From poignant pop to country carols, music’s stars are rocking around the Christmas tree this year with new festive albums. ADRIAN THRILLS sorts the crackers from the turkeys…
Gwen Stefani’s first Christmas album is unashamedly romantic
GWEN STEFANI: You Make It Feel Like Christmas (Interscope)
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Gwen Stefani’s first Christmas album is unashamedly romantic. The Californian pop siren’s marriage to Bush singer Gavin Rossdale ended two years ago and she is clearly looking forward to a festive season with new love Blake Shelton.
The pair duet on the title track — a country tune with a Motown backbeat — and Stefani sings her man’s praises again on the Tin Pan Alley pop of My Gift Is You. The six originals here are augmented with covers, including George Michael’s Last Christmas and a giddy Jingle Bells.
For her truly committed fans, Stefani has also launched her own range of bespoke Christmas decorations (see gwenstefani.com).
TOM CHAPLIN: Twelve Tales Of Christmas (Island)
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With Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know having been used on a John Lewis advert four years ago, singer Tom Chaplin has already left his stamp on the Christmas market.
This solo effort is dark and wintry, with the melancholy streak at the heart of Keane’s best songs never far from the surface. His choirboy vocals soar on covers of The Pretenders’ 2000 Miles and Joni Mitchell’s River, but it’s his bittersweet originals that steal the show here.
Tom pays tribute to lost loved ones on We Remember You This Christmas and demonstrates impressive lung power on Under A Million Lights. He also plays three Christmas concerts, starting on Sunday in Manchester.
LINDSEY STIRLING: Warmer In The Winter (Concord)
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A classical violinist who became a YouTube phenomenon thanks to her ability to pull off floor-skimming back-bends and moon-walks while playing, Lindsey Stirling hooks up with an array of guests on her first Christmas album.
Latin pop singer Becky Gomez decorates Christmas C’mon, while Disney star Sabrina Carpenter sings You’re A Mean One, Mr Grinch. Stirling’s passion and virtuosity shine through on folk carols and an excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker.
SIA: Everyday Is Christmas (Atlantic)
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Swapping her trademark black-and- white wig for a seasonal green-and-red one, the once-reclusive Sia Furler is coming increasingly into the public eye and she is in her element here.
The Australian singer’s forte is the big, emotional ballad and she delivers on the haunting Underneath The Christmas Lights — promising ‘happy presents for all the girls who’ve cried’ — and Snowflake.
Swapping her trademark black-and- white wig for a seasonal green-and-red one, the once-reclusive Sia Furler is coming increasingly into the public eye and she is in her element here
Her ten new songs, co-written with customary sidekick Greg Kurstin, also embrace pop and soul with some deliciously dark twists. Comedy number Ho Ho Ho tells of Christmas ‘in the land of misfits’. Another track casts her as the wife of a snowman: ‘I’m Mrs Snow — ’til death we’ll be freezing.’
REBA McENTIRE: My Kind Of Christmas (Big Machine)
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The Grand Dame of American country already has two Yuletide albums to her name, but this third effort evokes the fireside feel of her Oklahoman Christmases by augmenting her vocals with Catherine Marx’s fluent piano and little else.
The simple arrangements generally work well. Some of the tunes are as treacly as Christmas pudding, but Dolly Parton’s Hard Candy Christmas has a Seventies singer-songwriter feel, and Silent Night — with Kelly Clarkson and Trisha Yearwood — is a full-blown diva-fest.
CHEAP TRICK: Christmas Christmas (Big Machine)
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For those who like their Yuletide volume turned up to eleven, veteran American rockers Cheap Trick provide a booming alternative to the traditional carol.
Reiterating singer Robin Zander and guitarist Rick Nielsen’s enthusiasm for British glam, the band supply faithful renditions of Seventies standards by Wizzard and Slade before covering The Kinks’ Father Christmas.
For those who like their Yuletide volume turned up to eleven, veteran American rockers Cheap Trick provide a booming alternative to the traditional carol
But this is a hit-and-miss affair. As they show on Our Father Of Life, Cheap Trick are less convincing when they try to be serious, although their transformation of Silent Night into an over-the-top metal anthem — complete with thunderclaps and layers of wailing feedback — is hard to better for festive excess.
ELVIS PRESLEY: Christmas With Elvis (Legacy)
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On the heels of 2015’s If I Can Dream and last year’s The Wonder Of You, this is the third episode of The King with strings — and this time it is Elvis’s seasonal hits that get a makeover courtesy of producer Nick Patrick and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
The songs here range from the maudlin (Silver Bells) to the magnificent (Blue Christmas), with the new arrangements elegant without being too intrusive. A deluxe edition features four additional tracks reworked from 1957’s Peace In The Valley EP.
SIMON CALLOW: A Christmas Carol (Island)
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Thespian Callow has written a biography of Charles Dickens and played the author on screen and stage, so his witty and touching reading of A Christmas Carol has a superb natural flow.
The story of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge and his encounters with the ghosts of Christmas was first published 175 years ago, but Callow’s narration, fleshed out by carols played by a Yorkshire brass band, adds fresh nuance to a familiar tale.