I'm back for another season of random jottings on all things Christmas including very brief reviews of as much of this years new holiday music as I can stand. You will probably not agree with me about most things, that's the story of my life, but you will hopefully discover some new festive favorites to add to your own playlists this year.
Wrabel - merry christmas - merry christmas to you
Amazed to find Christmas songs with millions of Spotify streams the day before Halloween then realized that the songs were previously released as singles in years past. Five track EP sports a couple of decent tracks - first winter & this christmas are the stand outs, sometimes christmas is hard isn’t bad.
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Norah Jones - I Dream of Christmas
I expect to hear this at every dinner party I attend over the next two months. Could be worse. There’s nothing not to like here, I’ll have it in medium rotation and see how it ages as he weeks go by.
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Kelly Clarkson - When Christmas Comes Around...
If you’re going to lead off your record with a song called Merry Christmas Baby it should be Merry Christmas Baby. Jeez. It’s Beginning to look a lot like Christmas doesn’t work for me at all and Christmas isn’t Cancelled (Just You) isn’t bad but it’s so derivative I feel like it’s been on the shelf for 5 years.
After a forgettable soundtrack ballad sounding thing and another questionable cover we get Glow, a duet with Chris Stapleton, probably the best thing on the album. Another duet I couldn’t care less about, more predictable, uninspired covers then Blessed which my wife thought might be Mariah, it’s not but it’s a fairly good track. The non-deluxe version for the proles ends with the forgettable Christmas Come Early but superior people who opt for the Deluxe version get three bonus songs just for them. Well, they’re earlier, but popular ones including Christmas Eve and a Brett Eldridge duet.
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Pentatonix - Evergreen
This is still a thing? I was a fan in the early days but at this point they're just trolling us.
I imagine you’ll like it if you’ve liked the previous thirty installments. I won’t switch the channel if one of these, tracks come on, as I imagine it inevitably will, but that’s about it.
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Mitchell Tenpenny - Naughty List
Is this what would have happened if Barry White had made a country Christmas album? No, probably not, but it might be the closest we get. Some nice tracks on this, I’ll be keeping it in Medium Rotation to get a feel for it.
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Kristin Chenoweth - Happiness Is… Christmas
This one will be on endless repeat, along with the Daren Criss, on my Show People friends stereos this season. Highlights include having the good taste to do a song called Merry Christmas Baby and have it actually be Merry Christmas Baby, even if Kris has an uphill climb competing with duet partner Keb Mo. Santa. I’ve Got a Bone to Pick with You is cute. I like her take on My Dear Acquaintance (Happy New Year), though I’m not sure if it will surpass my affection for Peggy Lee or Regina Spektor’s versions.
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Brett Eldredge - Mr. Christmas
Hey look, another artist who knows what version of Merry Christmas Baby to record. Mr. Christmas seems like a nice effort from Eldredge just a few years after his first holiday release Glow. I’ll definitely be listening to it this year, how much of it carries over to 2022 remains to be seen.
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L Shankar - Christmas From India
From the artist who brought you Psychic Elephant comes Christmas From India. I’m trying to listen to this unironically because I really don’t think it’s meant to be a novelty record and it does have it’s moments. I just can’t see a situation where I’d choose to play this.
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Teddy Swims - A Very Teddy Christmas
EP that features a couple of popular singles from last Christmas. A well crafted set of standards, my favorite country release so far.
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So, in the end none of this batch are likely to make it into Heavy Rotation this season, though you never know, but only a couple are total losses.Faves would be Teddy, Brett, Norah and Mitchell.
