Top Ten: Christmas Albums!

Welcome to our new Top Tens series in celebration of I Think, Therefore I Review's Tenth Anniversary! These monthly lists will highlight special themes and topics from our extensive archive of reviews.

This time a festive I Think, Therefore I Review presents...

Our Top Ten Christmas Albums!

Elvis' Christmas Album

Bing Crosby White Christmas

Johnny Mathis Merry Christmas

Celtic Woman: A Christmas Celebration

Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas

Mariah Carey Merry Christmas

Wynonna's A Classic Christmas

Noel Josh Groban

Kate Smith Christmas

Christmas Songs by Sinatra

Please see our Christmas tag for more holiday spirit or our Vinyl Records label for ye olde yule reviews!

I Think, Therefore I Review began as the blog home for previously published reviews and reprinted critiques by horror author Kristin Battestella. Naturally older articles linked here may be out of date and codes or formatting may be broken. Please excuse any errors and remember our Top Tens will generally only include films, shows, books, or music previously reviewed at I Think, Therefore I Review. 

 

Celtic Woman: A Christmas Celebration

Celtic Woman: A Christmas Celebration is a Joyous Holiday Concert

by Kristin Battestella

The Celtic Woman: A Christmas Celebration Live from Dublin concert DVD serves as a companion to the 2006 platinum CD of the same name featuring the Irish ensemble's original lineup of Chloë Agnew, Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, Órla Fallon, Lisa Kelly, and Máiréad Nesbitt alongside producer and musical director David Downes. This sophomore session remains a well balanced mix of carols, traditional hits, and classic holiday sounds complete with an Old World festive flair.

The colorfully begowned ladies open A Christmas Celebration with Carol Of The Bells, and the backing choir wonderfully contributes to this harmonizing staple. Although the tune is a little short and not a show stopping opener as seen in other Celtic Woman specials, these familiar melodies introduce the audience to the heraldry in store. Méav's first verse of Silent Night is sung in Irish, leaving the lovely universal recognition to shine with Máiréad's tender fiddle. The beauty of the season happens here – no spectacle needed beyond a voice, a string, and the tearful, humble story. White Christmas is also a slower piano based nostalgia with Chloë, Lisa, and Méav rotating the refrains before a big, all together finale. Órla's mellow a cappella opening of Away In A Manger likewise needs little else, and the pleasant chimes softly rise for a solid but no less lullaby tender. Although the songs are slowed to let the long winded notes linger, A Christmas Celebration moves fast thanks to short, three or four minute renditions.

The lighthearted vocals and choir echoes of Ding Dong Merrily On High give everyone a chance to swish their skirts and get into the the somewhat amusing Celtic Woman choreography – if you can call the turning left or right and walking forward or back choreography. The slightly silly moves are unnecessary, for standing still and singing is the point and what the ladies do best. There's also a slight costuming change as the shimmery wraps are lost in favor of some uncomfortable looking strapless gowns. Celtic Woman always seems to wear such unflattering, ill-fitting dresses! Fortunately, there's a happy sway to A Christmas Celebration, and Máiréad gets into her little skipping fiddlery as the octaves rise. The men and women of the choir also have a chance to shine with the unique liturgy chants opening Little Drummer Boy, and the percussion instruments keep the rhythm simple behind Órla and Chloë as the orchestra swells. Lisa (anglicized from Laoise, in case you were wondering where her fancy was) sings an intimate The Christmas Song with Downes at the piano, starting off with a soft, melancholy reminisce before turning to the concert crowd with the familiar lyrics and big notes. I wish In The Bleak Midwinter was sung because the words are so touching and its melody may be less familiar to modern listeners. However, Máiréad's instrumental is just as rousing, with a weeping warmth and heartstrings that segue into The First Noel. The carol is again slowed to make room for Chloë, Lisa, Órla, and Méav's high harmonizing, and the rising choir and orchestra crescendos bring the reverence home.

Simply put, Méav's The Wexford Carol is the way this somewhat difficult carol should be sung. With little else required, listeners are able to understand the humble creche story and choir echoes alongside the retained medieval high notes. I simply love the pleasant, catchy verse of Christmas Pipes and include it in almost all of my Christmas music playlists. Accenting bells, whistles, and harmonies match each whimsical refrain, getting everyone involved in this seven minute standout on A Christmas Celebration. This is a fun, jovial, and memorable new composition fitting in wonderfully amid the holiday classics. While this O Holy Night is not as operatic as other powerhouse versions and it's disappointing none of the ladies go for the major big note – which I think they all can hit – the lofty harmonies and choral atmosphere exude the heavenly heavy nonetheless. This all somber edition doesn't have a bombastic overboard but sounds like church, and that's not a complaint. Likewise, Chloë continues the humility in Panis Angelicus. The accompanying small string section invokes a baroque performance mood and the centuries old notion of how when people wanted to hear a carol, they had to sing the prayers themselves – no immediate phone recognition and instant download available.

Lisa breaks the December focus per se with the perhaps more expectedly Celtic Green The Whole Year Round. Although not as immediately recognizable as a Christmas song and some may not like the out of place, almost shoehorned advertising of what Celtic Woman is about the rest of the year, the holly and the ivy-esque, life amid the chilly tone remains festive. It's also unusual to have all four singers on Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, but the arrangement showcases the melancholy vocal echoes and lonely fiddle spotlights. Máiréad's fiddle also introduces the lesser known Irish carol Don Oíche Úd I Mbeithil (That Night In Bethlehem) with an ancient somber to match Órla's harp. Méav and Chloë bring the ye olde lyrics, and even if most of us don't know what they are saying, the melody carries its titular peace. Though again too short, only Celtic Woman can do these kinds of unique carols, and I wish A Christmas Celebration had more obscurities like this. Fortunately, Chloë, Méav, Lisa, and Órla hold hands for the penultimate invitational O Come All Ye Faithful as Máiréad rouses the choir with escalating refrains. You want to sing along with each verse but the familiar welcoming chokes one up and gets that holiday spirit a flutter.

The Let It Snow coda provides A Christmas Celebration with some jazzy fun for the ladies – complete with some new dance moves as Celtic Woman puts on the ritzy. This didn't have to be last, however, as if the softer December tunes were somehow more respectful and there couldn't be any louder, fast paced, or happy songs amid the heavy traditionals. The brass notes let the good time shine, and even the usually silent, fiddle only Máiréad has a final holiday say. Unfortunately, the A Christmas Celebration CD has a different track order and excises songs or regional bonuses, trading In The Bleak Midwinter and The First Noel with That Night in Bethlehem, O Come all Ye Faithful, and Let it Snow. It's surprising that this concert is relatively short at just over an hour, as there are plenty more carols to sing. The DVD of A Christmas Celebration is also a little plain with a cumbersome interface. However, there are closed captioning options – which are nice to have for the difficult to understand carols. Celtic Woman has no need for some kind of spectacle or big light show, but the Dublin venue seems small and dark. The choir and orchestra are also dressed in black to be shadowed behind the star group, but perhaps some festive red, white, or green attire may have made the evening even brighter.

It's a little sad that Celtic Woman has become a revolving door group and now none of the original members remain. Wikipedia even has a chart counting how there are now more former ladies than there are current ones. I tend to view the group in two halves, with the original superior years at best through 2012 and the more recent tours of mere pleasantry. Thankfully, A Christmas Celebration remains one of the group's finest – a delightful concert video and CD filled with joy and holiday charm for all. 

 

Celtic Woman: Home for Christmas

Celtic Woman: Home for Christmas Festive Despite A Few Hiccups

by Kristin Battestella

The 2012 holiday follow up Home for Christmas CD and DVD set from international group Celtic Woman isn't the ensemble's best Christmas fare. However, the songful revelry is nonetheless befitting of the season thanks to pleasing carols and festive fiddles.

I'll Be Home For Christmas is not the best place to start Home for Christmas, either, as newer band member Lisa Lambe provides a generic opener not as recognizable with that distinctive Celtic Woman sound. It makes a long time fan immediately miss the departed Lisa Kelly, and I always say Lisa Lambe in full to avoid confusing myself. Hark The Herald Angels Sing is the longest track at five minutes, and original Celtic Woman stars Chloë Agnew, Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, and fiddler Máiréad Nesbitt make this often upbeat carol a showstopper with rousing choir embellishments. I would think Chloë and Máiréad would do something more mature than the too cutesy and juvenile no matter how you jazz it up Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, but Silent Night and the returned Méav carry the right reverent, mellow, and sweeping angelic notes. Likewise, the ye olde spirit continues with the choir, orchestration, and harmonies in We Three Kings. We Wish You a Merry Christmas makes for an odd middle ode on Home for Christmas – one might expect to hear such well wishing nearer the finale instead of interrupting the carols for some pudding and sassy.

Fortunately, Méav and Máiréad, bring the heartstrings and octaves for the What Child Is This pre-Elizabethan flavor while Chloë adds more medieval revelry with an Adeste Fideles done in full on proper Latin sentiment. Winter Wonderland is again a bit out of place with some jazzy lines and alternating cues so each singer has her moment, and honestly, I would rather have had just Máiréad going all out with the toe tapping medley. The harmonies on Mary's Boy Child are nicer with charming verses and a pleasing chorus taking the tune up a notch, but Lisa Lambe's Auld Lang Syne is a weak denouement. During Celtic Woman's original 2004-2007 line up, even if you didn't know the ladies apart in look when you watched the PBS specials, you could identify each singer's voice on an album when you heard it. Lambe sounds like a stock studio singer, and Celtic Woman's increasing revolving door membership is unfortunately leading to a much more common assembly line sound. Today, you buy an album or tune in for a concert, and you never know what girls you're going to get. Although Joy to the World is a perhaps unusual conclusion, this is a nonetheless merry mix of solos and traditional choir rousing for an all out celebratory finale.

Despite the hiccups, I like listening to Home for Christmas as a CD, however, the companion Home for Christmas DVD concert included with the set isn't always an hour I enjoy. There's no Chloë. How is it Celtic Woman without Chloë? Producer and director David Downes is always nice to see, but with new member Susan McFadden filling in for the tour, Celtic Woman doesn't seem the same. McFadden and Lisa Lambe just seem interchangeable and indistinguishable to me, and neither actress seems capable of being a glass breaking diva like their predecessors. An ominous orchestral start on Winter Wonderland leads off the concert's different track order, but Susan is too pop sounding alongside Méav, Lisa Lambe, and Máiréad. It's also odd that the ladies are holding regular microphones instead of wearing the smaller ear pieces often used today. It's a simple thing, but seeing the mechanics so to speak takes a bit away from the group's previous arms free, flowing ethereal style, and this rendition is a soft, cutesy start compared to the sweeping opening numbers of previous Celtic Woman concerts. Thankfully, the white gowns, silver sparkling accents, and glittering red wardrobe change are fittingly festive for this Home for Christmas concert subtitled Live from Dublin, and Méav and Máiréad are much stronger for the stirring strings and What Child Is This somber for the season – where the vocals are allowed to hold all the spiritual notes.

The four person line up of only Susan, Méav, and Lisa Lambe singing with Máiréad's instrumentals, unfortunately, isn't as solid as the previous five person powerhouse, and the rock out harmonies on We Wish You a Merry Christmas feel off, again as does Lisa Lambe's I'll Be Home For Christmas. Maybe a pop arrangement instead of slow melancholy notes is okay, but this generic hip music machine churning out basic sounds that can be heard anywhere design seems contradictory to when Celtic Woman once brought unique international orchestration to the masses. I honestly don't think some of the new ladies can hit the high notes and thus all the production numbers from Live in Dublin are toned down accordingly. Poor Méav is stuck between the newbies for Hark The Herald Angels Sing, and while not as bombastic as the album recording, the straightforward backing choir makes for a pretty, rousing rendition. Meanwhile, instead of her own solo apart from covering Chloë's album track, Susan goes into the crowd for an awkward Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. Fortunately, the lower harmonies on We Three Kings are better – not to mention bagpipes, people, bagpipes – and in a welcome addition to the concert not on the CD, Máiréad does it again with Carol of the Bells. Why is she the one never going solo to make an album of weeping and rousing fiddlelry?

Home for Christmas' three singing ladies also speak briefly before the concert exclusive O Tannenbaum, and the variety of German, Italian, and English verses invokes more of the expected Celtic Woman mood. Likewise, Méav is again stirring for Silent Night as a woman standing still with nothing but the power of her voice to tell the creche miracle. Thank you! Strangely breaking up the largely carol focused night with kitschy fake falling snow, It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas probably should have started the concert, but I'd love to hear more of the slightly obscure and much more seasonably Celtic The Light of Christmas Morn. Susan also gets her own Live from Dublin solo for It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, and this gospel rendition with a wonderful choir is much nicer than Lisa Lambe's Auld Lang Syne. The poor concert goers are trying to sing along with the almost now unrecognizable tune! Thankfully, the Joy To The World finale is appropriately festive, and what's this? The Home for Christmas DVD bonus content includes another twelve plus minutes featuring all four ladies dressed casually and going a cappella – well, except Máiréad, hehe – around Downes and his piano. Holiday memories are shared, and Lisa Lambe is much stronger for Away in A Manger. Why wasn't this on the album? Susan is also delightful for The Christmas Song, but dang they could have done the entire concert with this relaxed, intimate atmosphere. Released as a bonus track on the Home for Christmas Special Edition, Méav's In the Bleak Midwinter gets everyone choked up, and last but most definitely not least, Máiréad joins in for Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. Golly gee, this set is better than the concert itself!

Celtic Woman die hard collectors can chase several additional tracks and international releases for Home for Christmas alongside the rehashed Silent Night and O Christmas Tree compilations, however the big numbers or the sit back and be awed vocals found in Celtic Woman's earlier line ups or the prior A Christmas Celebration album feel absent here. Despite having a majority of religious carols, the tone is a much smaller, more palatable easy forty five minute session. If you don't compare and accept the sweet seasonal mood here, Home for Christmas is a pleasing listen that does what it says in invoking a soft holiday atmosphere. The familiar carols make the CD a quick December staple to pick and choose for your playlist, and when not nitpicking at the included concert DVD, the video works in occupying the television for a festive background accompaniment to your holiday party, Christmas baking, or tree trimming.