Neil Diamond - A Cherry Cherry Christmas
In light of pop legend Diamond's recent Rick Rubin fueled re-invigoration, I had high hopes for A Cherry Cherry Christmas. Instead we have a fairly generic Christmas-by-numbers effort which recycles a number of tracks from Diamond's earlier holiday albums . Most of the usual suspects are trotted out including The Christmas Song, Sleigh Ride, White Christmas and Have Yourself a Merry Christmas but the arrangements seldom rise above that of a high quality midi-file. Once Diamond moves into a slightly more rock vein things perk up before dipping again with some listless cod-gospel before closing with a fairly straight, and entirely unnecessary, take on Adam Sandler's classic The Chanukah Song.
Devoted Neil Diamond fans who haven't already picked up his previous holiday albums should dive right in but less devoted listeners may want to pick and choose their favorite tracks.
Highlights...
- The only slightly embarrassing Cherry Cherry Christmas which unashamedly name checks several past Diamond hits.
- The acoustic flavored Christmas Dream
- A nice a cappella take on Deck the Halls/We Wish you a Merry Christmas
- A lively Jingle Bell Rock
- You Make It Feel Like Christmas
