By charlie bear "Music Maven" (Big Sky Country)
Amy's third Christmas CD (the 4th if you count the "Animals Christmas" collaboration with Art Garfunkel) is by far the weakest of the batch.
There's little of the festive frolic or energy of the earlier releases and in fact Amy's vocal performance sounds just plain tired and melancholy on many of these songs.
The project starts off with a pretty good bang with the title song and then it's all downhill from there.
>The bonus track of "Merry Christmas Darling" is not on this version but it's no great loss. Amy's take on the Carpenters classic contains little of the sparkle or passion of the original.
By James Donovan "movie lover" (Plainfield, Vermont USA)
To me, Christmas isn't Christmas without an Amy Grant CD being played. I wait impatiently for the holiday season to roll around so I can dig her holidays CDs out and play them incessantly. My favorite of hers is the now classic "Home For Christmas" which should be in every Christmas lover's CD collection. I place this offering, her third, right behind that one and before her first one, "The Christmas Album."(Which hasn't aged well). Heresy, you say? Not really. Granted, she doesn't really offer much here as a songwriter, but she still has an amazing gift for making a song her own. Her voice and delivery bring out so much emotion and is well suited to this, for the most part, well-chosen collection. There really isn't a bad track here, though as a few people have noted, the addition of "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Mr. Santa" stand out in a less than flattering way. They're not terrible, but they don't really belong here among such serious and thematic songs; they're more suited to a children's album. The best songs on the album are surprisingly the more melancoly and reflective ones, such as "Till The Season Comes Round Again" and "Christmas Lullaby (I Will Lead You Home)", which is my favorite off the album and never fails to tear me up! Her use of choir and strings on "Silent Night" give it an almost ethereal feeling and "Welcome To Our World" is simply stunning. If there's a downside to this album, it's simply that it's too short, clocking in just shy of 40 minutes. I highly recommend this often overlooked album by one of the best vocalists around. Merry Christmas!!...
Continue Reading at this Christian Music Review
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