ADRIAN THRILLS: Cliff, Louis or Joss? We pick out the festive crackers trends now
Soulful delights, seasonal schmaltz… and Cliff revisiting his inner Elvis — pop’s finest are decking the halls with their new Christmas albums.
Adrian Thrills sorts the crackers from the turkeys.
JOSS STONE: Merry Christmas, Love (S-Curve)
The brightest of this year’s musical baubles is Joss Stone’s first festive offering. Merry Christmas, Love puts a soulful, feminine slant on the genre by placing the onus on her expressive voice and adorning it with lush, retro strings… and just the right amount of Yuletide kitsch. Having given birth to a son in October, the former teen sensation is now a mother of two and she brings a family feel to Let It Snow and Winter Wonderland.
Stevie Wonder’s What Christmas Means To Me is a swinging Motown pastiche and the warm-hearted Bring On Christmas Day is the best of two new originals.
Rating: ****
The brightest of this year’s musical baubles is Joss Stone’s (pictured) first festive offering
Merry Christmas, Love puts a soulful, feminine slant on the genre by placing the onus on her expressive voice and adorning it with lush, retro strings… and just the right amount of Yuletide kitsch
ANDREA CORR: The Christmas Album (EastWest)
The Corrs’ singer was inspired to make her first festive album, out today, after performing Christmas favourites at Our Lady’s Hospice in Dublin. The mood is quiet and reflective, with the onus on the season’s spiritual traditions. The 19th-century carol Curoo Curoo is given a Celtic makeover with help from Irish supergroup Zodomo.
Begin Again, a new song, nods to both God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and the swirling folk-rock that made The Corrs one of the world’s biggest bands.
Top of the tree, however, is Andrea’s take on Elvis’s Blue Christmas — re-imagined here as a twangy country duet with a throaty Ronnie Wood.
Rating: ****
The Corrs’ singer was inspired to make her first festive album, out today, after performing Christmas favourites at Our Lady’s Hospice in Dublin
CLIFF RICHARD: Christmas With Cliff (EastWest)
No singer is more synonymous with Christmas than the evergreen Cliff. With a BBC holiday special out this month, he returns with his first festive album in 19 years. Released in magazine format to get CDs into more supermarkets, Christmas With Cliff stays solidly in the middle of the road. There’s nothing to match Mistletoe And Wine among three new songs, but there is a clever nod to his 1968 Eurovision entry Congratulations on Sleigh Ride.
The best moments come when he revisits his rock ’n’ roll roots: like Andrea Corr, he also covers Blue Christmas, with his take harking back to the days when he was billed as the UK’s answer to Elvis.
Rating: ***
No singer is more synonymous with Christmas than the evergreen Cliff. With a BBC holiday special out this month, he returns with his first festive album in 19 years
Released in magazine format to get CDs into more supermarkets, Christmas With Cliff stays solidly in the middle of the road
SIA: Everyday Is Christmas (Atlantic Snowman Deluxe Edition)
Sia’s Christmas offering is the gift that keeps on giving, having been expanded and updated three times since its initial release in 2017.
The latest renovation (it’s now practically a double album) crams our stockings with three new numbers and a
