Music notes | MercyMe’s second holiday album debuts at No. 1

Contemporary Christian stalwarts, MercyMe, winners of eight Dove Awards, have a released its second holiday album with MercyMe It’s Christmas! The album, released in October, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Holiday Albums Chart.

The band, which formed in 1994, is no stranger to strong album sales, having sold more than 8 million units. The band’s debut project Almost There, went double-platinum. Four others have been certified gold.

The newest offering features several Christmas classics, plus the original numbers “Our Lullaby,” “Christmastime Again” and “Hold On Christmas.” The album’s track list also includes two compilation songs that include original lyrics. “Joy,” mixes “O Come Let Us Adore Him” and “Joy To The World,” while “The Newborn Has Come,” pairs “Away in a Manger” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”

Seasonal favorites include “Sleigh Ride,” “I’ll be Home for Christmas,” “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” “Do You Hear What I Hear?” and “O Come, O Come.” www.mercyme.org

A gospel Christmas

Gospel fans are in for a treat with Rendezvous Music’s Christmas Goes Gospel: Volume 2, a powerhouse collection featuring Whitney Houston with the Georgia Mass Choir, Fred Hammond, Yolanda Adams, CeCe Winans, Andraé Crouch, Marvin Sapp, Bishop Paul S. Morton Sr., Israel Houghton, Jonathan Butler, Marvin Winans, John Stoddart and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir.

Described as festive and spiritual, the album features 12 holiday favorites, including “Little Drummer Boy,” “The First Noel,” “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Emmanuel,” “Joy to the World,” “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” and “Silent Night.”

The compilation released on Nov. 6. www.mackavenue.com/rendezvous_music

Christmas campfire

Northern Irish worship band Rend Collective gets into the Christmas Spirit with Campfire Christmas: Volume 1.

Tapping into their Irish root, the band adds a folksy spin on such classics as “O Holy Night (O Night Divine)” and “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” Other tracks include “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” “O Come All Ye Faithful (Let Us Adore Him)” and” Merry Christmas Everyone.”

The Christmas album comes just a couple of months after the release of its fifth studio album, As Family We Go. That project resulted in the highest debut for a Christian album in the United Kingdom in almost 20 years and the highest-ever Christian album debut in the U.K. The album also hit the No. 1 spot on the iTunes Christian albums chart in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and was in the top 10 albums overall in seven countries including the United States.

In advance of the Christmas release, Rend Collective joined Chris Tomlin for the second leg of his “Love Ran Red Tour.” www.rendcollective.com