ALBUM OF THE WEEK
KACEY MUSGRAVES
A Very Kacey Christmas
Decca
There is arguably no style of vocal delivery better suited to capturing the melancholy that traditionally rubs shoulders with joy during the festive season than a country one, and Kacey Musgraves is one of the genre’s most persuasive ambassadors. A mix of covers and originals, the Texan’s new album is straightforwardly heart-tugging on tracks such as her own Present Without a Bow (a Carpenters-like two-hander with Leon Bridges), Ribbons and Bows, and the unashamedly maudlin Christmas Makes Me Cry. Yet it is when she gets to work on standards such as Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas that Musgraves really hits the mark, with sleigh bells, a twanging guitar, a wheezing accordion and a slow, defeated shuffle wringing every last drop of pathos out of a song that is notionally celebratory. Elsewhere, she is joined by a wonderfully grizzled, almost curmudgeonly Willie Nelson on the sweet-as-sugar A Willie Nice Christmas, makes merry with Feliz Navidad and absolutely owns What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?, the catch in her voice twisting the knife. DC
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THE KILLERS
Don’t Waste Your Wishes
Island
For the past 11 years, the Las Vegas band have released a Christmas single in aid of the charity Red, for which they have raised $1m to date. Collected for the first time on one album, the singles here may vary in quality, but they provide an endearing snapshot of the boys enjoying some downtime, kicking back and being a bit daft. The songs work best when served with lashings of ham and cheese. Don’t Shoot Me Santa, from 2007, is a deliciously dotty, ADHD track, veering this way and that, but never taking its eye off the goal: kitsch overload. Joel the Lump of Coal, with Jimmy Kimmel, is similarly bonkers, and all the better for it. DC
Buy via the Sunday Times website
KYLIE
Kylie Christmas (Snow Queen Edition)
Parlophone
Kylie may be pushing her fans’ patience by repackaging her patchy festive album from last year, but with six extra songs taking it up to a whopping 22 tracks, there’s plenty here to delight and dismay all ages. At Christmas, the only new original, aims for Wham!’s Last Christmas, but comes closer to S Club 7, while the high-camp bar is well and truly cleared when Mika and a female choir crop up on a cover of Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime. A faithful take on Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday is forgettable fun, while a slowed-down version of East 17’s Stay Another Day is for drunken karaoke only. LV
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NEIL DIAMOND
Acoustic Christmas
Capitol
Diamond adds to his Christmas-album collection with a dozen new recordings of seasonal standards and originals, recorded on acoustic instruments. The producers, Don Was and Jacknife Lee, keep the arrangements simple, but it’s far from the “Greenwich Village folk” that was promised. Strings up the schmaltz on half of the tracks and the Blind Boys of Alabama add backing vocals to two songs. What’s enchanting is the world-weariness in Diamond’s delivery, notably on his near-comatose Hark the Herald Angels Sing. He picks up the pace on the witty, brass-splattered #1 Record for Christmas and a closing medley that’s as jolly as it is endearingly dated. LV
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DAVID BAZAN
Dark Sacred Night
Suicide Squeeze
“There is something under-represented in Christmas music, and that’s just how uncomfortable the holidays can be for a lot of folks,” Bazan says. Not any more. He has filled that gap nicely with an album of Christmas songs designed for that moment when you can’t take any more festivity, forced cheeriness or insane capitalism, and you just need to be on your own. Stick your earphones in, press play and let these sombre, meditative readings of songs old (Silent Night, Away in a Manger) and new (Low’s Long Way Around the Sea, Lennon’s Happy Xmas) bring you your very own moment of peace on earth. ME
Buy via the Sunday Times website
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FRANKIE VALLI
’Tis the Seasons
Rhino
It catches fire when Jeff Beck helps to conjure up the ghost of the great Charles Brown on the R&B standard Merry Christmas, Baby. There’s a slinky arrangement to Let It Snow as well. Otherwise, the Four Seasons veteran is in shopping-mall mode as he revisits the usual suspects in what is, remarkably, his first solo Christmas set. Considering that he is in his eighties, Valli sounds in pretty good voice, and his old friend Bob Gaudio makes a thoroughly professional job of the production. One for hardcore fans only, though. CD
Buy via the Sunday Times website
PHIL CUNNINGHAM
Christmas Songbook
Vertical Records
No coal-effect fires: this is a real hearthside singalong. The co-leader of that annual roadshow the Transatlantic Sessions, the accordionist Phil Cunningham has also been hosting festive concerts for a decade. (The latest tour ends in Edinburgh on Thursday.) The studio version has Karen Matheson, Eddi Reader and Kris Drever helping out on vocals, while John McCusker supplies insouciant fiddle. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen comes with a hint of swing, while Silent Night gets a Gaelic makeover. All in all, the musical equivalent of a hip flask. CD
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ANGEL OF THE WEEK
CARA DILLON
Upon a Winter’s Night
Charcoal Records
If, at this time of year, you eschew 20 Golden Xmas Greats and turn instead to, say, Kate Rusby’s seasonal albums or The McGarrigle Christmas Hour (with the Wainwrights), then you’ll want to add Upon a Winter’s Night to your festive repertoire. Dillon’s voice is as beautiful as ever and the arrangements are kept to a bare minimum. The Holly and the Ivy is given a jaunty reworking, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is exquisite with just voice and piano, and the a cappella O Holy Night is arguably the best thing here — simple and stunning. ME
Buy via the Sunday Times website
Must-have reissue
RIHANNA: THE STUDIO ALBUMS
UMC
Featuring all eight of her studio albums, from Music of the Sun (2005) to this year’s notably subdued Anti, this lavish vinyl box set, which also includes a hardback book, could be the ultimate gift for RiRi fans. Tracing the singer’s fascinating and hugely remunerative journey from easygoing Bajan singalongs to stark, lonely-at-the-top minimalist pop, via monsters such as Umbrella, What’s My Name and Diamonds, the box set also demonstrates her ability to stay ahead of the game. Where she goes next, therefore, is anyone’s guess. DC
Buy via the Sunday Times website
The hottest tracks
Marika Hackman: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel The Hampshire singer captures the mournfulness of this strangely ambiguous carol.
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Best Coast: Christmas and Everyday Bethany Cosentino essays a note-perfect retro Christmas keen; Bobb Bruno adds the glam stomp and sleigh bells.
Low: Some Hearts (at Christmas Time) The makers of one of the top Christmas albums deliver a beautiful, chilly update.
Breaking act: Josh Ostrander
Who is he?
Josh Ostrander, the former singer with the LA-based band Eastern Conference Champions, struck out on his own this year with the stunning Hold on to Me, whose barnstorming, Beck-ish chorus, falling-over-themselves lyrics and Dylanesque delivery have all the hallmarks of a lost classic. His subsequent releases, Shine and Plastic Soul, are similarly addictive. With the buzz building, Ostrander looks set to swap cult status for mass appeal.
When’s the music available?
Now, at soundcloud.com/mondocozmo
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DC