Amy Grant - The Christmas Collection
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Free Music Notes for The Christmas Collection
Free Music Review: Amy Grant= Awesome!
Hit: 4 Stars
Her voice is just the perfect sound to sing all the wonderful Christmas songs on this CD. There are I believe 18 songs, so plenty to get you in the Christmas spirit. I have been listening to this since I bought it and I'm still not sick of it 3 weeks later! If you like Christmas songs at all you'll love this CD.Free Music Review: Wonderful Christmas music
Hit: 4 Stars
Amy Grant has one of the most perfect kind of voices for Christmas music. Her voice, with all of these soft and nice songs make the perfect match. For anyone who wants a collection of very nice songs in this yuletide, I highly recommend buying this CD!Free Music Review: Amy Grant is Amazing!
Hit: 4 Stars
Spectacular Christmas CD by Amy Grant. I love it (almost) as much as her first one!!! Her version of Jingle Bells is so fun!Free Music Review: The Christmas Collection by Amy Grant
Hit: 4 Stars
Amy never fails to get the Christmas spirit stirring. She has the talent to bring the joy of the seasson to light.Free Music Review: Disappointing
Hit: 3 Stars
When it comes to creating Christmas albums, Amy Grant has produced a decidedly mixed bag. Her first and third albums (A Christmas Album & A Christmas to Remember) were muddled and largely forgettable. But sandwiched in between was 1992's stunningly beautiful Home for Christmas, which has not been surpassed by any Christmas album since. Grant's genius on that album was to make the kind of classic acoustic and orchestral album that Bing Crosby or Nat King Cole might make if they were still around. With few exceptions, new Christmas songs have a hard time breaking through what is, for most people, a time to reflect on the glories of days gone by. Grant understood this and made an album which immediately sounded timeless. It has been a staple around our house since it came out.
For The Christmas Collection, Grant has produced a "greatest hits" Christmas compellation with a few new songs for good measure. Unfortunately, the result is less than satisfying. Omitted are two of Home's strongest songs -- "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "The Night Before Christmas" -- but the maudlin "Grown-Up Christmas List" gets picked up for the retread. Yes, Grant makes this insipid number more listenable than anyone else who has recorded it, but her delivery cannot completely suppress the gag reflex. Also included is the insufferable "Breath of Heaven", a song that combines equal parts saccharine, vinegar, and arrogance. My ego is not sufficient to believe that I can divine Mary's innermost thoughts, but Grant plunged in undeterred. The result is a s-l-o-w, melodically boring song that portrays Mary as a dark worrywart in serious need of Prozac. Silent Night this ain't.
For a Christian singer -- albeit one who ditched her husband and kids to marry Vince Gill -- it is strange that Grant's best Christmas songs are the secular classics, not the hymns. As well-done as "O Come All Ye Faithful" may be in many ways, it is more notable for how tedious and boring it is than anything else. It is ironic that secular singer Jewel (Joy - A Holiday Collection) does a much better job of capturing the spiritual essence of the classic hymns than does the Christian Grant.
There is also an inexplicable oddity in terms of song placement. While Grant's version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a lush gem which fully brings out the song's achingly melancholy tenor, this also makes it a bit of a downer to end the album with. Was there not a more hopeful song with which to close things out?
These mistakes aside, The Christmas Collection still contains some stunningly good seasonal music, from the starkly beautiful "Winter Wonderland" to the honey-dripped "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", the delightfully happy "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year", and the sublime, mainly instrumental "Joy to the World/For Unto Us a Child Is Born". Compared to the warbling Christmas disasters inflicted on us annually by the likes of Mariah Carey and Faith Hill, this Amy Grant album has enough keepers to make it worth a place in your holiday CD collection.