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. 

Music/CD/Album Review: Johnny Mathis - Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas is a great holiday album. It was first released in 1959 with a mix of the very old, traditional Christmas songs (like O Holy Night, The First Noel, and Silent Night) as well as songs that are now old classics (like Winter Wonderland, The Christmas Song, White Christmas, and Silver Bells), but were still relatively new at the time, and were made famous during the "crooner" era which Mathis was definitely a part of. The last couple of songs (depending on what edition of the album you get) are not really classic songs but good nevertheless.

All of the classic, well-known songs on the album have very traditional arrangements (which I definitely like) and showcase Mathis' great voice. It is a great album to listen to on its own or to use as a part of a Christmas song playlist. If you are a fan of Christmas music, especially traditional songs, it is definitely one of the must-have albums. 

CD/Music/Album Review: Kenny G. Faith - A Holiday Album

Faith was the second, and now one of many Christmas/Holiday albums recorded by Kenny G. There are 12 songs in all on the album with a mix of classic traditional songs like The First Noel and Ave Maria, and classic songs like The Christmas Song, Let it Snow, Sleigh Ride, Oh Christmas Tree, and the like. The album also includes a Chanukah song called Eternal Light. Probably the highlight of the album is the Millennium Mix of Alud Lang Syne, in which audio clips from throughout history up through the major events of 1999 are played throughout the song. 

Whether you like this album really depends on, A) whether you like Christmas music and B) whether you can handle instrumentals with no vocals. Of course, Kenny G. is well known for playing Jazz on a tenor saxophone, however, the arrangements of the songs are very traditional. If you love Christmas songs, especially traditional arrangements (as opposed to what some pop acts/singers who put out Christmas albums do with the songs), then this is definitely worth listening to.