It's That Time Again
The turkey is eaten (except for the leftovers), those all important holiday light-neighborhood rivalries are popping up, the weather is getting colder (pretend), which means it’s time for the Third Annual, “How Many Different Versions of Silent Night Are There Anyway?” post.
This year, the downtown Barnes and Noble got in thirty-four new Christmas CDs. And what I mean by “new” is that these CDs were released between September 2006 and last Tuesday. We also got in copies of almost everything else that was released in 2005 (except, *sob* for that Martin Sexton CD that was so very good), and 2004, and the years before that, and if you want more information about those, you can check out these two posts:
http://jdfskpoi.livejournal.com/20675.html
http://jdfskpoi.livejournal.com/30227.html
And now on to the 2006 Christmas Music Shopping Guide...
Jazz, Pop Standards, and rock:
Gladys Knight, Christmas Celebration, is, except for one or two cuts, covers of the most famous and Christmas carols, sometimes sung by Gladys Knight, and sometimes by a full choir (apparently standing in for the Pips). I miss the Pips. Nothing really wrong with this CD, but the orchestration is odd, sometimes it’s a synthesizer, sometimes it’s a piano. Silent Night version one, for those keeping score.
New Orleans Christmas. Christmas Carols done Dixieland style, will get your guests up and dancing. Putumayo records has almost cornered the market on World compilation CDs, and here, as usual, they do a good job putting together artists and songs including Ellis Marsalis and the New Birth Brass Band. I’d recommend this one for anyone who likes jazz and upbeat Christmas Carols.
Manhattan Transfer A Cappella Christmas. It is what is says it is. A slightly more adventurous selection of songs than Gladys Knight, by which I mean, no versions of “Silent Night,” but rather covers of the Carpenter’s “Merry Christmas Baby,” “Christmas is Coming,” and Vince Guarldi’s “Christmas Time is Here” tossed in with the ubiquitous “White Christmas,” to keep things interesting. But overall, nothing earth shattering.
Well, the good news is that Kenny G decided not to do a Christmas CD this year. Fear not, Kenny G fans, he does have a new CD out though (I'm in the Mood for Love: The Most Romantic Melodies of All Time). It’s a compilation of love songs, including “You’re Beautiful” and “You Raise Me Up.” Sometimes, the jokes, they write themselves.
Instead, if you must have a light jazz Christmas CD, you can buy Chris Botti’s, December. Chris Botti hasn’t become a parody of himself, and you may find this CD more tolerable than Kenny G (in fact, to my surprise, I did, possibly because of the contemplative version of “Ave Maria”). Also, upbeat versions of “The Little Drummer Boy,” “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow,” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” make sure this CD never hits the Kenny level of monotony. I didn’t expect to like this CD, but I do (even though I likely won’t buy it for myself). “Silent Night” makes an appearance.
Bette Midler, Cool Yule. And while I was surprised to like the Botti CD, I was also surprised to not like this one. As a fan of Bette Midler, I expected something a little more fun. “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” and “Mele Kalikimaka” are the best cuts on the CD, but if you’re looking for a decent jazz CD, Botti is the better bet(te).
James Taylor, At Christmas. This is destined to receive much airplay on “lite rock” stations. It’s pretty. . . harmless.
Aimee Mann One More Drifter In the Snow. This sounds like the offspring of torch songs and surf songs, and while some of the pieces come across too much like funeral dirge, the overall feel is kind weirdly fun. “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and “God Rest You Merry Gentlemen” are probably the strongest cuts.
New Age (for the Christmas Insomniacs):
Winter’s Solstice. When I listened to this, at first I thought that all of the Windham Hill’s Winter’s Solstice compilations were starting to run together in my mind. Then I figured out that this is a compilation of the Winter’s Solstice compilations.
Celtic Christmas. Like the Winter’s Solstice CD, this is a compilation of Celtic Christmas CDs. And when you consider that two years ago Windham Hill released The Very Best of Celtic Christmas, it makes this CD all the more unnecessary. Oh it’s all very pretty (though I’m not sure how “Barbara Allen” counts as a Christmas carol), but clearly this is a CD designed for those frantic December 24th shoppers, who will grab anything at the last minute and never notice they already have all these songs on other CDs.
Windham Hill Holiday Guitar Collection. This would be the CD for those people who find themselves over-stimulated by the Winter’s Solstice collection. Oh and guess what? Half of these pieces have appeared on various Winter’s Solstice collections.
You know, if I were a new age artist, I would love to sign with Windham Hill. Think of the royalties!
Tim Janis, American Christmas Carol. For the people who would be overstimulated by a Windham Hill compilation. Boring.
Armik, Christmas Wishes. Ah Christmas time. Time to get out your castanets and dance wildly around the fire. What have we here? It’s “Silent Night” number three. . . done flamenco style!
Compilations, or, how many different artists can you cram onto one CD and still have the whole thing make musical sense?:
Now That’s What I Call Christmas 3. The “Now. . . Christmas” compilations are, on one hand, probably the most music for the money. A double CD, with the first CD including pop standards versions of Christmas carols (Judy Garland! Bing Crosby! Frank! Dino!), and the second CD including current pop covers of carols, it comes priced at $19.98, which works out to a little over 50 cents per track. On the other hand, are The Pussycat Dolls version of “Santa Baby,” Mariah Carey’s version of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and Jessica Simpson’s version of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” things you want to admit to having in your music collection?
Elton John’s Christmas Party. Apparently Elton John thought it would be really neat to put The Pet Shop Boys, The Flaming Lips, Rufus Wainwright, Jimmy Buffett, Otis Redding, Kate Bush, The Beach Boys, Joss Stone, and U2 on the same CD. It’s kind of . . . random, but otherwise, not horrible. Although I think he may have missed the point of U2’s “New Year’s Day.”
This year, instead of Martha Stewart presenting a Christmas compilation, we have Rachael Ray’s, How Cool is That Christmas. She’s actually picked some of my favorites, such as David Bowie’s version of “The Little Drummer Boy,” Jane Monheit’s “The Man with the Bag,” Aretha Franklin’s version of “Winter Wonderland,” and Frank Sinatra singing “White Christmas.” The bad news is that there’s really only about half an hour of music on here, and in the age of MP3s, you could probably come up with this compilation on your own.
Simply Christmas: Home For the Holidays. This is an odd little compilation, alternating jazz covers by the likes of Richard Stoltzman, and classical covers by the London Festival Orchestra, the Munich Radio Orchestra, and Michaela Petri. It reaches a little further outside of the Christmas canon, by including some sixteenth century pieces, Hyden, and some more modern composers then comes back around and includes “Silent Night.” Priced at about ten dollars and containing 19 tracks, it’s worth it for someone looking for something classical, and yet not clichéd.
Time Life Treasury of Christmas Duets. At first it looks like this is once again just a compilation of basic Christmas carols, with the standard canon duets, like Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald singing “Silver Bells,” Nat King and Natalie Cole singing “The Christmas Song,” and the Bing Crosby/David Bowie version of “Little Drummer Boy.” But it’s got some neat new stuff on it too, particularly Michael Buble and the Barenaked Ladies collaborating on a tune called “Elf’s Lament.” I don’t know if there’s enough new on here to justify the whole CD purchase (Silent Night… again!), but “Elf’s Lament” is worth seeking out in MP3 format.
International:
Celtic Woman, Christmas Celebration. The PBS sensation returns with a Christmas album. Some nice background instrumentals in places (“Christmas Pipes” and “Carol of the Bells”) but your overall enjoyment of this would depend on you much you can tolerate thin soprano warbling. Yet another version of “Silent Night.”
Andre Rieu, Christmas Round the World. The violinist accompanies a variety of choirs (including a children’s choir) on a variety of Christmas carols (including “Silent Night), sung in different languages. Not being able to speak Chinese (?), I will have to take his word for it that “Dendenra Ryu” is a Christmas Carol, but I have my doubts that “The Tulip Song” is. This is a recording of a live concert, and I have a feeling that it’s one of those situations where you had to be there to enjoy it.
Moya Brennan, Irish Christmas. Not a bad compilation of songs, but Brennan’s got a weird vibrato in her voice that makes this overall not an enjoyable listen (unless you like weird vibrato). Oh, and “Silent Night,” . . . sung in Irish (yes, she uses the word “Irish” in the liner notes).
And if you like your Christmas Carols with a bit of Twang:
Kelly Willis Happy Holidays. Her bluesy version of “Santa Baby” makes you think that it’s the only way to sing that song, and “Blue Christmas” works quite nicely as a country tune. But some of the other Christmas carols sound a little flat, and “Please Daddy Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas” might not actually be a Christmas carol.
Wynonna, A Classic Christmas. Translation, eleven of the most ubiquitous Christmas Carols sung country. Yes, including “Silent Night.” It’s pretty straightforward, and if you want a country Christmas CD, this is a safe choice.
However, if you want something a little more upbeat, go with Rhonda Vincent’s Beautiful Star, which has stronger background instrumentation, and a better mix of fast and slower tunes. The fiddle and banjo arrangement of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is especially fun. Oh yeah, more “Silent Night.”
A Brad Paisley Christmas. How can you lose with original new carols with titles like “Kung Pao Buckeroo Holiday” and “Penguin, James Penguin” (a song about Santa’s secret spy) mixed in with a rockabilly version of “Jingle Bells” and (sigh) “Silent Night”? It’s probably not going to be a holiday classic CD, but there’s enough different on here to check out.
Under the category of, “Ok they’re broken up/retired/dead but we can still remaster all of their Christmas tunes and put out a new album and keep most of the profits for ourselves," you can check out the following CDs:
Christmas With the Chipmunks, Christmas With Peggy Lee, Christmas With the Rat Pack, Christmas With Dino, and Elvis Christmas. Between them, they increase the “Silent Night” count by two (Elvis and Dino). Next year, rumor has that they’re releasing, “Christmas with King Tut,” “Christmas with the Marx Brothers,” and “Christmas with Janis, Jimi, and Buddy.”
And under the category of “Ok, we’ve lost Brittney, Hilary, and Lindsay, but there’s more than that came from, Mickey!” we have:
Aly and AJ, Acoustic Hearts of Winter and Ali Lohan, Lohan Holiday. These CDs seem interchangeable (right down to what seems to be the same version of “Silent Night”), and even if you know someone who has tweens who like this kind of bland computerized teen pop, do your friend a favor and instead buy their kid, The Muppets: A Green and Red Christmas. While it’s not going to hold up to the classic John Denver and The Muppet’s Christmas album, you’ve really got to hear Miss Piggy’s version of “Santa Baby.” Fozzy Bear’s “North Pole Comedy Club” and the Swedish Chef’s “Christmas Smorgasboard” play on muppet stock characters, but are fun anyway.
Best bets (for your ear and/or credit card statement).
In general, I think that last year had a better overall group of new releases, and if you didn’t buy Diana Krall, or the double Charlie Brown CD last year, you can still get them this year at the same prices. In terms of new releases for 2006, the previously discussed, Chris Botti, Rhonda Vincent, and the Putumayo New Orleans Christmas all get honorable mentions for being overall solid CDs.
Best value: Anonymous 4, Noel: Carols and Chants for Christmas. This box set contains four of the group’s Christmas CDs, covering medieval songs and chants from all across Europe. It’s hauntingly beautiful and if you aren’t happy with the majority of your carols sung in a foreign language (Latin, German, and Hungarian make up a large percentage of these pieces), you can at least be assured that there’s no version of “Silent Night” among the 86 songs. Separately, the CDs would probably cost between sixty and eighty dollars, and normally this box set would sell for fifty, but it’s currently priced at 19.99.
Best listen: Sarah McLachlin Wintersong. Ohhh, this is definitely the prize of the season. While this CD mostly keeps to the Christmas canon, the arrangements are unusual, with the artist choosing to sing the carols in minor keys (like in “Greensleeves”) or using harmony as melody (in “Silent Night”). A rather ironic cover of John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (the War is Over)” begins the CD, and what might have become my favorite cover of Joni Mitchell’s “River” is probably the strongest track on the CD. Diana Krall lends a hand (on the piano) in a bluesy version of Guarldi’s “Christmas Time is Here” to finish the CD on a strong note.
Final Silent Night Count: 15.