CD/Music Review: Gwen Stefani: You Make it Feel Like Christmas

 

This is the original version of Gwen Stefani's Christmas album, released in 2017. It is a good "popified" Christmas album, with a mix of more traditional songs (e.g., Jingle Bells, Let it Snow, and Silent Night) and newer, non-traditional songs, such as the title track (which she sings with her husband, Blake Shelton). The songs definitely sound like pop songs, so if you are one who prefers more traditional arrangements for Christmas songs (like those that the crooners like Dean Martin, Johnny Mathis, and Nat King Cole, or even Amy Grant used on their albums), then you may not like this one. If you do not mind versions of the songs that use a non-traditional, more modern arrangement (like Christina Aguilera used on her album), then you will probably like this. Personally, I probably would not listen to the album front-to-back all that often but would have no problem including any of the songs in a playlist of Christmas songs being played on shuffle.