Holiday Album Roundup 2012

Posted December 11, 2012 by J Matthew Cobb in Features

HIFI whips through the wide assortment of new holiday album and single releases of 2012

Break out the Vince Guaraldi classic – Christmas time is here…again. And so are the avalance of holiday albums.

So you really want to know which albums you should pick up and leave behind this time around. Well, no more stalling. Let the sleigh ride begin.

INSIDE HOLIDAY ALBUM ROUNDUP 2012:

Bunny Sigler – When You’re in Love at Christmas Time
Blake Shelton – Cheers, It’s Christmas
Cee Lo Green – Cee Lo’s Magical Moment
Rod Stewart – Merry Christmas, Baby
Kem – What Christmas Means
John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John – This Christmas
Lady Antebellum – On This Winter’s Night
Colbie Caillat – Christmas in the Sand
Richard Marx – Christmas Spirit
Christina Perri – A Very Merry Perri Christmas

SINGLED OUT:

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” – Kelly Clarkson
“Christmas in Downtown LA” – Far East Movement feat. MNEK
“Jingle Bell Rock” – Hot Chelle Rae

Bunny Sigler
When You’re Love at Christmastime

On his first holiday album, Philly soul legend Bunny Sigler hardly shows his age as he snuggles up to sophisticated contemporary jazz (“The Christmas Song”) and buttery O’Jay-esque arrangements (“O Holy Night”). He’s quite playful when dancing around “Winter Wonderland” and quite the charmer on the romantic title track, an original scored by the same inspiration behind such tunes as the O’Jays’s “Sunshine” and Patti LaBelle’s “Somebody Loves You Baby (You Know Who It Is).” Sigler also stretches the imagination of his listeners with fluent Italian (“Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday”) and a rapturous “Ave Maria” showing off his upper register and his muse for opera. The most impressive quality of the disc is realizing how an old gent regulated to indie status can pull a holiday disc that somehow outshines those being cranked out from the youngsters, proving that old school always comes out on top. Probably the hardest crumb to swallow is realizing that something of this grandeur could only be limited to a digital format. Gamble & Huff would’ve had this kind of album available on vinyl, if given the chance.