be a more than capable singer.

Songs like “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” and “O Holy Night” and “Silent Night” come across nicely, if a bit too ‘paint-by-numbers’ lounge-like but on songs like the single “Camouflage and Christmas Lights,” “Mary, Did You Know,” and “Grown-up Christmas List,” Rodney shows off that he does indeed have a voice that works well for holiday songs.  In fact, he feels more relaxed and natural in his normal country twang on “Camouflage and Christmas Lights,” a nice reminder that soldiers away at war in the desert do all they can to have a good holiday despite being thousands of miles away from home.  While a little sappy, it fits in well with the other sugary holiday confections.   “Grown Up Christmas List” and “Mary, Did You Know” both show off the voice in a particularly strong setting .

While “The Presents Under The Tree (Better Be For Me)” brings a little bit of expected levity to the album, it is the straight-up renderings of Make It Christmas (including the sweetly romantic title track) that make most of the album worth listening to.  It’s not a ‘classic’ album by any means but it is far from the worst holiday album ever made as well.