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CHER: _CHRISTMAS_ Just what the world needs: another Christmas album. Before you roll your eyes too far, however, listen to the spin that Cher, 77, put on the season. Instead of the usual

moldy odes to sleigh bells and silent nights, Cher’s salute boasts some zippy new holiday songs, including a dance-pop banger “DJ Play a Christmas Song” that’s her catchiest track since

“Believe.” More, she included covers of nontraditional songs that suit the holiday theme, including the Zombies’ rapturous track from 1968 “This Will Be Our Year.” If that’s not enough, she

also brought in special guest Stevie Wonder to sing with her and play harmonica on the under-exposed ’60s Motown gem “What Christmas Means to Me.” The emotional high comes in “Christmas

(Baby Please Come Home),” which first appeared on Phil Spector’s classic 1963 holiday album. A 17-year-old Cher sang backup on the original recording behind a barreling lead from Darlene

Love. Sixty years later, the two sing it as a duet, creating a performance that’s a gift to pop history itself. Photo Collage: MOA; (Album Photo: Noah Willman) THE ROLLING STONES: _HACKNEY

DIAMONDS_ Eighteen years have elapsed since the Stones released an album of new material (2005’s _A Bigger Bang_) and, arguably, more than four decades have vanished since they released a

new set of material hot enough to start you up. (1981’s _Tattoo You_). So it’s a welcome, but gob smacking, surprise that _Hackney Diamonds_ finds the band’s two leads, Mick Jagger and Keith

Richards, in street fighting shape. Though the first single, “Angry,” sounded like an AI take on a Stones song, the other tracks feature riffs that fire and melodies that sing. For the

occasion, Mick and Keith brought back for one track bassist Bill Wyman (who left the band 30 years ago), while two other recordings capture the last performances of Charlie Watts, who died

in 2021. (The beat-perfect Steve Jordan fills in on the rest). To bring things full circle, the set ends with a grinding cover of the Muddy Waters song that gave the band their name. The

result shows not a trace of moss. Photo Collage: MOA; (Album Photo: Noah Willman) JEREMY DUTCHER: _MOTEWOLONUWOK_ The voice of Jeremy Dutcher, 33, sounds at once familiar and fresh,

searching and sure. The singer has a quaver and pitch that can’t help but bring to mind Nina Simone, along with a solemnity that recalls Jeff Buckley at his most hallowed. At the same time,

the viewpoint expressed in Dutcher’s lineage and lyrics brings something new to modern pop. Dutcher is a Wolastoqiyik member of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Canada, and you can

hear that history in his voice and read it in his lyrics which, on the singer’s celebrated 2018 debut album, _Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa_, were sung entirely in the native language. For

this follow-up, Dutcher delivers half the words in English and broadens the music to an equal degree to straddle folk ballads, classical chorales and art song. Those descriptions may sound

arcane and specific on paper, but Dutcher’s rapturous delivery makes it all feel immediate and universal. Photo Collage: MOA; (Album Photo: Noah Willman) SEMISONIC: _LITTLE BIT OF SUN_ Most

music fans know the Minneapolis rock band Semisonic from their inescapable ’90s hit “Closing Time,” but the group is far more than a one-hit wonder. A trio of albums showcased songs by band

leader Dan Wilson that married tidy power pop melodies to positive-minded lyrics that never sounded pat. In 2001, the band went quiet to make way for a career Wilson pulled off in his

mid-40s, as one of the most successful songwriting collaborators in pop. Over the past two decades, Wilson has helped pen songs by artists including Adele, Taylor Swift, Josh Groban and

Chris Stapleton. This year, he and Semisonic produced a fourth full-length album, their first in 22 years, that displays the same keen feel for melodies as their classics but with a lyrical

perspective that reflects their ages. The subtext is their relationship with each other, underscoring a stirring point: Our oldest friends often make our best witnesses.  LOVE OUR PICKS?

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