Naughty or nice? Even someone who lives under an ice shelf at the North Pole knows that Jessie J tends to skew toward the latter. But like so many of us, the British pop star also knows enough to clean up her act for the holidays. So, on her first Christmas album, she dispenses with the sexed-up club bangers and pop bombast in favour of a classier (and more classic) approach. The bulk of this 11-track set consists of jazzed-up carols, swinging secular classics and syrupy string-sweetened ballads helmed by the likes of shmaltzmeister David Foster. In keeping with this warm ’n’ fuzzy, family-friendly approach — and perhaps its purported two-week recording schedule — Jessie keeps everything simple and accommodating, refraining from any major vocal histrionics and lacing her easygoing performances with plenty of chuckles, holiday wishes and offerings of eggnog. A few understated R&B groovers programmed by beatmasters such as Jam and Lewis, Babyface and others broaden the appeal somewhat beyond the hot-toddy set. But in the end, those brief bits of confusingly contemporary inconsistency are not enough to derail the disc. Or the overall sense that Jessie J is playing nice on This Christmas Day.
