It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas

By Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times

Nov. 23, 2012 12 AM PT

It’s word association time. Say the first word that springs to mind: “holiday ----.” Did you think “season”? “Sale”? “Hangover”?

How about “music?” This year, there are plenty of new holiday albums to pick from. Cee Lo Green, English pop-rocker Tracey Thorn and the left-field collective Redtenbacher Funkestra are just a few of the dozens of entertainers with albums out there made for celebrating the season. But which ones will offer yuletide cheer and which will feel like the same old thing, re-gifted?

Here’s Calendar’s 2012 roundup of the best new holiday music releases.

*** 1/2 Cee Lo Green “Cee Lo’s Magic Moment” (Elektra). The clown prince of R&B; often lets his outsized public persona overshadow his music, but the man can sing. In fact, this collection might be the best guidance he could offer any contestants on “The Voice” — or “American Idol” or “X Factor,” for that matter. The holiday spirit’s in full force here, in his loopy Motown-esque collaboration with the Muppets (“All I Need Is Love”), an inspired a cappella arrangement of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” with Straight No Chaser and a stunningly powerful reading of Mark Lowry and Lee Green’s “Mary, Did You Know?” Magic indeed.

* 1/2 Scotty McCreery, “Christmas With Scotty McCreery” (Mercury/19/Interscope). The “American Idol” alum applies his grainy baritone with commitment but not much vision to the usual holiday suspects: “The First Noel,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Jingle Bells,” etc., freshened only briefly by a couple of less well-traveled numbers.

** Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta, “This Christmas” (UMe). The “Grease” costars are holding teacups on the supersweet cover photo. For anyone worried that this reunion might overdose on sweeteners, Newton-John and Travolta kick the album off reversing the usual male-female roles on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” which brims with good spirit. The album’s modest charm stems from the pair’s eager personalities and guest drop-ins from the likes of Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, Tony Bennett and Chick Corea.

** 1/2 The Polyphonic Spree, “Holidaydream: Sounds of the Holidays Volume One” (Good Records/Kirtland). The idiosyncratic Dallas symphonic pop collective courses from broad swaths of sonic textures — lots of swirling harps and tinkling pianos — with nicely low-tech touches. As the title suggests, there’s an otherworldly ambience that mostly works to the familiar yuletide songs’ benefit.

*** 1/2 Various Artists, “‘Twas the Night Before Hanukkah: The Musical Battle Between Christmas and the Festival of Lights” (Idelsohn Society). Easily the year’s most informative, illuminating holiday release, and it traces the parallel rise of Christmas and Hanukkah among religious and secular communities. The first of its two discs is devoted to Hanukkah-related songs, and its second disc to Christmas tracks written or sung by Jews including Bob Dylan, the Ramones, Lou Reed, Benny Goodman and Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. An accompanying 32-page booklet features several essays with excellent context, including one by rock journalist Greil Marcus.

*** PumpYouUp, “Christmas Nutcracker Dubstep & Techno Classics” (PumpYouUp). Maybe it’s because there’s such a flood of more conventional holiday releases year in and year out that this throbbing electronica workout sounds so refreshing. Blatting low frequency bursts counter shimmering high-end sounds in a generous chunk of the Tchaikovsky seasonal war horse plus a handful of classic carols and random classical-music staples. Wendy Carlos is smiling somewhere.

** ½ Various Artists, “Now That’s What I Call Today’s Christmas” (Universal/EMI/Sony). “Today” is a relative term here — the oldest of the 18 tracks is 16 years old (Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Christmas Eve/ Sarajevo 12/24”), and Christina Aguilera’s “Christmas Time” dates to 2000. But most of the acts, also including Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepson, Lady Gaga, Coldplay and Carrie Underwood, still have currency in today’s music world. The originals — Train’s pumping “Shake Up Christmas,” Coldplay’s wistful “Christmas Lights” — generate more interest than most of the covers.

*** Redtenbacher’s Funkestra, “A Very Funky Christmas” (Wooden Hat). This five-song EP is just the thing to brighten up any staid holiday gathering. These instrumentals percolate with Latin jazz-funk, bringing big-band juice and rhythmic punch to four yuletide classics and one original, the title track.

** 1/2 Blake Shelton, “Cheers, It’s Christmas” (Warner Bros.). Now that Shelton’s a TV star on NBC’s “The Voice” and half of a high-profile marriage (to Miranda Lambert, who helps him swing his way through “Jingle Bell Rock”), he’s got a lot of constituencies to please. He sounds straitjacketed on “White Christmas” and “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!,” but he’s at home on the range trading verses with Reba McEntire on “Oklahoma Christmas” and with his own rollicking “Santa’s Got a Choo Choo Train.” Other guests include Michael Bublé, Kelly Clarkson, Pistol Annies, Trypta-Phunk, former “Voice” contestant Xenia and Shelton’s mother, Dorothy Shackleford.

** Rod Stewart, “Merry Christmas, Baby” (Verve). The dubious latter-day keeper of the Great American Songbook flame applies his raspy vocal cords to the canon of classic holiday music. He’s no Bennett, and this is a long way from Gasoline Alley, making the tracks with a rhythmic pulse (especially “Red-Suited Super Man,” with Trombone Shorty) better suited to his rocker’s swagger than those demanding interpretive nuance. Stewart’s holiday spirit also will take center stage on PBS in December in his special, “Rod Stewart: Merry Christmas, Baby,” shot at the Villa de Leon in Pacific Palisades.

*** 1/2 Tracey Thorn, “Tinsel and Lights” (Merge). The former Everything But the Girl singer and songwriter has reached well beyond the usual bounds for an especially imaginative playlist of songs from Randy Newman, Stephin Merritt, Jack White, Joni Mitchell, Ron Sexsmith, Green Gartside, Sufjan Stevens and a pair of deft Thorn originals. A holiday collection for the thinking — and feeling — pop music aficionado.

*** Brooke White, “White Christmas” (June Baby). “American Idol” hasn’t been a breeding ground for singers with original vision, which is probably why this L.A.-based singer-songwriter made it only as far as fifth place on the show’s seventh season. But she exhibits a real flair for injecting new ideas into ultra-familiar music, and adds three tunes of her own to further stir the pot. A nice surprise for “Idol” and non-”Idol” obsessives.

** 1/2 Various Artists, “A Very Special Christmas: 25 Years Bringing Joy to the World” (Big Machine/Special Olympics). This long-running series benefiting the Special Olympics boasts an impressively broad roster of contributing artists, from Aguilera and the Dave Matthews Band to Train and Vince Gill. The quality of performances is up and down, but the cause is unassailable.

*** Various Artists, “Holidays Rule” (Hear Music/MPL). This album’s executive producer, Randall Poster, alone is a good indication of the eclectic talent here, and the prospect for inspired arrangements. Highlights among the 14 tracks: The Civil Wars’ aching rendition of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” Calexico’s mariachi-tinged treatment of “Green Grows the Holly” (written by England’s King Henry VIII!) and Y La Bamba’s beguiling “Señor Santa (Mister Santa).”

** 1/2 Colbie Caillat, “Christmas in the Sand” (Universal Republic). The pop-folk chanteuse puts a decidedly Southern California spin on the breezy title track she cowrote, and three other originals gently explore the joy and melancholy inherent in the season. Adding marquee value are such music-world pals as Gavin DeGraw, Jason Reeves, Justin Young and Brad Paisley.

*** The Eastern Sea, “First Christmas” (Whitelab/Blacklab). The Austin, Texas, indie pop band fronted by singer-songwriter Matthew Hines pumps lots of rhythmic drive into peppy arrangements of 10 yuletide chestnuts and a pair of originals, the title track and “This Is Christmas.” Imagination and humility are nicely balanced.

** Rita Coolidge “A Rita Coolidge Christmas” (429 Records). Coolidge’s dusky voice and soft-rock sensibility make for an excursion that’s easy on the ears—maybe too easy at times. Her low-key southern drawl and behind-the-beat phrasing help sustain interest given an overwhelmingly familiar song list, making her own contribution, “Circle of Light,” a welcome addition.

** 1/2 Mandisa, “It’s Christmas (Christmas Angel Edition)” (Sparrow). Glistening synths, shimmering choral support, popping bass lines, snappy backbeats and other trappings of contemporary gospel music infuse the fifth-season “American Idol” contestant’s holiday outing. Her lithe vocals are bigger on earnest enthusiasm than character. Includes a rare come-hither, slow-jam reading of “Angels We Have Heard on High.”

** Christina Perri, “A Very Merry Perri Christmas” (Atlantic). The “Jar of Hearts” songwriter and singer serves up modestly straightforward versions of the Carpenters’ “Merry Christmas Darling” and John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” on her five-song EP. Her own contribution, “Something About December,” is sweetly sentimental, and largely absent the melodrama of her career-making hit.

** 1/2 Earnest Pugh, “Christmas with Earnest Pugh & Friends” (EPM Music Group). The Memphis-based gospel singer enlists a cast seemingly of thousands on several tracks, playing fast and loose with melodies and rhythms in his quest to channel some real spirit. He succeeds more often than not, even over sometimes generic musical accompaniment.

** 1/2 Renee and Jeremy, “Sunny Christmas” (One Melody). This L.A.-based duo—Renee Stahl and Jeremy Toback—makes children’s music and their thoroughly unassuming six-song EP lives up to the title. The chipper title track is accompanied by five secular holiday classics featuring Stahl and Toback’s winsome two- (and more-) part harmonies, reminiscent of She & Him.

** ½ The Jay Ungar & Molly Mason Family Band, “A Fiddler’s Holiday” (Rounder). Ungar and Mason are the folkies behind “Ashokan Farewell,” which was featured prominently in Ken Burns’ “The Civil War” mini-series. Here they take the living-room folk approach to several originals and some off-the-beaten-path numbers that bring a fresh twist to the holiday genre. The use of an orchestra on several songs, presumably to flesh out the sound, sometimes overwhelms the simple charms of this band’s old-timey string band music.

** 1/2 Phil Vassar, “Noel” (Rodeowave). It’s admirable when any musician tries to add to the already voluminous canon of holiday songs, so this established Nashville writer and musician gets points for breaking up the well-trod classics with four new ones. The best is “Big Ol’ Texas Christmas” a lithe swing number he sings with Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson, saluting the Lone Star State in everyone.

** 1/2 Edie Adams, “The Edie Adams Christmas Album” (Omnivore). The holiday selections crooned by the ‘50s and ‘60s pop siren, TV and stage star and showroom entertainer are drawn from December 1952 recordings of her appearances with comedian Ernie Kovacs on his “Kovacs Unlimited” TV show. She’s got a persuasive way with a song, and Kovacs chimes in on three. A period piece, in glorious monophonic sound, that her fans should treasure.

** Laurie Berkner, “A Laurie Berkner Christmas” (Razor & Tie). This veteran children’s entertainer brings sweetness and verve but not much interpretive panache to 15 holiday tunes that seem targeted to the preschool through second grade crowd.

*** The Sweetback Sisters, “The Sweetback Sisters’ Country Christmas Singalong Spectacular” (Signature Sounds). Swinging roots country of Brooklyn—OK, why not? Non-sibling singers Emily Miller and Zara Bode blend beautifully on a sprightly set of twanged-out tinsel tunes.

** Rick Braun, “Swingin’ in the Snow” (Brontosaurus Music). The jazz-pop trumpeter, singer and arranger is so smooth as a vocalist he sometimes comes off as Slick Rick on these 10 holiday staples. In many cases the big-band arrangements—many by Braun, solo or with collaborators--are the most interesting aspect of tunes handled more definitively by others.

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