Home for the Holidays

Darius Rucker leaves his newly adopted country home behind for a bit of uptown swinging swagger on 2014's Home for the Holidays. This 12-track collection of standards -- apart from "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "O Come, All Ye Faithful," they're all secular; apart from the nondescript original "What God Wants for Christmas," they're all well-known -- is all delivered in the mock-Sinatra style that has come to suggest Christmas in popular culture. The production is clean and unfussy, sparkling just enough to suggest new-fallen snow but not enough to be tacky, and Rucker is amiable, perhaps a bit too digitally polished but possessing enough good charm to keep things moving at a nice clip. Consequently, Home for the Holidays winds up as a perfectly fine Christmas record, suited for those Rucker fans who have stuck with him from Hootie to R&B to country.