A Latin styled “Arbol de Navidad (Christmas Tree)” and the R&B “We’re Wrapping Presents” add to the style variety. The collection is about two-thirds Christmas classics, which range from electric guitar-driven “Deck the Halls” and “Twelve Days of Christmas,” a jazzy “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” to straight ahead, sincere versions of “O Holy Night” and “Silent Night.” Moran has a nice voice to carry the ballads. It’s heavy on danceable pop-rock, like the rollicking title track (I have no idea what’s happening with the giant puppets in that video below, but you can hear what a jam it is). The one-time Yellow Wiggle’s 2017 Christmas album was nominated for an ARIA this year, and here at Artsplorers HQ, has been the most requested of all the kids’ Christmas albums we’ve been trying out. More about Lah-Lah, and buy Lah-Lah’s Stripy Christmas on their website or find it on streaming services.
They’ve chosen more of the family novelty fare, rather than any religious standards, so the tracks include songs like “Jingle Bells,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth,” “I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas,” and the curious Ella Fitzgerald tune “Santa Clause Got Stuck in My Chimney.” The tempo slows for a moment with the pretty “There Are Many Stars/Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” but then picks up again to close with with my favorite, the Romani jazz style “Jolly Christmas Time.” It’s a very oompah Christmas! The bulk of the album is Christmas covers, in Lah-Lah style. They open with their own jazz funk “Santa’s Got a Brand New Groove,” followed by a polka-infused “Merry Christmas”. This isn’t your smooth crooner style jazz, though. With their timeless, jazzy sound, it feels almost inevitable that Lah-Lah and her Big Live Band should be doing Christmas music. Buy A Laurie Berkner Christmas on streaming services or Amazon. Read more about Laurie Berkner on her website.
If you want to add one tried and true holiday album to your collection, you can’t go wrong with Laurie Berkner. There’s a nice variety of song types, from “kid’s” songs like “Jingle Bells” and “Frosty the Snowman to more contemplative ones like “White Christmas” and “Silent Night.” The gospel-inspired version of “Children Go Where I Send Thee” is my favorite. This 2012 collection of primarily Christmas classics is performed in Berkner’s folksy style that manages to be simultaneously gentle and bouncy. You could say that Laurie Berkner CD is the main reason I started writing about non-cringeworthy kid’s music. Not long before I had my first baby, a friend told me, “you’re going to need children’s music you can stand to listen to,” and put a Laurie Berkner CD in my hand.
(If you’d like check out some of our favorites from these albums and other cool kids’ Christmas songs, have a listen to our Spotify Playlist. Consider it my gift to your ears! If you like to spin holiday tunes with the family, try adding some of these kid’s Christmas albums to your playlist. That was quite obviously impossible, so instead, I picked 6 of the jazziest, rockin’-est, non-annoying Christsmas albums for children. For the “Listening Ears On!” kid’s music series, I usually review just one album, so, I thought I’d choose a single kids’ Christmas album this month.
0 kommentar(er)
