She’s wonderful company for any degree of isolation. Her approach to another Christmas of restrictions is to hope that it’s not as bad as last time on the cute original It’s Only Christmas Once a Year. Even White Christmas gets a little fresher when she drapes her velvet vocals over wandering piano and shuffling jazz drums. Norah Jones gets a much more consistent cosy vibe glowing on I Dream of Christmas (Blue Note, ****). It’s the weirdest moment on a collection that tries it all: carols, boogie-woogie backing vocals, an Aled Jones cameo and a bleak midwinter take on Shakin’ Stevens’ Merry Christmas Everyone that sounds like it tried and failed for the John Lewis commission. “Come on Christmas, oh, you gotta make it all right,” he urges over jaunty Caribbean horns. His song Come on Christmas pictures December 25 as Godzilla to Covid’s Mothra – the only thing that can defeat the disease. Gary Barlow, who wisely consulted the spreadsheet to release The Dream of Christmas (Polydor, **) two years after his former Take That bandmate Robbie Williams’ similarly underwhelming The Christmas Present, tries to tackle you-know-what in an unusually upbeat manner.
CHRISTMAS JAZZ PIANO ALBUM HOW TO
Is it weird if you tick off all the clichés – mistletoe, fires, snow etc – without acknowledging the sprout in the ointment that is the ongoing global pandemic? And if you do mention that, how to do so without turning your toasty ballad into a mood-ruining sleigh crash? Even Ed Sheeran and Elton John’s current number one single, Merry Christmas, piles on the winter charm but also follows the line “Just having so much fun” with the unquestionable downer: “While we’re here, can we all spare a thought for the ones who have gone?” This year it’s harder than ever to write a new Christmas song that gets the tone right.
They all get round to it sooner or later, usually mixing the umpteenth unnecessary take on a few classics with the occasional original that just might, if Santa thinks they’ve been good, let them join Mariah Carey, Michael Bublé and Noddy Holder on the list of girls and boys who can spend December after December finding that their golden coins aren’t made of chocolate.
CHRISTMAS JAZZ PIANO ALBUM UPDATE
I wonder if the pop stars update a shared spreadsheet so they can keep track of whose turn it is to make a Christmas album.
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