{"id":40663,"date":"2007-12-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/now-thats-what-i-call-christmas-vol-2\/"},"modified":"2007-12-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-25T00:00:00","slug":"now-thats-what-i-call-christmas-vol-2","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/now-thats-what-i-call-christmas-vol-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Now That’s What I Call Christmas, Vol. 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back for another go-around, your traditional holiday favorites are performed by all the classic artists from the past. All are solid as ever and have been brilliantly re-mastered and repackaged in all their glory. It\u2019s perfect fodder for those radio stations that play non-stop Christmas music 24\/7 for the whole month of December. It\u2019s NOW a reality, despite whether you love it or hate it.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This time, the newer artists get top-billing and are featured on CD 1. Big mistake. Also, the song selection overall feels substantially weaker than was found on Volume 1<\/i>. However, there a handful of new artists (ones that you can deem \u201cnice\u201d this holiday season) that make the most of this rather sticky situation. Destiny\u2019s Child\u2019s a\u2019cappella \u201cOpera Of The Bells\u201d is a risk that pays off and is a great choice to kick things off. It\u2019s amazing what these girls could do with their voices as their sole means of instrumentation. Mariah Carey\u2019s \u201cAll I Want For Christmas Is You\u201d is also here, and is one of the very few Mariah songs that I like. In fact, I dare say it rivals \u201cVision Of Love\u201d as her best song ever. It\u2019s a true original from this over-the-top diva artist.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Also strong on CD 1 is \u201cLast Christmas\u201d by Wham, which hails from my beloved eighties decade. They could have stopped the album right there and I\u2019d be good. Thankfully though, it is quickly followed up by an even better 80\u2019s Christmas classic in the form of \u201cChristmas Wrapping\u201d by the Waitresses. It\u2019s another original and this new wave act hits it out of the park – BRAVO. A low-key entry that makes the grade is \u201cSilent Night\u201d by Charlotte Church. Consider this one \u201copera-lite\u201d in style — just don\u2019t have any breakable glasses out when she hits those high notes. Gee willikers.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

So what are the misses on the first half of Volume 2<\/i>? Where do I begin\u2026well, let\u2019s start with \u201cO Come All Ye Faithful\u201d by Stacie Orrico and \u201cSanta Claus Is Coming To Town\u201d by B2K. Both are hip hop drivel and are poorly conceived all the way around. With Orrico\u2019s long and drawn-out passages, someone should put her out of her misery. It\u2019s a sacrilege to hear a religious hymn butchered. As for the numbskulls known as B2K, Santa should put coal in their stockings for eternity for their whiny vocals and faux-thug speak.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The male singers don\u2019t fare much better. Elton John\u2019s \u201cStep Into Christmas\u201d sounds as if it was recorded in a tunnel during a rainstorm, Jimmy Buffet\u2019s reggae take on \u201cJingle Bells\u201d is a ridiculous mess (as if they have snow sleighs in Margaritaville), and Vince Gill\u2019s \u201cDo You Hear What I Hear\u201d is a sad and downbeat performance if there ever was one. Why such the long face, Vince? You\u2019ve just been nominated for Album Of The Year!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s move on to the much-improved CD 2, shall we? The first eight tracks are pure heaven when it comes to what Christmas music should sound like. You\u2019ve got good ol\u2019 Satchmo\u2019s \u201cWinter Wonderland\u201d to give you the warm and fuzzies, Barbara Streisand\u2019s show-stopping \u201cI\u2019ll Be Home For Christmas\u201d to elevate the mood, and even Lou Rawls (remember him?) who puts a nice soul spin on \u201cLittle Drummer Boy,\u201d although I still prefer Joan Jett\u2019s rock version. Also, there\u2019s Peggy Lee harkening back to the swingin,\u2019 delightfully tacky sixties with \u201cHappy Holiday,\u201d Chuck Berry showing Bryan Adams how it\u2019s done on \u201cRun Rudolph Run\u201d and, get this, Tom Jones\u2019 off-the-wall performance of \u201cBaby, It\u2019s Cold Outside,\u201d which is what you might call a XXXmas song for strippers.\u00a0 May as well, Tom, everything else has been done.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Then, as you might have guessed, we hit a snag. The overblown \u201clive\u201d mix (the audience effects are fake) of \u201cFeliz Navidad\u201d by Jose Feliciano is embarrassing, considering how authentic he was recently when he performed the song this year on the Boston Common – where the audience actually sang along. Next, Osmond mentor Andy Williams steeps \u201cThe First Noel\u201d knee-deep in tradition, and puts me to sleep in the process and Yolanda Adams puts \u201cO Little Town Of Bethlehem\u201d firmly entrenched in AM radio territory with no escape in sight (Bethlehem this, Yolanda). Even worse, as if that were possible, is Kenny Rogers spinning yet another yarn for \u201cKentucky Homemade Christmas\u201d (somebody shoot me), and old Andy Griffith croaking his way through \u201cGo Tell It On The Mountain\u201d (somebody shoot whoever said this old fart could carry a tune).
<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Ending things on a solid note — thank God — are none other than Luciano Pavarotti, Barry Manilow and Guy Lombardo. Pavarotti brings some semblance order and class to the proceedings with \u201cAdeste Fideles,\u201d Manilow gives it his all and demonstrates his great showmanship with \u201cHome For The Holidays\u201d and Lombardo\u2019s \u201cAuld Lang Syne\u201d is guaranteed to give you chills, much in the same way It\u2019s A Wonderful Life <\/i>does every year. It is a haunting, tender and quite powerful rendition of the New Year\u2019s Eve theme song, and Volume 2 <\/i>couldn\u2019t have ended on a better note.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":29136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5827],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-40663","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40663"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}