Aimee Mann – One More Drifter In The Snow
Friday, October 27th, 2006
I just found out today that the incomparable Aimee Mann has a new Christmas CD out!
I actually found an advance copy for download on a blog when I did one of my standard Technorati "Christmas music" searches. I’ll admit that I downloaded it (but I also ordered it from Amazon immediately…).
Now Ms. Mann is highly revered among the rock geeks that I know. And for good reason. After leading the artful new wave of Til Tuesday in the 1980′s, Mann went on to make some amazingly literate and edgy pop music (for which she had the great reward of losing a number of recording contracts).
Christmas music collectors like myself have cherished her occasional holiday output. There was the track she performed with her husband (Michael Penn) on the Just Say Noël collection, Christmastime. She also released an EP last year, primarily through iTunes. This album collects some of those songs and a few more and what a joy it is.
This is probably like no other Christmas album I’ve heard (and suffice it to say I’ve heard quite a few). That’s because it is a ‘rock’ Christmas album that has the spirit and tone of a classic vocal Christmas LP of the fifties or sixties. That is, the mood of the arrangements and the quality of the singing harken back to the days of Dean, Bing, Peggy Lee and others, just with quite contemporary rock instruments and arrangements. Mann avoids the temptation of so many modern artists to put out a Christmas album with big band arrangements that ape the classics. Instead she sticks with sounds that she knows well (provided by some of her old friends, including Patrick Warren). And the results are warm and sublime.
At times her voice reminds me of Carole King or Joni Mitchell, and indeed there is somewhat of a 70′s AOR feel to some of the intimate country-rock instrumentation. But her voice is completely her own and she does an excellent job of communicating both the warm hominess and melancholy longing that are inherent in the season. She manages to take songs that I’ve heard thousands of times in hundreds of version and make them feel intimately new. That’s no small accomplishment.
I have a strong feeling this will be my favorite new Christmas album this year. I highly recommend you pick it up.
I just found out today that the incomparable Aimee Mann has a new Christmas CD out!
I actually found an advance copy for download on a blog when I did one of my standard Technorati "Christmas music" searches. I’ll admit that I downloaded it (but I also ordered it from Amazon immediately…).
Now Ms. Mann is highly revered among the rock geeks that I know. And for good reason. After leading the artful new wave of Til Tuesday in the 1980′s, Mann went on to make some amazingly literate and edgy pop music (for which she had the great reward of losing a number of recording contracts).
Christmas music collectors like myself have cherished her occasional holiday output. There was the track she performed with her husband (Michael Penn) on the Just Say Noël collection, Christmastime. She also released an EP last year, primarily through iTunes. This album collects some of those songs and a few more and what a joy it is.
This is probably like no other Christmas album I’ve heard (and suffice it to say I’ve heard quite a few). That’s because it is a ‘rock’ Christmas album that has the spirit and tone of a classic vocal Christmas LP of the fifties or sixties. That is, the mood of the arrangements and the quality of the singing harken back to the days of Dean, Bing, Peggy Lee and others, just with quite contemporary rock instruments and arrangements. Mann avoids the temptation of so many modern artists to put out a Christmas album with big band arrangements that ape the classics. Instead she sticks with sounds that she knows well (provided by some of her old friends, including Patrick Warren). And the results are warm and sublime.
At times her voice reminds me of Carole King or Joni Mitchell, and indeed there is somewhat of a 70′s AOR feel to some of the intimate country-rock instrumentation. But her voice is completely her own and she does an excellent job of communicating both the warm hominess and melancholy longing that are inherent in the season. She manages to take songs that I’ve heard thousands of times in hundreds of version and make them feel intimately new. That’s no small accomplishment.
I have a strong feeling this will be my favorite new Christmas album this year. I highly recommend you pick it up.
