Manhattan Transfer

The Christmas Album

ONE OF THE BEST POP CHRISTMAS RECORDINGS

Review Score:

(10/10)
The Manhattan Transfer is always trying something new - sometimes they get it, sometimes they don't. With this Christmas album, they nail it right on the head. They use their intoxicating harmonies and lush arrangements for a mostly perfect selection of classic Christmas fare, both religious and secular, as well as some off-beat but no less effective selections. Snowfall is the first thing I play every year when it is time to decorate the tree -- it actually sounds like a slow, silent snowfall in the dead of winter -- the kind we wish for on Christmas Eve. Their arrangement of It Came Upon A Midnight Clear is the best version of this classic hymn I have ever heard; it blends together angelic voices, their own fabulous tight quarter harmony and swirling strings and horns to create a hair-raising recording of epic proportions. Happy Holiday is an all-out smash; you will want to get up and jitterbug -- it features an instrumental "dance break" that raises the roof. And the Beatles' Goodnight (the children who appear at the end are forgiven) provides a gorgeous close to the album.

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