Best easy listening albums12/4/2023 The brass-assisted version of Joni Mitchell’s River – Christmas-adjacent rather than a Christmas song per se – is gorgeous. The exquisite melancholy of Thorn’s voice turns out to be perfectly suited to a superbly curated selection of seasonal songs. The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album was recorded as Brian Wilson’s talents caught fire – taped around the same time as 1965’s awesome The Beach Boys Today! And side one, where the Wilson originals lurk, is studded with gems: Merry Christmas, Baby and Christmas Day in particular show how great he was, even when ostensibly knocking something off to order. The Beach Boys – The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album (1964) There’s also gospel on offer and masterful ballads: the version of I’ll Be Home for Christmas is genuinely heartbreaking. The first, and best, of Elvis’s seasonal offerings, made when Presley was still within touching distance of his early, raw rockabilly years: listen to the intense, bluesy opener, Santa Claus Is Back in Town, for proof. Elvis Presley – Elvis’ Christmas Album (1957) The star, though, is Stevie Wonder: his original version of Someday at Christmas crushes Lizzo’s current cover, and his more upbeat What Christmas Means to Me is a joy. The Jackson 5’s Santa Claus Is Coming to Town is exuberance bottled Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen intriguingly jazzy. Various artists – A Motown Christmas (1973) The country star’s first Christmas album is just fantastic: hushed carols, an ample helping of sass (To Heck With Ole Santa Claus, I Won’t Decorate Your Christmas Tree) and, best of all, unadulterated tears-in-the-tinsel misery on Gift of the Blues and Christmas Without Daddy. Kacey Musgraves – A Very Kacey Christmas (2016)Ī perfectly balanced seasonal feast, where kitsch – I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas – coexists with heartbreak set to weeping pedal steel guitar on Christmas Makes Me Cry, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer meets A Willie Nice Christmas, a weed-addled duet with Willie Nelson that urges listeners to get “higher than the angel on top of the tree”. He sings carols with conviction, but it’s the tunes he wrote himself that really hit home – not least the cheeringly realistic Get Behind Me, Santa!, which expresses weary optimism regarding the festive season: “It’s a fact of life whether you like it or not – so put your hands together and give it a shot.” 12. Sufjan Stevens – Songs for Christmas (2006)Ī 42-track compilation that charts Stevens’ progress from shambolic folk-rocker to baroque pop mastermind. The track, an ultra-funky saga of a harassed drug dealer’s Christmas Day, is undoubtedly the highlight, but TLC’s All I Want for Christmas and Toni Braxton’s classy take on The Christmas Song run it surprisingly close. This compilation earned its place in history by featuring the first track ever released by OutKast, Player’s Ball. Photograph: Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Bob Dylan – Christmas in the Heart (2009) The issue isn’t the music – a string-laden take on funk – but Brown himself, who appears to be making up the words to every song as he goes along, with bewildering results. James Brown made three Christmas albums, but the last one earns its place here by dint of being the weirdest. The Durutti Column’s implausibly beautiful Snowflakes is a standout. That most improbable of things: a post-punk Christmas album, that features Aztec Camera doing a Django Reinhardt-inspired instrumental, a selection of Factory Records alumni and San Franciscan oddballs Tuxedomoon. Various artists – Ghosts of Christmas Past (1981) The highlight: Claudine Longet’s delicate confection of strings, acoustic guitar and breathy vocals, Snow. In which the cream of A&M Records’ easy listening artists – Herb Alpert, Burt Bacharach and Sérgio Mendez among them – offer up a Christmas album as velvety-smooth as eggnog. Various artists – Something Festive (1968) Quite sparsely arranged, it allows the Roche sisters’ harmonies to dazzle – the acappella Star of Wonder is magical – while their New York-accented Winter Wonderland is an absolute hoot. The US avant-folk trio began their musical career carol singing, which makes We Three Kings a kind of back-to-their-roots enterprise.
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