Released at the height of the boy band craze, *NSYNC’s 1998 holiday album Home for Christmas was a glittering addition to the genre that dominated the late ’90s. I never loved *NSYNC as much as I did the Backstreet Boys, but it’s impossible not to get a little giddy every time I hear Timberlake and the boys bust out one of their five-piece harmonies. Tracks like “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays” became seasonal staples, proving that *NSYNC’s charm extended far beyond swooning teenagers and the parents that were forced to cart them to and fro to concerts. At a time when boy bands were ruling the charts and ruling my head space (an obsession I covered during my write up for Backstreet Boys’ self-titled album as well as LFO’s self-titled debut album), *NSYNC carved out their place as one of the era’s commercial juggernauts and cashed in with the requisite holiday album.
Standout Songs: “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays”, “O Holy Night”, “Home For Christmas”
