The Best Christmas Music of 2024; Check Out Holiday Gems from Gabby Barrett, Band of Other Brothers, Rick Braun, Chapel Hart, Brett Eldredge, Jimmy Fallon, Amy Grant & Vince Gill, The Philly Specials, Tower Of Power and many more.
Photo: Lineage Tree Care
Seasons Greetings and thank you for reading about the new Christmas releases that are worth your time this season. The one thing we know is that if you wait 'till after Thanksgiving to play Christmas music, or even if you don't, one thing is true; there isn't hardly enough time to listen to all the good stuff before December 25th rolls around.
If you're anything like me, you don't want to hear Christmas music in the days immediately following the big day, with one exception: I have a playlist to run during the tree takedown day. And, believe me, that playlist is a real humdinger. Let's just say that one of the highlights of that list is an album called Merry Texas Christmas Y'all by Asleep at the Wheel, especially the track "Xmas in Jail." That album also has classics like "Pretty Paper" by Willie Nelson and it strikes just the right tone for such a day whether it be January 1st or 21st.
Back to my original point, you won't have time in the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas to listen, particularly if you have collected a pile of favorites going back years. Even less if you take time out to listen to the releases of 2024, which I happen to think is essential. That's where an article like this comes in, breaking it all down for you and letting you know what to expect. The breakdown is similar to in past years, new albums first, then collections, reissues and all that sort of thing second. So, Happy Holidays, Y'all!
New goodies for 2024:
Gabrielle Aplin has had so much success in what's left of the record business in the UK that she's now in charge of her own label. On this new Christmas EP, she proudly teams with Hannah Grace in a lovely duet to enhance your holiday. Like an old fashioned single with multiple B-side bonus tracks, this one opens with the original "December," which was written by the pair along with producer Luke Potashnick. While "December" gets the full studio production treatment, the five covers that follow have an intimate sound like you are right there in the room with the two artists. When this finishes, you would be hard pressed to think of a nicer way to start your very own December.
The fact that musical quality is not equivalent with mainstream success (and visa versa) in country music generally makes me dubious of new music by country's royalty. However, in this case, Gabby Barrett has delivered a perfectly lovely Christmas album, much more listenable than this dubious reporter might have expected. For starters, it actually sounds like the title suggests, mostly acoustic with Barrett's gorgeous voice center stage. Ross Copperman, Barrett's longtime producer, handled the same chores on Carols and Candlelight. The album is a well chosen collection of covers with only one sounding like a new original, which is "A Christmas to Remember," actually a tune from Barrett's childhood written by current labelmate Dolly Parton. "Baby It's Cold Outside" features a vocal duet with husband Cade Foehner, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" offers up The Piano Guys and "Go Tell It on the Mountain" includes the participation of guest For King & Country. Otherwise, it's all Gabby. She dips into gospel for a couple of tunes including "Mary, Do You Know." Along with some of her favorite carols, she also sings songs of a more recent vintage, like "Last Christmas," and "Grown-Up Christmas List," a personal favorite of mine.
Sometimes I like to skip the credits and the backstory and just listen to a new record at face value. This one offers up a dynamite vocal mix of an original on the opening track, followed by a hot jazz instrumental take on a familiar cover tune on track two. It sounds like they do the same on tracks three and four. Just when you think that you've got a handle on the record, they turn the formula on its ear. They cover Miles Davis' somewhat jarring "Blue Christmas" and it comes out sounding almost like yacht rock. Imagine a jazzier Steely Dan rhythm track under a completely new version of "Blue Christmas," which is not only fun to listen to, but it somehow respects the original at the same time. What this album has that many of the other jazz Christmas albums lack, is that sense of joy; these musicians really love what they are doing.
There was a time that I was all about instrumental music from jazz to classical, rock, folk, Celtic, soundtracks. You name it, I was all about it. However, in recent years, not so much. I wouldn't say that I turned away from it exactly, but let's just say that the excitement wasn't there. I don't want to overstate the case, but after listening to this album through, Braun's trumpet technique combined with the material on this record single handedly restored my faith in instrumental music. You can hear it for yourself on any of these fine tracks, but just take "The Christmas Song." We've all heard it a million times and well we should. But on play a million and one you'll hear what I'm talking about. For the record, Braun sings on a couple tracks and he wrote a pair of excellent originals and he's not afraid to funk it up (check out the single on track one). Braun surrounds himself with some dynamite players including Philip Saisse on keyboards. Summing up the project, Braun calls it “a high spirited, genre-transcendent holiday collection that explores an expansive range of styles.” I couldn't agree more.
The main event here, as with previous Chapel Hart albums, is the extraordinary vocals of the two sisters and cousin who are the principles of the group. They have a terrific band and excellent production. Writing a good song is difficult under any circumstance, but writing new originals for a Christmas album is even more so; in an album like this with four new songs it can literally make or break the project. Not to worry; as with the best Christmas albums, the new originals are as good (if not better) to hear than the well chosen covers. For the record, there are four originals, eight covers and guests including Vince Gill, Darius Rucker, Gretchen Wilson, and The Issacs, among others. I would like to tell you about every track, but I'll limit my comments to a few. You have to love the self-referential title track assisted by Gretchen Wilson. "Mary Did You Know" has pretty much made the jump from the gospel repertoire to Christmas albums, and the religiosity of this is just as much of a perfect fit for Chapel Hart as are the seemingly effortless three part harmonies. I want to say that their stellar job on "Oh Holy Night" is a keeper, but they all are. There is such an atmosphere of love in this record that I find it totally infectious and I trust you will, too.
Cochen & Co is a talented rock and soul band, lead by Michael Cohren and his wife Leah, who share the lead vocal duties. Cochren & Co has been at it about 5 years or so and they have achieved an impressive level of success working in the field of contemporary Christian music. This record seems about evenly split between well written originals and some very well chosen covers including "Please Come Home for Christmas." The album opens with "There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays," which sets the table quite nicely for a great version of Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas," one of the better renditions of this modern Christmas standard that you are likely to hear. Being that the album takes off from there with a spate of originals, it could be me, but the sequencing suggests that this Christmas takes on an added importance based on its placement. Both Michael and Leah sound like they know what they're doing behind the mic, while the band that they've assembled more than does the job. The Company Christmas Album sounds more personal than corporate and it should enhance your very own Christmas.
With a career spanning only 14 years, the super successful Brett Eldredge has just released his eighth album, which is also his third Christmas album. On his first such album Glow (2016) it extended his reach beyond his home turf of country music with a Christmas album that sounds so much like Mr. Frank Sinatra it was almost scary. On his second Christmas album, he sang more in his actual voice and dubbed himself "Mr. Christmas." Now, for his third Christmas album, Merry Christmas (Welcome to the Family) Eldredge bends the tradition to his will with an album of all new material. It's all good too in a move that's akin to making your next album a Christmas record. Talk about confidence; with only eight cuts, one of which being a reprise of the opening track, Eldredge had only seven songs with which to make his point. With the endearing title track it's hard to deny the overwhelming good feeling of joining the Eldredge clan for Christmas. Once you're hooked it's all downhill from there, including a guest appearance by Kelly Clarkson, herself no slouch in the vocal department. It's kind of amazing to listen to a Christmas album that doesn't plumb the depths of the standard Christmas repertoire. If anyone could pull this off it would be the well beloved Brett Eldredge.
Let me say from the top that when it comes to music, Jimmy Fallon is a national treasure. This new holiday album, like the Brettt Eldredge album above, features no familiar Christmas classics, but what it does have is a healthy dose of Fallon's cleverness along with a host of guest appearances. Many of the songs also appeared in Fallon's TV special, along with Fallon's explanations. Some of the guests are Meghan Trainor, The Jonas Brothers, Will Ferrell and Arianda Grande, just to name a few. Fallon teams Weird Al Yankovic with The Roots for an old fashioned beer barrel polka new year's celebration with the ultimate chorus lyric borrowed from every New Year's Eve countdown (and, that's not even the most annoying song on the record). In addition to the TV special, Fallon curated a holiday music channel for Sirius XM Satellite Radio as a promotional vehicle for this album, and it's quite good, too. The one thing I haven't mentioned yet is that Fallon was so into this project that he spent the last several years on it, and the end result is more fun than you could ever imagine.
I should say up front that the only reason this album landed in my listening pile is that I was fond of his 1972 hit "It Never Rains in Southern California." I should also add that I haven't followed his career over the last 52 years, but this album seems like a solo acoustic survey of the Christmas classics. Just as I was thinking that there was nothing particularly special about this set, I heard something that stopped me in my tracks. It was a cover of "Diving Home for Christmas," a song that American audiences are unlikely to know because it was a UK hit by British singer/ songwriter/ musician Chris Rea, someone whose music I have enjoyed for some time. I hadn't realized that Hammond is also British (he is). Some of the songs on Christmas have a little more production on them, namely bass and drums. Although this album doesn't have the sound of that old single, Hammond still sounds good and you have to hand it to the guy that he's still making music after all these years as if to serve notice that he's not ready for the rocking chair just yet. For something a little different this year, spin Christmas by Albert Hammond.
The tracklist of The Caribbean Christmas Mixtape, Vol. 1 might be misleading. At first glance, it looks like the ultra favorites of the Christmas canon, but when you play them they are revealed to be jam packed by their creators, Joy Lapps & Larnell Lewis, with all the artistry, rhythms, styles and traditions that these folks live and breathe on account of their Antigua and St. Kitts island heritage. The soca influence is right there in the opening track, which in addition to everything else features the familiar melody played by Joy Lapp on steelpan (steel drums); Leroy Anderson never imagined THIS. The Caribbean rhythms mixed with reggae beats pulse through material like "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "Little Drummer Boy" and "Carol of the Bells" and many more. The combination of "Petite Papa Noël" (Little Father Christmas) and "Old Toy Trains" sets the table quite nicely for "Edelweiss." The emotional vocal provided by Justin Bacchus and Subria Lapps only serves to underline the continuing popularity of The Sound of Music as well as providing this Christmas mixtape with an unexpected treat. On the whole, you'd have to probe the many clubs of the Caribbean islands and you still might not hear music this authentic sounding.
I'm impressed. On the majority of this album, the backing music serves only to accent and highlight the songs. Christina Perri has such a soft and powerful voice that she is able to totally carry the melody of these songs with only her vocal ability. I probably shouldn't be so surprised, but I know her more by reputation than her actual music. This album begins with a serious sounding spin of "silent night." What follows is the album's lone original, "christmas dream," which Perri wrote with her band. I should note here that this comes after a run of three lullaby albums that Perri recorded as a result of becoming a mom, and "christmas dream" has the same intention. After that comes a run of ten covers of popular Christmas songs ranging from "the christmas song" to "wonderful christmastime," the relatively recent release by Paul McCartney offering a nice surprise in the program. I was going to comment that "rudolph the red nosed reindeer" and "frosty the snowman" seem to indicate that this thing is aimed at kids, but then I had the pleasure of hearing a recent interview with Perri in which she talks about making this album for her daughters. The good news is that songs for christmas has something for everybody and that her voice makes it even better.
2024 marks the third year in a row that three principle players of the Philadelphia Eagles offense have put together a holiday album for benefit of local charities. Going as The Philly Specials, the name a reference to a key play in their last (and only so far) Super Bowl win, the three players are Jason Kelce (now retired), Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata. The cream of local area musicians and technicians makes these albums as much a souvenir of the Philly music scene as it is a keepsake for Eagles fans. The more that these three express their personalities, the more endearing the track. There are a number of times that you can hear this, but I am thinking specifically of "(It's) Christmas Don't Be Late," where the three of them sing the Chipmunks' parts and Kelce portrays the easily distractible Alvin. This record is replete with guests, such as Devon Gilifian, who helps with a great cover of Sam Cook's immortal "Having A Party," which might not initially seem like a Christmas song, but it does reflect the party atmosphere of the holidays. More guests include Stevie Nicks, Boyz II Men, Travis Kelce, Kylie Kelce, Immanuel Wilkins and Mt. Joy. Overall, there are so many good songs on this record that it can easily hold its own with any other holiday album in this list. May it warm your spirits this holiday season.
She had me at "Christmastime is Here." This track from Vince Guaraldi's soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas has been recorded so often in recent years that it was starting to seem like a modern standard. But this is the first time it came up on this list and it was artfully combined here with the classic "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" complete with orchestra crescendos and the whole nine yards. What follows is a good survey of the familiar favorites of Christmas with a slant toward the newer entries along with a couple of songs that are less familiar to keep it interesting. The penultimate tune ramps up the energy level with a resounding performance of Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas." In a nice bit of sequencing, the last track, "Angels we Have Heard on High," is a song you wouldn't think has higher energy than "This Christmas." That is, until you hear this version with guest Clay Aiken, and it's no spoiler to say that this performance (which closes the record) also brings down the house. Not for nothing does Solanga have a theater background that includes the stages of Broadway and London and it will surprise no one to learn that she is a major star in her native Philippines. This will be evident upon listening to Sounding Joy: The Holiday Album.
In the interest of full disclosure, transparency and all that, I should mention up front that I have enjoyed this band's music for well over 50 years. Moreover, I have seen them in concert over a dozen times. For whatever reason, in their sixty plus year career they have never released a Christmas album until now. Tower of Power's stock in trade has always been that they are a soul band from Oakland, California, and one that plays hot funk better than most, and they are known for their world renowned horn section. Longtime fans may be surprised to learn that It's Christmas is more of a jazz album. This record may have more in common with Chicago than with James Brown, even though the line between a hot jazz band and a cookin' soul band is remarkably thin. Just take the gorgeous opening track, which is an instrumental version of "The Christmas Song" and it's all you need to know. Over the years Tower of Power has employed a literal dream team succession of lead vocalists, but they have always reserved a few songs for leader and cofounder Emilio Castillo to sing. On this Christmas record, just when you might have been thinking where's Emilo, he comes front and center on "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and on a few songs after that. It is also worth noting that there is a dynamite version of Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas" in which Castillo and company make a few changes and in the process totally make the song their own. But the song that gets me the most after a few spins is the final track which is listed as "Christmas Medley," in which the familiar themes blend into each other as the instruments seem to melt in and out as needed. For example, at one point the other instruments virtually melt away down to a single mellow sounding electric guitar solo playing Vince Guaraldi's "Christmastime is Here," and so on. Need I say more?
Reissues, Remasters, Collections, Expanded Deluxe Editions, etc. (ones you might have missed)
In 1984 Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats was horrified by the news reports of famine in Ethiopia and he conceived of an all star charity single. First, he enlisted Midge Ure to help complete the composition of the song. Next, he lined up the cream of musicians from Britain and Ireland and assembled them in a London studio for the recording. The single went on to hit number one on the British chart at Christmas 1984 and it raised millions of dollars for the cause. Geldof also spawned the United States counterpart "We Are the World" and the international charity concert Live Aid. In 2004, for the 20th anniversary of "Do They Know Its Christmas," they recorded a new version with the stars of the day. In 2014, to celebrate the 30th anniversary, they did the same thing again. Now, for the 40th anniversary they have produced a commemorative version which incorporates elements from all three previous versions. This has been released to all streaming platforms. Fun fact: Bono participated in all three recordings of "Do They Know Its Christmas."
To be sure, Sabrina Carpenter had quite a good following in 2023 when this Christmas EP was originally released. But this year, her popularity has positively caught fire making her the hottest thing this side of Chappell Roan. On fruitcake, Carpenter gives us five new originals and one cover. On this record, Carpenter pulls off the neat trick of safely threading the needle between the graphic fare that dominates the top ten and the more buttoned up persona of mega star Taylor Swift. For example, check out the song "Santa Doesn't Know You Like I Do." She not only sounds soft and suggestive, some might ever say sexy. When she gets to "White Christmas," the song begins sounding all spacey and light, then when the song kicks in, she's doing the doo-wop arrangement famously used by The Drifters way back when. I wanted to contrast the songwriting then and now, but let it suffice to say that Sabrina Carpenter sounds impossibly cute on her holiday EP fruitcake.
As a diehard purist, I want to say that the original Carpenters recordings, including their Christmas albums, were just fine as they were and should not be altered at this late date. Without commenting on the 2018 release, which Richard Carpenter produced with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra that was used as the source of some of these tracks, I believe that any time you remix, remaster, or otherwise produce a new master, all such work should be governed by what the track(s) sounded like as originally released. Yes, I know that Richard Carpenter handled the arrangements, orchestration and production in the first place, however having lived with the perfection of "Merry Christmas Darling" for over fifty years, one listen to the version on this album illustrates the problem. Even though the track may be "better," it just strikes me as wrong, and as a result, I must give Christmas Once More thumbs down.
Kelly Clarkson's 2021 album, When Christmas Comes Around has been reissued in a new deluxe edition which adds three additional songs to the program. Two of the three are originals. But you should know that the cover, "All I Want for Christmas is You" is not the Mariah Carey song that you probably know. This track is kind of interesting in that the only thing it has in common with the Carey song is the name. Even though the song writers of this tune apparently borrowed the melody from the oldie "You Belong to Me" (which you might know from Jo Stafford or the Duprees) at least the way Clarkson sings it, they have unsuccessfully sued Carey and they are preparing to do it again. Even though I am against making an artist's fans re-buy something they already have, I would recommend this version of the album to anyone interested in the big voiced singer.
With the huge favorable response to their joint Christmas concerts every year at the Ryman Auditorium, Amy Grant and Vince Gill, the unofficial first couple of Nashville, figured that it was time for a joint Christmas album. Each of them has their own strong discography of Christmas releases. When I Think of Christmas consists of eleven tracks, the first and last of which are new recordings and the other nine are remastered from previous releases. The album gets under way with a gorgeous new original from Grant, followed by a remastered number from Gill. The tracks alternate in this manner until the final song, a beautiful new duet recording of "'Til The Season Comes Round Again." The songs mostly come from the realm of popular Christmas classics and a few carols. These are all wonderful songs and if you didn't know that some had been previously released, the album sounds remarkably unified in style with most tracks falling on the quiet and relaxing side. This record will surely enhance your evenings by the fire.
Not that anyone needed to hear "Jingle Bell Rock," again, being that it's been with us pretty much continuously since its 1957 release, but this nice slice of Christmas ubiquity leads off a new collection entitled A Bobby Helms Christmas. Just in case you haven't heard "Jingle Bell Rock" enough, this album has not only the 1957 original single version but also a new remix. So many other artists have recorded "Jingle Bell Rock" that it's become a standard at Christmastime, and for good reason. The album includes some real rarities such as the original single B-side, "Captain Santa Claus (And His Reindeer Space Patrol)," "The Bell That Couldn't Ring" and "Those Snowy, Glowy, Blowy Days Of Winter." Let Bobby Helms warm your Christmas party this year with this new collection.
In which Jethro Tull remasters The Jethro Tull Christmas Album (2003) and for this reissue they have expanded it with some new tracks and also rerecorded some older favorites. Jethro Tull has always had a proclivity for Christmas. Way back when they released their very first single, the B-side was "A Christmas Song," which they have nicely rerecorded for this record despite the naysayers who might call this tune preachy. In any case, there is plenty of good Christmas cheer to go around from "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" to "Ring Out Solstice Bells," their (non judgemental) Christmas single from 1976. And, that's not all. There are a number of winter songs as well as a few that have nothing to do with Christmas or winter. There is a new recording of "Bouree," an instrumental that combines the band's penchant for blues and jazz rhythms with a tasty classical melody played on Ian Anderson's flute, something that really makes this band endearing no matter what season it is.
If you're a fan of Pat Monahan and his group Train, you may have heard (if not have a copy) of their one and only Christmas album, Christmas In Tahoe. Depending on when you heard/ bought/ downloaded the album, you may or may not have heard all of the tracks. We will try to sort that out for you. For the purposes of this discussion, I'm not considering the different vinyl versions of this LP that have veen offered over the years. When Christmas In Tahoe was first released in 2015, it had 15 tracks consisting of twelve covers and three originals. Different versions of the record have been offered at various times, including a twenty track Amazon exclusive. This year, they have released a new extended deluxe edition that contains a totals of eighteen tracks. Compared to the original release, they have omitted three tracks, but they have added the five bonus tracks from the Amazon release; and if you are keeping score, that leaves one more track: a remix of "Shake Up Christmas" that they are calling Tahoe Version. This may, or may not, have to do with the Hallmark movie that is based on the album and stars Pat Monahan, who also executive produced. The originals speak for themselves, while the covers offer a nice mix of classic Christmas favorites and more recent holiday hits. If you haven't yet gotten onboard this train, now would be the time.
There used to be an art to doing a Christmas sampler album. It could be artists on a label or family of labels. Or, it could be songs on a particular topic. But, in recent years, releases have gotten away from that ideal. Some of the label samplers I've heard in the last few years offer such a gathering of mainstream material (primarily country) and I just wasn't that interested. But lo and behold, this year brought something completely different from Warner Music Nashville. Let me tell you that the new album Melancholy Mistletoe Vol. 2 is a real pleasure to listen to. With tracks like "Oh, What a Silent Night" (Randy Travis) and "Christmas Always Finds Me" (Ingrid Andress), this album really brings it over twelve tracks. This one is so good it makes me want to go back and look up Volume One. Let this album do for you what such great albums have done since time eternal and, have a cool yule.
Comments