Note: in the title above, there is no “Christmas”. This is on purpose: the inclusive imperative applies. We could have, in the very skilful way of La choir de There are people at massoverseeing even more broadly: Just after November. It’s the perfect title, there’s nothing more open. At Ambiances ambiguës, the box that produced this disc, we still thought it was good to put an explicit sticker: “9 new Christmas songs”. So goes the mass. From midnight. For the record of L’Ensemble d’Live from the universethe Pamplemousse media record company goes free: Christmas as before. So there.
To use the language of advertising, the family is very trendy in 2022. Two of our television congregations thus offer, at the same time, to accompany us, even to identify with their gregarious spirit. Phenomenon of the post-pandemic, we find ourselves in record stores as in the kinship gathered and reconstituted. The two discs are also very well done, it is after all our champion musicians who stick to it: an Alex McMahon, an Antoine Gratton to dress the choir, a Jean-François Groulx and a Paul Brochu to coat the universe . Disclaimer: the cover photos look alike. The shows too. No big deal, buy both albums.
Choice and cabbage
The fact is that under the fir tree, still and always king of the forests, this year rub shoulders with cabbage choices of all beliefs and all commercial logics: more than ever are juxtaposed namely ChristmasChristmas swept away under the mistletoe, pure Judeo-Christian Quebecness in remission of sins at the solemn hour, without forgetting the chestnuts from the seasonal Great American Songbook on the hearth fire.
There are the grand chic offerings, there is no escaping them. In the genre, we will much prefer the album of a Nicola Ciccone (Christmas spirit), which alternates with great taste the creations of the author-composer and the classics (in French, English and Italian), with the recipe of a Vincent Niclo (The first Christmas together), self-proclaimed “lyrical pop tenor noh 1 in Europe”, whose interpretations are agreed and stiff as a plastic tree. All in all, we’ll rather go warm up with Nikki By Starlighttender anthology of slightly jazzy covers sixties in the approach, where the Montreal singer Nikki Yanofsky goes to Bing Crosby, Chet Baker or Billie Holiday as if she had always had her place reserved there.
unexpected gifts
Trend rhyming with abundance, the albums are not enough and the ovens no longer provide, so the streaming services are hungry for food: the dishes of all different bites are multiplying. It’s the comeback of the song on its own, distant heiress of the 45 rpm, served hot. Here an irrepressible Sara Dufour who sets the table with My Grandmother’s Meat Piethere a With Bells On dynamic country style by the Maxime Landry-Annie Blanchard duo, we enjoy it and we digest better.
Unexpected gifts? It still may be. We are surprised by the infinite capacity to vary the recipe. Who could have imagined that Andrea Lindsay, from Ontario, invited by the group Glass Tiger to collaborate in both official languages, would fulfill a dream that is both pan-Canadian and planetary: the song Santa Get Your Sleigh is thus adapted into a hymn without borders or bells, entitled For the love of the world (text Lindsay-De Larochellière). Just as happy creation, we savor the very, very beautiful Christmas on My Mind that an inspired Elliot Maginot comes out of nowhere, rich in harmonies and melodic in titi. This blessed song, we tell you as we feel it, is the cherished UFO that should land everywhere, in your home as in ours. with the word Christmas in the title, yes, and the heart in the right place.