Whether you’re a fan of pop, rock, jazz or classical music, something on these lists will resonate for you this season.
pop & rock
Billy Idol singing a soft-rock take on “Oh Christmas Tree” is more perverse than The Eagles getting back together and The Doors reforming sans Jim Morrison combined.
Happy holidays.
No, really, that’s what the punk icon is calling his new Christmas record – “Happy Holidays.” If Billy Idol can rock the Christmas record, anybody can. And they do.Here are some new offerings this year:
Happy Holidays
Billy Idol
This was never a good idea, but it’s still a great novelty gift. Were Idol to come out of this project newly lauded for his smooth vocals and intriguing compositions, great. But that’s not the way it goes down. “In the ’70s and ’80s, I would just get stoned for Christmas,” Idol said in a release. “But during the ’90s, my parents, my kids and some of the rest of the family started coming to my house in L.A. for Christmas.” Idol failed to comment on his drug usage on Christmas in the ’00s. $26.49
James Taylor At Christmas
James Taylor
Taylor has soul and an inimitable voice, but he has no business singing a painfully jazzed-out “Jingle Bells.” Thankfully this compilation isn’t all traditionals. Some of the contemporary work, including “In the Bleak Midwinter,” are more tolerable – while still representing the colder, merrier months. $18.99
Songs for Christmas
Sufjan Stevens
It’s no surprise this indie poster boy released a box set of Christmas songs, given his Christian background. But the care he takes with each selection, from the jaunty, flute-laden “Put the Lights on the Tree” to classics like “The Little Drummer Boy” and “Away in a Manger,” is rare in the genre. Also amusing is “Get Behind Me, Santa,” a Jesus-friendly anagram of the White Stripes’ disc “Get Behind Me Satan.” Value is the word here, with 42 tracks. $22.99
Wintersong
Sarah McLachlan
This is one of the year’s more artistically different records. The Canadian singer’s voice is pretty as ever, and the arrangements of “Silent Night” and Joni Mitchell’s “River” will make for holiday listening that won’t drive you crazy. $18.99
New Orleans Christmas
Various artists
Putamayo’s first-rate compilations continue with this grab-bag of Cajun-flavored tracks. If you thought “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” lacked swing, you’ve never heard Big Al Carson with Lars Edegran & his Santa Claus Revelers. The Heritage Hall Jazz Band’s swaggering “Silver Bells” is another standout, injecting pep into a typically somber tune. Even “White Christmas” – as familiar as it is – feels reinvigorated with John Boutte’s nuanced crooning. $15.99
Cool Yule
Bette Midler
Midler is the kind of artist who truly should have a Christmas album. With her sass factor turned to 10, Midler’s voice is as brassy as the big horn sections she employs on songs such as “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” a holiday medley with Johnny Mathis and a holiday version of “From a Distance.” $18.99
A Brad Paisley Christmas
Brad Paisley
Upbeat and shot through with humor (see “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy” and “Penguin, James Penguin”), this 12-track disc features Paisley’s smooth, melodic voice and a good amount of ornery pedal steel and fiddle work. “364 Days to Go” is perfect for setting a mood on a snowy eve. $18.99
A Christmas Celebration
Celtic Woman
This moody Irish troupe, popularized via PBS, takes on all the songs you could possibly want from them. If you’re into their overproduced Celtic sounds, you’ll appreciate their interpretations of “Carol of the Bells,” “The Wexford Carol” and “O Holy Night.” $18.99
jazz
One of the advantages of holiday music collections from the various-artists category is the opportunity for you to sample the stylistic wares of different performers while you get a taste of a particular label’s “flavor.” What follows are a couple of this year’s best “various” compilations, but we’ll lead off with a new version of an eternal (well, 40-year-old) favorite.
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Vince Guaraldi
Pianist Guaraldi was never a flashy improviser. He took simple ideas and worked them out to their logical melodic conclusions. He had a way of turning his limitations into advantages. This collection of gentle sketches, aided by those Charles Schulz TV images, made this a hugely successful 1965 project. The alternate takes on this new “expanded edition” add a few slight variations to the already familiar tunes, but it’s the material you already know that will resonate. This is the jazz equivalent of Linus’ security blanket: warm and reassuring. $14.98
Christmas Break: Relaxing Jazz for the Holidays
Various artists
When a record label applies a word like “relaxing” to the title, I cringe at the thought of Kenny G-ish soulless gloss. This, though, really is pleasant. The roster includes Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck, Gerry Mulligan, George Shearing and the obligatory Mel Torme, all late-career and reflective. $11.98
The Harlem Nutcracker
David Berger and the Sultans of Swing
Tasteful arrangements and performances of Duke Ellington and conductor Berger’s interpretations of Tchaikovsky. This is music of considerable thoughtfulness and depth. It swings respectably, too. But what if you need a fix of the “Chipmunk Song?” $17.99
Jazz Yule Love 2
Various artists
Oh, here it is, “Chipmunk” performed by impressive young swing upstarts Hot Club of Detroit. I’ve never heard “Jazz Yule Love 1,” but this seems like it’s probably more of the likable same from the independent Mack Avenue label. Other featured new performers include trumpeter Sean Jones and singer Ilona Knopfler, who both breathe life into songs you’ve heard many times. $17.98.
A fresh take on the “Messiah”
With the possible exception of Tchaikovsky’s beloved score for “The Nutcracker,” the “Messiah” is easily the best known and most frequently performed classical work associated with Christmas.
It is not hard to understand why. This great oratorio by one of the giants of baroque music, George Frideric Handel, exerts a direct and immediate impact on listeners no matter their musical knowledge or background.
For these reasons, the 1742 choral masterpiece should be a part of any classical-music recording library, and it makes a great addition to the group of albums that ordinary fans of Christmas music dust off each year during the yuletide.
To that end, it would be hard to beat a new period-instrument recording of the “Messiah” led by René Jacobs, one of the world’s most celebrated baroque conductors. It features the Choir of Clare College and Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (2 CDs, $39.98).
Unlike some modern versions that use choirs of 100 or more singers and put an emphasis on scale and power, this one employs considerably smaller forces in line with those originally used by Handel.
The difference can be heard especially in the famed “Hallelujah!” chorus, which has a lighter, more transparent sound. Jacobs actually pulls back a bit in this section, with a slightly understated approach that allows listeners to hear the chorus in a fresh, equally effective way.
Adding appeal to this release is its artful packaging, including a box adorned with a beautiful reproduction of a 1510 painting by Jan Provost.
-Kyle MacMillan
classical
The classical-music world certainly knows how to dress up and deliver tried-and-true holiday favorites. But perhaps more important, it also can take listeners on amazing journeys back in time and around the globe, offering unexpected and rewarding celebrations of the season. Here’s a look at some of this year’s best releases:
The Christmas Album
Roberto Alagna, tenor, London Symphony Orchestra, Robin Smith, conductor
Taking an obvious cue from Luciano Pavarotti, Alagna created his own tribute to the yuletide, albeit with a more popular bent. This recording (apparently re-released to take advantage of the tenor’s increased visibility) is appealing enough, but it in no way eclipses Pavarotti’s classic Christmas recording from the 1970s. $16.98
Christmastime Is Here
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Erich Kunzel, conductor
This album takes an unabashedly populist tack, with 14 mostly modern holiday stalwarts, such as “Jingle Bell Rock,” and “We Need a Little Christmas,” from the movie “Mame.” Giving it a boost are guest appearances by the King’s Singers and four noted jazz and cabaret vocalists, including Tierney Sutton, who offers a fresh, affecting version of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” $17.98
Medieval Christmas
The Orlando Consort
This internationally recognized all-male, a cappella quartet takes listeners on an extraordinary trip back to Christmas and its related celebrations during the Middle Ages. The album features impeccably realized, entrancing takes on these mostly forgotten selections, ranging from 15th-century English carols to narrative motets to French composer Antoine Brunel’s culminating five- part meditation. $21.98.
Merry Christmas: A Holiday Journey
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
This collection of violin arrangements of familiar carols is undoubtedly the most unusual album on this list, and that can be both good and downright odd. Some tracks, such as Salerno-Sonnenberg’s solo take on “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” are duds. But when she joins with a group of musicians for a jazzy fusion of “The Wassail Song/O Tannenbaum,” the result is a spirited, rewarding confection. $16.98.
A New Joy: Orthodox Christmas
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Paul Hillier, conductor
This album’s welcome unconventionality is signaled with its opening track – bell- ringing at St. Alexander Cathedral in Tallinn, Estonia. That leads directly into a sublime performance of Nicolas Kedrov Sr.’s “Our Father.” This superb collection, a must for anyone seeking a truly alternative take on the season, continues with an array of stunning works by Eastern European composers who are mostly little-known in the West. $21.98.
Noël
Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano, Bengt Forsberg, piano
Eschewing the heavily produced approach of many of the albums on this list, the famed Swedish mezzo-soprano went for something simpler. This striking release features her lovely, pure voice with just piano accompaniment, as she performs an ambitious, wide-ranging assortment of selections, with an emphasis on works from Scandinavia. $16.98.
The Wonder of Christmas
Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Craig Jessop and Mark Wilberg, conductors
Another collection of yuletide favorites from this famed choir is hardly anything new. But what sets this one apart is the high-quality stereophonic sound, the rich orchestral and organ accompaniment and first-rate performances by some impressive guest soloists, ranging from Audra McDonald to opera singers Bryn Terfel and Renée Fleming. $16.98.
Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com. Staff writer John Wenzel can be reached at 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com.
