A better-than-average Christmas album. With the exception of the occasional keyboard, this is an all-acoustic affair which sounds like Dave just invited some friends over to play some Christmas tunes - no pressure, lots of fun. There are some great non-traditional arrangements here. Koz later released Christmas CDs in 2001 & 2007 and a compilation of the three Christmas CDs in 2011. I've got no excuse for avoiding them like I have.
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Tracks: Sleighride gets us off to a happy start, but the first 8 tracks are all fantastic - don't skip any of them. While Koz's saxophone takes the lead, the songs aren't all in a smooth jazz vein; the honky-tonk arrangement of Winter Wonderland is probably my favorite cover of that song. Things go downhill fast with two original tunes, the French-flavored Eight Candles and the title track (which includes vocals by Koz) - not bad tunes per se, just out of place here.
Warning: after a minute of silence, the last track contains a dreaded "hidden track." Here, the hidden track is comic Phil Hartman reciting a tongue-in-cheek rendition of The Night Before Christmas in a coffeehouse beatnik style. It's funny, I don't know why it was hidden.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: No specific memory, but these songs get a lot of playing time each year around the holidaze.
No comments:
Post a Comment