Search - Alabama :: Christmas Collection

Re-packaging of two previous Alabama Christmas albums

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 11/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Alabama's first Christmas album (the first CD of this set) is a fairly mellow album overall, though the pace picks up occasionally. It avoids all the obvious songs, being filled almost entirely with original material. As far as I know, the only cover is Tennessee Christmas, a brilliant song written by Amy Grant, which has also been covered by several other singers.



The songs cover all aspects of Christmas. Joseph and Mary's boy caters for the religious aspect. Thistlehair the Christmas bear is a great song for children. Alabama always like to praise the southern states, so we not only get Tennessee Christmas but also Christmas in Dixie - another brilliant song. They are more reflective on songs such as Christmas memories and Candle in the window. Tonight is Christmas is a song of peace and goodwill.



Alabama's second collection of Christmas music is almost as mellow as the first. The tempo picks up on Rocking around the Christmas tree (a cover of the Brenda Lee classic) and Hanging round the mistletoe (covered by Brooks and Dunn since Alabama first recorsded it) but they do not go full throttle even on those songs. So this is one of those Christmas albums to play during quieter moments and it works very well on that level.



Among the other songs, there are two old chestnuts - Little drummer boy and O little town of Bethlehem - on which Alabama sound exactly as you would expect them to sound. New tears eve 1999 also appeared on their Twentieth century album. It fits in well and I'm glad that it was included. I was young once too is a great father and son song. The other songs are a mix of love ballads and spiritual songs and make for very enjoyable listening.



Overall, I slightly prefer Alabama's first Christmas album to their second but as you get both here, you'll easily be able to make up your own mind if you buy this set. Of course, if you already own the earlier releases, you won't need to buy this. There's nothing new here although it would have been nice if they could have added Silent night as a bonus track. It appeared on their other 2006 release, Songs of inspiration. I can't see that its appearance on this set would have affected sales of the inspirational album except perhaps to encourage more people to buy that album.

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