Various artists Christmas Gift

added: 17 Dec 2010 // release date: 6 Dec 2010 // label: Rainboot (label) 
reviewer: Sophie MacKintosh

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What comes to mind when you think of Christmas songs? If your first instinct is to cringe, imagining Shakin’ Stevens, Wizzard, et al, or sinking careers hastening their own demise by desperate use of jingle bells and Santa hats – think again. The songs on Christmas Gift are a gentle hearkening back to a time when Christmas songs (much like the holiday itself) were less…garish, more heartfelt.

This tone is set by the gorgeous opener Love Again by The Animal Beat, and things only get better from then on. The songs are mostly originals, except for The Whiskey Priest’s folksy interpretation of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (where the addition of an electric guitar actually works and doesn’t call up images of backing singers in Christmas hats), and Trev Gibb’s and Travis Tucker’s heartbreakingly wonderful versions of Silent Night and O Holy Night. The original songs may technically be Christmas songs (see “Santa Claus won’t be coming this year”, James Neill mournfully sings on Up Before Dawn), but ultimately they are low-key tributes to love and life, sung with joy and beauty in every note. And isn’t that what Christmas is really about, in the end?

Highlights include Waxwing by Tyler Butler- mournful and lyrical, as far from your typical Christmas song as you can imagine, except for the way it makes you picture bleakly beautiful snowscapes stretching as far as the eye can see – and Christmas By The Sea by The Animal Beat, a ukulele-strummed ditty that dares you not to sing along. And as if you needed any other reason to buy this CD, all the proceeds go to ‘Save The Children’. Really, no other CD deserves a place in your stocking more.

You can download the album directly from the label (www.rainboot.co.uk/gift) or get it from iTunes, Amazon et al.


Various artists - Christmas Gift - Music-News.com