To their credit, they aren’t phoning in all the song choices. ... They also score points for being among the first, if not the first, to determine that Danny Elfman’s slightly sinister “Making Christmas,” from “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” bears consideration for the Xmas canon. ... Now, the docked points: Even guest Kelly Clarkson can’t redeem the eternally schmaltzy “Grown-Up Christmas List.” And “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is the 11 billionth version of Brenda Lee’s classic to not rock.

The vast majority of tracks come in under three minutes, yet it’d be wrong to give credit to Baby for not overstaying his welcome on these songs when the record, aside from a predictable variation of keys or strings that introduce each new track, practically blurs into one indistinguishable song.

Any mania in MANIA is limited to the lyrics, while the band’s music is even-tempered and hardly given to extremes.

The space opera is an uneven mix of synth-drenched power-pop, cosmic interludes (the band goes as far as inventing alien languages) and surprisingly affecting collaborations. It’s the emotional heft of the latter that pumps the brakes as Coldplay approaches that metaphorical Great White, making the band’s ninth album a minor — but not entirely regrettable — addition to an otherwise stellar discography.

Although he’s not really mixing musical genres as originally promised, he’s mixing up some music and lyrics that shouldn’t really go together, which makes this one crazy peanut butter cup of an album.

On the whole, however, the album is a lyrical mess, alternately alienating and bland.

Solo debuts with this much expectation are incredible challenges. While “Walls” isn’t a craven ripoff or an attempt to recapture One Direction highs, it’s not yet clear exactly who Tomlinson is without them.

He paved his own lane by being his weird self, but sadly, on “Nuthin’ 2 Prove,” Yachty’s guilty of following the crowd.

It isn’t the most groundbreaking album in his discography, but it’s the clearest vision that he’s presented in years. Its songs are mercurial yet intentional, each its own bizarre sector of a larger blueprint, and the 16-song set is often musically great, from the Brazilian funk sample on “Paperwork” to the bellowing horns of “Problematic.” .... Lyrically, however, those hoping for West to seriously reconcile with his public controversies will come up short on “Vultures 1,” where in characteristically antagonist form, he leans into them.

Timberlake doesn’t reconcile with remorse across the suitable yet uneven “Everything I Thought It Was”; rather, he quickly gestures towards it on opener “Memphis” and moves on.