Alexis Ffrench - Christmas Piano with Alexis
Lovely contemplative solo piano takes on two dozen , mostly, holiday standards. Ffrench is described as a "Classical Soul superstar' but this album leans more on the classical/jazz/easy listening side of things, a la George Winston. An excellent album.
Voctive - It Feels Like Christmas
I was all in on the acapella boom of a number of years ago that birthed the monster that is Pentatonix but after awhile I fell off the bandwagon, and out side of classic acts like The King’s Singers and Chanticleer, I don’t have a lot of it in my seasonal listening rotation.
Voctive’s new album of Christmas tunes might change that slightly. Its good old fashioned vocal harmonies, nothing genre shattering and sometimes that can be a good thing.
Chris Issak - Everybody Knows It’s Christmas (Deluxe)
One of my faves from last year adds four “new” tracks.
Maddie and Tae - We Need Christmas
This one isn’t Deluxe, but Extended (does that mean we might still get a deluxe! Oh Joy!)I thought it was okay back in 2020 and the new additions are as decent and workmanlike as the rest.
Forest Blakk - Wake Up (It’s Christmas Time)
Solid 4 track mini-album (maxi-single?)
Jon Pardi - Merry Christmas From Jon Pardi
My favorite country Christmas album of the season so far, if only because it actually wants to be a country album. Plus he does a cover of All I Want for Christmas is You that doesn’t make e feel like raming candy canes in my ears.
Lola Kirke - Hard Candy Christmas
Hard Candy Christmas is becoming a tough one to cover, there are already a few really good ones and of course the original is a classic. Kirke does a nice job here but doesn’t really make the song her own. If you don’t already have a handful of go-to covers of HCC you could do worse.
