Hallelujah, everybody say cheese
Merry Christmas from the family
After a dire start, my annual Christmas music exploration has taken a step up. This compilation album is close to a perfect distillation of the “Christmas compilation.” Quirky artists doing interesting versions of standards or covers of obscure tunes or somewhat off-kilter originals – this is exactly what you’re looking for. And, oh, yeah, this album is under fifty minutes, always a plus. This features some nice versions of standards. Mary Karlzen turns in a nice version of Run Rudolph Run which serves as the perfect opening track. But when the standards get a little off beat is when they really work. An eight minute version of White Christmas that features saxophonist James Carter accompanied by only an acoustic bass is probably the best track on the record; it’s minimalist, witty and constantly going off in some new direction. Next up in the quality department are a couple of similar tracks. They both feature singular female artists giving really tender live readings of classics, accompanied by only piano: Tori Amos’ luminous Little Drummer Boy and Victoria Williams’ aching Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. There’s also a gorgeous acoustic original called Make It Home by Juliana Hatfield and a weird, kind of New Wavey Blue Christmas by Collective Soul that is, I think, legitimately the best version of the song I’ve ever heard (possible spoiler: the Porky Pig version). The rest of the tracks are just a bit middle of the road; the only track to really drop below middle of the road to downright bad is Daniel Johnston’s cover of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but if you know who Daniel Johnston is, as I did, you’re probably going to want to check that one out for perverse reasons. He is, at least, interesting, unlike some of the blander bits here. Probably the thematic center of the record is Jill Sobule’s endearingly sloppy version of Merry Christmas from the Family; like this album, it finds joy and warmth in the merging of all kind of disparate characters. Nothing fits, I guess, like a bunch of misfits; I learned that on television. Christmas television, that is. 3 ½ stars.
tl;dr – holiday compilation is endearing & quirky in its treatment of standards; a few bland tracks, but drawing from a wide variety of genres ensures that this album stays fresh. 3 ½ stars.