Today’s post begins with a fractal called Poinsettia. To my mind it is possible the “best” holiday fractal I’ve ever done so it seems appropriate for a “Best Of . . .” review. Sadly, it's a little late but that's my fault. ANYway--on with the post!-
I have a sad confession to make. I like Christmas music. I really like Christmas music--so much so I have 69 albums in my collection (and that’s not counting double-disk sets!) The worst of it is this: I play it non-stop from the day after Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve--one album after another. I was chatting with Robyn and she asked which albums I liked best: honestly I couldn’t tell her so I decided to do this review to help me clarify my choices.
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I will divide the rest of my post into three sections, Best, Worst, and Best/Worst. Ranking will be in alphabetical order: choosing a favorite would be like choosing amongst one’s children. Hard to do (although if you read between the lines it shouldn’t be hard to figure out my absolute best/worse choices.
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BEST
A LITTLE CHRISTMAS MUSIC (the King‘s Singers). One of my oldest (and one of my favorite albums), this male sextet from England gets help from operatic soprano Kiri Te Kanawa, the City of London Sinfonia, the Canadian Brass and other artists on 21 cuts that runs for close to an hour. There’s a nice mix of sacred and secular music here: some works are performed “straight” but the King’s Singers aren’t afraid to have a little fun. Their arrangement of The Coventry Carol is a jarring mess but the rest of the album is top-notch. A must for any fan of choral music.
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AN IRISH CHRISTMAS (Moya Brennan). Moya (nee Maire) Brennan borrows a little of her baby sister Enya’s ethereal quality for her musical offering but uses it to better effect. She uses a lot of “layering” in her music but isn’t afraid to add in a few ethnic elements to freshen up her sound. Her version of Carol of the Bells is haunting and beautiful--as is the rest of the album. FIND this album and BUY it!
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CELTIC CHRISTMAS (Eden‘s Bridge). I found this album in a “bargain bin” for $5.00--and I’ve gotten ten times the price in enjoyment from it. Christmas is With Us Again is an original masterpiece of a song and most of the other stuff is beautifully sung and played. Some of the “praise” aspects go a bit “over-the-top” for my taste but that doesn’t happen often.
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CHRISTMAS (Manheim Steamroller). This is the album that fired my obsession for holiday music. First and still the best of their many Christmas albums. The mix of rennaisance and modern music still sounds as fresh today as it did when I first heard this album more than twenty years ago.
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EVERYTHING YOU WANT FOR CHRISTMAS (Big Bad Voodoo Daddy). Mostly secular and popular songs played with the quintessential “swing band” style and hipster attitude. This is just forty minutes of pure fun that you’d truly have to be a real “Grinch” not to love! There are also a few cuts of music I've nver heard anywhere else.
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FESTUVAL OF THE HEART (John Boswell), Mostly solo piano arrangements of well-known sacred carols, it is an hour’s worth of gentle relaxation. This album is a must for any lover of piano music.
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NOEL (Canadian Brass). Another album that I bought because it was super cheap that turned out to be surprisingly good. This quintet gets help from flautist James Galway, flamenco guitarist Angel Romero and the King’s Singers among others. This album has a wide variety of music so the brass doesn’t overpower the listener.
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ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT (Cherish the Ladies). Four good looking girls mixing traditional Irish dance music with Christmas carols--how could you ask for anything more. I just bought this album and it is already one of my favorites.
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THE BELLS OF DUBLIN (The Chieftains). The venerable band of traditional Irish musicians is joined by such diverse musical talents as Elvis Costello, Jackson Brown, Ricky Lee Jones and even Burgess Meredith (!?!) not to mention the Westminster Cathedral Choir. Fans of popular music AND Celtic music are sure to love this. I’m particularly fond of The St. Stephen’s Day Murders (which appeals to my warped sense of humor) and The Rebel Jesus (which offers an outsider‘s perspective on Christmas).
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THE SWEETEST GIFT (Trisha Yearwood), This gal knows her way around a song! Doesn’t matter whether the song is sacred or secular she still does it justice. Somehow she doesn’t manage to make Sweet Little Jesus Boy (a negro spiritual) sound completely ridiculous and two songs I’ve never heard anywhere else (It Wasn‘t His Child and Walk Through Bethlehem) are nothing short of spectacular.
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WRAPPED IN WHITE (John Doan). This album is just plain odd (which might explain why I love it so). Each of the cuts is two or more songs mixed together into one tune (Jolly Old King Wenseslas is an excellent example.) Doan plays all the instruments himself and they are a weird and diverse lot including (but not limited to) Harmonium, Toy Piano, Harp guitar (yes, that’s one word--and the thing looks even weirder than it sounds!) and antique Edison Phonograph. A delight for any fan of musical esoterica.
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BEST/WORST
A GIFT OF SONG (Mason Williams and Friends). As long as he sticks to traditional carols this album is awesome! I loved the mix of Classical Gas with What Child is This to come up with What Tune is This? The other traditional carols are nicely handled but sadly the album is about half new material that’s frankly dull and none too Christmas-y (even if he does try and dress it up in the liner notes.)
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BOOGIE WOOGIE CHRISTMAS (Bryan Setzer Orchestra). Setzer is a fierce guitarist and his swing band is first rate. Most of the stuff on this album is first rate and songs like Santa Claus is Back in Town and Baby It’s Cold Outside (sung with Ann Margaret in full sexpot mode) are good, clean dirty fun. Still, his version of O Holy Night can make dogs howl. I think this is stuff that would go over particularly well in a live show.
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BRAND NEW YEAR (SheDAISY): slick and over-produced like much of their work, this album has some cool stuff and some stuff sure to make your teeth hurt. I particularly love Twist of the Magi (which is just “pure-D“ evil) and the hidden acapella track How Can I Keep From Singing. Some real stinkers like Santa’s Got a Brand New Bag and That’s What I Want for Christmas could have been left off and it would have been a better album. Still, there’s enough good stuff to keep me listening year after year.
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CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT (the Carpenters). It’s hard to fault a voice like Karen Carpenter’s. She had hands-down one of the best voices ever recorded and there is a sad sweetness and “little girl lost” quality that comes through in many of her songs. Sadly brother Richard fills the album with overwrought musical arrangements and instrumentals that are horrid, gooey glop. This is a classic case of “less is more”. Take out the choral pieces and Richard's piano work and you've got a damn fine Christmas CD.
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Songs from CALL ME CLAUS (Garth Brooks). Given the right material Garthie can really do a song justice and there are a number of gems on this album. Such diverse tunes as Mary Had a Little Lamb and Zat You Santy Clause? are loads of fun. Then you hear It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year and you realize how limited his vocal ability really is. Garth also suffers from the curse of over-production on this album. Strings, brass and gospel choirs overwhelm him more than once--and Garth should know better by now.
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THE CHRISTMAS ATTIC and THE LOST CHRISTMAS EVE (Trans-Siberian Orchestra). Two slices of the same ham loaf, these massive, self-referential epic “concept” albums each tells a story in traditional and original music. Some of the tunes rock a bit hard for my personal taste but the whole things are worthwhile listens.
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WORST
A FAMILY CHRISTMAS (John Tesh). This musical giant (he’s like 6’7”) brings all the charm and magic of a loaf of stale Wonder Bread to this collection of fourteen instrumental numbers. This album should have been titled Elevator Music for Christmas: the Next Generation. It’s wonderful background music for a party but God forbid you should actually listen to the thing. At least the album cover has a Dalmatian . . .
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CHRISTMAS CAROL and IN DULCE JUBILO (James Galway). Two slices of the same Christmas pie--the first in English, the second not. There is some beautiful choral work on both albums and there is no doubt Galway is an excellent flautist. Still, after a while the overly-lush strings and overall sameness and syrupy soporific quality of both albums drives me to distraction. These are best taken in small doses--maybe I should set my CD Player on “shuffle” and include livelier music when I play these.
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CHRISTMAS SONG (Manheim Steamroller). Chip Davis went back to the holiday well one-time-too-many for his latest effort. There is no magic or originality in the tunes he re-works for this album and his new material is nothing short of coma-inducing. I could really also have done without the guest appearance by Johnny Mathis on The Christmas Song. There’s no denying the guy still has a good voice but his overly-precise, hyper enunciated style sets my teeth on edge. (To me a Christmas without having to hear Johnny Mathis is like a fully stocked shopping mall with no crowds when I’m doing my holiday shopping--a fond dream).
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SOUNDS OF THE SEASON (Enya). I am an unabashed Enya worshipper--which is why it saddens me to put this album on my “worst” list. Thank God the thing is short (just a bit over 22 minutes) because every song is taken at the same ponderous pace that sucks the energy out of a room. How she managed to turn We Wish You A Merry Christmas into a dirge I’ll never know! The original songs on the disk are egregiously bad as well. What a shame.
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TO DRIVE THE COLD WINTER AWAY (Loreena McKennet). Usually I love her stuff but this short album is spare to the point of being almost skeletal I wanted more and I didn’t get it here which is sad because I’ve heard her do Christmas songs with a fuller sound on other albums. With all her vocal and musical tricks to draw from Loreena McKennit can be awesome but the artistic choice not to on this album--and it didn’t work.
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WINTERSONG (Paul Winter). This new age clarinetist gives us thirty three minutes of new age crap that I’m surprised I still allow to take up space in my CD Case. I have nothing good to say about this album.
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