Sounds like Christmas

Wrapping: Courtesy of cottage industry enterprises. Doe-eyed Kate in seasonal white in flurry of hazy golden baubles, stuck in gilded portrait frame bedecked in fairy lights against dark fleck wallpaper, with stamp-sized second frame of Rusby Christmas party revellers. Those same revellers are slumbering in the frame on the back, but not because they have been listening to Kate’s album. Lyrics and credits come bound in yet more frames.
Style: Folk’s golden girl and her usual tour band, aided by Grimethorpe Colliery Band’s warming blasts of festive brass, on familiar carols with unfamiliar tunes (Hark The Herald, Awake, Arise Good Christian, The Holly And The Ivy) or olden songs of seasonal sad/glad tidings (Poor Old Horse, Serving Girl’s Holiday, The Miner’s Dream Of Home).
Content: Eleven South Yorkshire Christmas Carols drawn from the 200-year-old oral tradition of hundreds of carollers cramming into hostelries on Sundays from early November onwards. Kate would be taken to singing sessions at Dungworth and beyond by her folk-industry parents, who taught her the trad songs she has now arranged or given new tunes.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: As ever, that sweet, willow voice, a northern antidote to Christmas ho-ho hokum and a beacon of Barnsley joy on Here We Come A-Wassailing, Hail Chime On and Sweet Bells.
Scrooge moan: No original snow-capped Rusby composition to add to the Christmas tradition.
White Christmas? No, too modern.
Blue Christmas? Kate is wont to say “there’s a law that folk singers must depress people at least 60 per cent of the time”, but not this Christmas. Deep amid the winter blues, these Sweet Bells chime merrily almost as often as they strike a melancholic note.
Stocking or shocking? Not just for the old folk, but a stocking treat for the young folk coupling up on Christmas night.

•THE Kate Rusby Band presents Kate At Christmas, with Andy Cutting, diatonic accordion, Ian Carr, guitar, Andy Seward, double bass and five-string banjo, and The Brass Quintet Boys on a seven-date tour from Sunday.

Kate’s Yorkshire shows are at St George’s Hall, Bradford, on Tuesday at 7.30pm, box office 01274 432000; Lamproom Theatre at Metrodome, Barnsley, on Thursday at 8pm, tel 01226 200075; and Royal Hall, Harrogate, next Friday at 7.30pm, tel 0845 130 8840.

“I’ve wanted to do this album for a long, long time, and finally I got time to record it,” says Kate. “We did a tour of the songs last Christmas and now we’re doing another one. It only feels like Christmas when I hear or sing these carols; I love them.”

Sweet Bells will be released on Monday on Kate’s own label, Pure Records.

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Jingle All The Way (Rounder Decca) Musical virtuosity – *****; stylistic mixture – *

Wrapping: Festive tree, band in Christmas hats, basic track info and credits.
Style: Bewildering world, blue-grass, jazz, Bach, Tchaikovsky and Klezmer mix, with occasional Beverley Hillbillies/ Road Runner cartoon soundtrack from leader’s banjo.
Content: most bizarre Sugar Plum Fairy since Spike Jones.
‘Tis the reason to be jolly: Dazzling virtuosity of all musicians.
Scrooge moan: Sad waste of talents above; Jingle Bells (twice!) with Tuvan throat singing: think Rolf Harris and didgeree-doo on “Sun-a-rise”.
White Christmas: No.
Blue Christmas: Good cheer for those keen to hear the banjo, electrified or otherwise, pushed to the limits.
Stocking or shocking? Like an overgenerous Christmas feast – many delicious ingredients to savour, but indigestible in one sitting. Have an enemy devoted to either world, blue-grass, jazz, classical or Klezmer? Infuriate them with this.
Review by Ron Burnett

Glasvegas, A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss) (Columbia) *****

Wrapping: Blue and white, snow-dusted woodcut winter scenes for limited-edition deluxe box set… oh, and a Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics sticker.
Style: A snowflake fell and if felt like a Glasgow kiss. Spectre of songwriter James Allan’s fixation with Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift For You hangs over these tidings of not so much comfort and joy as broken love, drunken abuse, regret, redemption and silence at the exhausted last.
Content: More Jesus And The Mary Chain than Jesus and Mary. Glaswegians bolster black-clad debut album with Transylvanian trip to record snow-clad bonus of five Allan Christmas originals and one “cover version”, Silent Night, replete with wind-buffeted Romanian choir.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: As much wail of sound as Spector wall of sound, the Frankie Goes To Hollywood-style Please Come Back Home and the Say Hello Wave Goodbye-echoing title track have the punch of Christmas past, present and future.
Scrooge moan: No complaints that the one moaning is Allan, exposing the dark side of Christmas in the break-up rage of **** You, It’s Over and the homeless lament Cruel Moon.
White Christmas? Are you having a laugh?
Blue Christmas? Like The Pogues’ Fairytale Of New York, all the highs and lows of the bluest but best Christmas are here, with bells on.
Stocking or shocking? The sticker qualifies for the “shock” factor, but at under a tenner, this deluxe package should be slipped into stockings aplenty.
Review by Charles Hutchinson

Enya, And Winter Came… (Warner)*

Wrapping: On the cover, Enya strikes a pose as a coy, mystical snow queen in a winter wonderland. There are more ethereal pictures of her inside, with lyrics.
Style: None(!) New age meets Christmas choir.
Content: A dozen tracks – one perhaps for each day of Christmas. Unfortunately, they all sound the same, leaving you feeling you are stuck in a department store elevator on Christmas Eve with only festive Muzak for accompaniment.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: OK, she looks nice in the pictures, and it might be acceptable to play once on Christmas Eve as you enjoyed some mulled wine by a roaring fire.
Scrooge moan: At times, the production sounds warped, as if Christmas carols have been recorded and then played backwards at low speed. Weird.
White Christmas? Not a sniffle of it.
Blue Christmas? You bet. Santa could have brought me the new Take That CD.
Stocking or shocking? It’s a shocker, but each to their own. A favourite aunt who likes hand-made crafts and believes in angels would lap(land) this up.
Review by Maxine Gordon

Mary Chapin Carpenter, Come Darkness, Come Light: Twelve Songs of Christmas (Decca) ***

Wrapping: Suitably festive, with glittering Christmas tree on front cover and snow-flecked trees on the back.
Style: Quintessential Carpenter, a deeply personal fusion of modern folk and alternative country music.
Content: 12 Christmas songs, including Charles (Tommy) Thompson’s lovely Hot Buttered Rum and six Carpenter originals, all with festive theme.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: Carpenter’s warm and distinctive voice and thoughtful, comforting lyrics, exemplified by The Longest Night Of The Year.
Scrooge moan: Negro-spiritual gem Children Go Where I Send Thee outlasts its welcome, clocking in at more than eight minutes.
White Christmas? No, but upbeat, soft-rock interpretation of Once In Royal David’s City is not nearly as bad as it sounds.
Blue Christmas? Absolutely not. It’s uplifting and as warming as a large tumbler of whisky on Christmas morning.
Stocking or shocking? Stocking. It’s perfect for someone close to you, who believes in the joy of Christmas, but isn’t concerned about the superfluous razzamatazz of the festive season.
Review by Robert Beaumont

Barry Manilow, Happy Holiday! (Warner Music Entertainment) ****

Wrapping: Barry has rather overdone the Botox, not a good look for a man of a certain age, despite the fetching red shirt.
Style: Luscious Vegas glitz.
Content: The campest, most fabulous Christmas songs ever – Jingle Bells, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, It’s Just Another New Year’s Eve – and Copacabana thrown in for good measure.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: The truly marvellous Cyndi Lauper and Jose Feliciano make guest appearances.
Scrooge moan: Cyndi gets to sing on only two songs, At Last and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.
White Christmas? Opening the show wondrously, in a medley with Happy Holiday.
Blue Christmas? No way. His first Christmas-themed US TV special, recorded on a snowy New York City night in December 2003, will be loved by Manilow fans.
Stocking or shocking? Obviously, Manilow knows his audience. The converted will be thrilled to see this piece of Manilow magic belatedly arrive on DVD.
Review by Ian Sime

The Flaming Lips, Christmas On Mars (Warner) ***

Wrapping: This soundtrack to a feature film – both included in this CD/DVD package – about ill-fated mission to Mars comes with intriguing, detailed explanation of long-gestating ideas that fired it.
Style: Dense and bizarre – frontman Wayne Coyne has it about right when he says these instrumental tracks invoke “a 1940s Russian composer whose only daughter is autistic and he tries to communicate to her the beauty of life through his music… but, sadly, his music is too tragic and it causes her to commit suicide”.
Content: The conceptual envelope has been pushed all the way into outer space. Ephemeral choral voices and harps take their place in cinematic pieces with titles such as The Gleaming Armament Of Marching Genitalia.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: Grandiose and gloomy, but with flourishes of light, the Lips have chosen a mood, and evoke it marvellously.
Scrooge moan: Not one for Christmas morning around the Christmas tree.
White Christmas?Not here, on red Mars.
Blue Christmas? Bleak and unsettling, try Lynch’s Blue Velvet.
Stocking or shocking? A must for any Flaming Lips fan – the ultimate in miscellanea.
Review by Gerran Grimshaw

Chris Isaak, Christmas, (SoundStage DVD) **

Wrapping: Dull shot of the man on stage with cute quiff and square jaw – altogether as imaginative as the DVD title. No supporting information of any value.
Style: Lightweight country meets easy listening, delivered in pleasant croon.
Content: Selection of Christmas standards with handful of self-penned seasonal tunes, plus regrettable guest appearance by Stevie Nicks and a couple of nobodies.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: At less than one hour, it’s over relatively quickly, and Christmas On TV, an Isaak original, is listenable.
Scrooge moan: Practically everything else; particularly the lifeless way it has been filmed and the horrible pervasive smugness. Material is really boring too (and dates from 2004). Incredibly wooden between-song banter and jokes haven’t aged well.
White Christmas? Present and correct, sung in faux Sinatra manner. It won’t offend anyone and, like everything else, at least it’s short.
Blue Christmas? This DVD is perfectly in keeping with typical English December day: colourless, static and enervating.
Stocking or shocking? Shocking. Only those who find Isaak attractive should even think about it, and even they should seriously reconsider.
Review by Paul Rhodes

Elvis Presley, Christmas Duets (RCA) *

Wrapping: Santa red and white, plus obligatory snow-flakes. Side-on cut-out of handsome young Elvis visage. Sleevenotes feature gushing quotes from the 11 country and western gals picked to sing with the King, including LeAnn Rimes, Wynnona Judd, Martina McBride, Carrie Underwood and…Olivia Newton-John.
Style: Drifts all over the show from cloying C&W to ballsy blues to cheesy chicken-in-the-basket, supper-club, cocktail schtick.
Content:Ten duets, plus three King’s re-mixes of other originals from the Presley festive canon.
‘Tis the reason to be jolly: Merry Christmas Baby, with Gretchen Wilson, a bring-it-on, bluesy treatment as scuddy as dirt in the snow.
Scrooge moan: Soaked in sentimentality that makes you gag as if forced to consume an entire Xmas pud in one sitting.
White Christmas? Yep, it’s here, Elvis and Amy Grant, and it’s sicklier than a brandy butter sandwich.
Blue Christmas? More depressing than a George Osborne sound-bite on how to have a thrifty Noel.
Stocking or shocking? Badder than Billy Bob Thornton’s Bad Santa. Even most avid Elvisophiles would blanch.
Review by Tony Kelly

Tony Bennett featuring The Count Big Basie Big Band, A Swingin’ Christmas (RPM/Columbia) ****

Wrapping: Stylish seasonal photo of a beaming Mr Bennett and the Big Band around a table awaiting their Christmas feast.
Style: Swing Baby Swing, veteran style.
Content: All the favourites....Silver Bells, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Winter Wonderland and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: No one swings quite like The Guv’nor...who brings his daughter, Antonia Bennett, to the Christmas party on Irving Berlin’s I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm.
Scrooge moan: None at all.
White Christmas? Conveniently missing.
Blue Christmas? Forget the credit-crunch blues, listen up to a good old fashioned swingin’ affair.
Stocking or shocking? A blue chip album, with twinklies.

Review by Ian Sime