Okay, I’m done with the reviews.
Having spent the better part of a month — longer, frankly, than I expected to — listening to unfamiliar Christmas albums, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a fair amount of a gold out there amidst the dross. I generally tried to avoid listening to anything that I had reason to think would be a bad experience, and wasn’t always successful. But on the whole, I’m kind of surprised at how many of the albums I picked sort of randomly turned out to be pretty good.
For those of you that didn’t follow along, here’s a quick summary:
The Best
The highest possible rating was five stars, but none of the albums I reviewed got higher than four. So they may not be all-time classics, but these were, in my opinion, the best albums I stumbled across over the last month.
Dave Brubeck, A Dave Brubeck Christmas
Mantovani, Mantovani Orchestra Performs Christmas Classics
Mindy Smith, My Holiday
The Next Best
The next list includes the albums that received three and a half stars.
John Denver, A Rocky Mountain Christmas
Ron Korb and Donald Quan, Seasons
Bethany McCade, A Little Christmas
Over the Rhine, Snow Angels
Kim Robertson, Christmas Lullaby
The rest of the albums are more hit-and-miss, though you will find at least one or two moderately good songs on all but the Annie Lennox abomination, A Christmas Cornucopia, which was the worst album I reviewed. So here’s a playlist that includes the best tracks from all of the albums I reviewed, except that one because the whole thing is terrible.
1. “O Come O Come Emmanuel”, Synergy Brass Quartet
2. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”, Gypsy Soul
3. “The First Noel”, Robin Bullock
4. “Christmas Time Is Here”, Bethany McCade
5. “We Three Kings”, Ron Korb and Donald Quan
6. “Santa Will Find You”, Mindy Smith
7. “Christmas For Cowboys”, Jars of Clay
8. “I Saw Three Ships”, Mantovani
9. “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”, Lena Horne
10. “Mele Kalikimaka”, Heather Henry
11. “Mistletoe and Holly”, Christie McCarthy
12. “Here Comes Santa Claus”, Bob Dylan
13. “Here It Is”, Over the Rhine
14. “Winter Wonderland”, Dave Brubeck
15. “Riu Riu Chiu”, Quattrottave
16. “What Child Is This”, John Denver
17. “In The Bleak Midwinter”, Kim Robertson
18. “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town”, The Ray Conniff Singers
19. “Angels In The Snow”, David Arkenstone
20. “White Christmas”, Shelby Lynne
21. “Auld Lang Syne”, James Taylor
I hope you enjoy the tunes. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
