Part of getting older is that eventually there’s a Christmas holiday album from every musician you’ve ever spent money on. Fortunately for me, I like quite a few carols, pagan that I am. This year, it’s Annie Lennox:
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This is about the most Northern European carol I can imagine, and Lennox does full justice to the sense of frozen despair as the world waits to be noisily shattered by the return of the Sun Lord…
Yutsano
Elegant and gawjuss. Not that I expected any less from Miss Lennox.
And I am back wondering if I haz work past Tuesday. Somehow I’m betting not.
debg
The African influence here is especially enjoyable after reading Chunky Bobo’s horrific reference to Chrismukwanzaaa.
Ty Lookwell
Hey, does this year feel less… “Christmassy”? That is, in a public, commercial sense: less music, less commercial crap, less lights, … less? (which, personally, I like)
I’m curious what other people – I’m in the Pacific NW – think.
Jeremy B
Amazing…. we thought the Food Safety Modernization Act was dead. Certainly in this congress. And yet…
“Zombie Food Safety Act Resurrected by Senate”
Napoleon
I bought this record as well. Annie is simply one of the most talented singers around.
Hillary Rettig
I love Stevie Wonder’s Christmas album.
stuckinred
When we saw her open for Sting it was obvious that they had the lineup wrong.
JPL
What a beautiful song. After reading the earlier posts, it was nice to just sit back and listen to Annie.
PurpleGirl
Oh, that is beautiful. Guess I need to get the album.
A friend and I started a tradition a decade or so ago — we go to one church for a Christmas Eve mass and another for Christmas Day mass. We’ve gone to a bunch of different churches but have settled into a Lutheran church and an Episcopal church whose musical choices we really like. The Lutheran church includes a little jazz, and one of the Episcopal churches has a professional choir school. We go for the pomp and ceremony which both do quite well.
dr. luba
@PurpleGirl: If you’re in it for the music, consider going to an Orthodox church on January 6th (evening service) or 7th. Ancient-sounding music, more akin to chant than what you’re used to. The Ukrainian churches, if you can find one in your neck of the woods, often have fine choirs and beautiful traditional carols (all done a capella). (Note: Ukrainian Byzantine Catholics are split on celebrations; some follow the old calendar, some the new, but they have similar eastern music.)
mistermix
Here’s an interview with her in the WSJ of all places:
blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/12/18/annie-lennox-on-how-to-write-a-christmas-carol/
debbie
I don’t know if they ever relased a video for it, but I thought Weezer’s 2008 batch of Christmas carols were the best.
amazon.com/Christmas-With-Weezer/dp/B001NBIME6
jinxtigr
Wow. I can’t tell if she’s using autotune like typical pop singers today- or if it’s a slap in the face to all that by just singing super tight :)
Huh.
Sorry, sound engineer moment…
Alwhite
I’m waiting for Bob Dylan’s
Siiiiiilver Bells
Siilllver . . . BElls
Its . . Christmas time in the
CI . . ty
Napoleon
@jinxtigr:
She really is one of the most naturally talented singers of the last 30 years.
PurpleGirl
@dr. luba: Thank you for the recommendation. St. Vartan’s in Manhattan will be easy to get to.
CynDee
Wonderful. What a pleasant surprise. This is now my most loved Christmas music. Was it you, Anne Laurie–someone last year posted a link to the Gloucester Cathedral choir and congregation singing this, and I go to it rather often. So beautiful. Whoever that was, thank you forever.
youtube.com/watch?v=xRobryliBLQ
SRW1
AL, the winter despair in Northern Europe is not so much about the frozen state of the environment as it is about the lack of sunlight. I learned that as a transplant when a former colleague of mine once commented towards the end of January that winter was now fortunately almost over.
Had me puzzled for a while, because the temperature outside were still well below the freezing point and there was snow everywhere. Until I realized that what he was talking about, was the fact that the daylight period was getting noticeably longer, not that the temperatures were getting warmer.
Linda Featheringill
Lovely carol. Snow . . upon snow . . upon snow . .
I lived in warmer climes until I was 30 and am still frequently amazed by the dead of winter.
Cold and crisp and even . . . . .
Don
I just picked this up from Amazon a few days ago when they had the album on sale for $2-3. Which is a nice xmas tradition from Amazon – every year there’s a slew of heavily discounted and/or free tracks for download. I think if you look around their MP3 store you can find a place to sign up for notifications.
EDIT: Oh look, it’s still only $2 as a download!
Mnemosyne
@jinxtigr:
She’s sounded like that since well before autotune existed, so it probably is just her voice.
MarkJ
I like this carol a lot, and I like Annie Lennox too, but I’m not loving this version. It’s just better sung by a choir. That may be elitist of me but I like what I like.