Barbra Streisand’s Christmas Memories a Sophisticated, Somber Listen
By
Kristin Battestella
Where
Christmas today is mostly kid-centric, Barbra Streisand’s platinum 2001Christmas Memories release proves that
not only is there nothing wrong with a mature, somber holiday album, but that
such pensive sophistication may be exactly what December needs.
The
expected long-winded notes are no less soft, tender, and gentle to start I’ll Be Home for Christmas and smooth background
orchestration helps bend the melody, letting the vocals linger while retaining the
familiar bittersweet. Christmas Memories’
swanky but melancholy tone continues with the combined Broadway style and
dinner for two sway of A Christmas Love
Song. Although it is tough to
understand the lyrics at times or find the romantic December wording, there’s so
pleasing a dance here that it doesn’t even matter. This excellent elegance
rolls on with What Are You Doing New
Year’s Eve. Considering all the
sweet singers who’ve recorded it, I’ve never realized how much this song seems
meant for Barbra. It’s jazzy, velvet, mature yet a hopeful inquiry. There’s no
need for big arrangements – just intimate music and a stunning plea. How can
one refuse?
I Remember continues the downhearted merriment on Christmas Memories with a quiet nostalgia
and storytelling verse. Maybe it’s generic in its Yule recollections or a bit
rambling, granted. However, something here will tug your heartstrings whilst
listening alone in the wee hours before the tree. This is a bit of a sad song
indeed made more so considering its post 9/11 release. Fortunately, Snowbound is more romantic and
traditionally fireside. I would say kinky, but this tune is too mature for
that, so classy the juicy need not be said. The more familiar It Must Have Been the Mistletoe is perhaps
as pop as Christmas Memories gets –
there is a bit more orchestration and a breezy, effortless delivery creating
plenty of winter love and Christmas charm.
Though
it may seem as if Christmas Lullaby is
meant to affectionately put the kids to bed come Christmas Eve, the poignant
lyrics of hope, joy, and peace resonate with deeper feelings amid the tear
jerking Broadway moments. Naturally, the titular Christmas Mem’ries encapsulates the wistful, evocative mood of the
session perfectly with its somber, swaying delivery. The childhood talk of
baking cookies and waking Christmas morning gives an aged, holiday patina,
allowing the season to be vintage like a fine wine rather than remaining
perpetually juvenile. Christmas Memories might
sound like a lot of the same at times, but the pleasant delivery and
sentimental lyrics keep the 45 minutes plus moving over your candlelit dinner. Grown Up Christmas List continues the
tender – it’s tear inducing at best and downright upsetting at worst.
Considering the album’s late 2001 date, these heartwarming notes, crescendos,
and lyrical peace and harmony for which an adult would ask Santa take on a more
profound meaning.
A
shorter version of Ave Maria appeared
on Barbra’s 1967 A Christmas Album,
but Christmas Memories provides
almost five minutes of down and good medieval Latin and reverence. This is
perhaps the most Catholic infused and Christ centric of a Christmas ode one can
get, yet the uplifting, ascending voices here transcend language with a solemn,
therapeutic universal indeed. Closer continues
the melancholy with a perfectly understandable, tearful rendition. In a season
where many are separated or depressed, why are so many Christmas albums so dang
jolly? It’s an ironically pleasing change to have a lonely December vocal. The
poignant, show-stopping finale One God has
choir accents to match its sweeping, united message – which again takes on more
meaning in the wake of its release. Instead of homogenizing the holiday quarter
into one moneymaking mishmash without belief, why not just accept our common
spring to the season?
Understandably,
some listeners may find Christmas
Memories too depressing or over the top in it’s hugging, holding hands,
Kumbaya feeling. This session captures the bleakness of a Christmas after
September 11th and may be dated in that regard. But why not have an album not
meant for a youthful, festive, kitschy and ridiculously happy audience? Where
Barbra’s A Christmas Album was
traditionally split between religious and secular sides, the new or less
familiar material on Christmas Memories fills
the void for solitary singles or older couples who may perennially experience
the sadness of the season – and that’s actually pretty darn nice.
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