50 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!
Buy Welcome To Our Christmas Party here (iTunes UK)
Read about the charity Music Cares here (Music Cares website)
Hurrah. Festive supergroup Band of Merrymakers are back - and their mission (baked right into the band name, as emphatically as gingerbread in a Christmas cookie) to spread a little cheer this yuletide has extended from last year's (still glorious) single (Must Be Christmas) to a whole album of invigorating classics, new and old. Led by hit songwriters/producers Sam Hollander (Train, One Direction, The Fray, Pentatonix) and Kevin Griffin (Taylor Swift, Sugarland, James Blunt, Howie Day...also of Better Than Ezra), it features a cornucopia of artists across an array of tracks so dazzling that the entire project shines brighter than the star atop your lovely tree. Welcome To Our Christmas Party proves to be an invite that is too hard to resist - no doubt it will soundtrack many a soiree, shindig and hootenanny this year and for many Decembers to follow. Of the new album Hollander says:
"Legend has it that Irving Berlin wrote 'White Christmas' at a La Quinta hotel in the California desert. Kevin and I attempted to channel his inspiration as we wrote and recorded our record in the blazing Hollywood summer heat. The process essentially consisted of us calling up our friends, family & colleagues and inviting them to pack up their acoustic guitars and join us by the campfire as we recorded in the sweltering sun, all with the spirit of the winter and festivity deep in our bones. We hope the joy is self-evident!!"
The joy IS self-evident and it's a triumphant and eclectic mix of genres and songs that must be heard and loved by all. Here is what you get...
The album opens with the vibrant Snow Snow Snow featuring Fitz, Natasha Bedingfield, Owl City & Kevin Griffin. It's a rollicking start to the party, evoking memories of those great new wave 80s tracks that are so indelible and part of the fabric of music 30 years later. The "looking up up up at that frosty flaking snow" moments are sheer convivial genius that will get you on your feet and pogo-ing around your living room all the live long day. The vocal talents on offer here all play to their strengths and it shimmies with a contagious exuberance. This continues into next track Holiday In L.A. which features Fitz, Natasha Bedingfield, Andrew McMahon & Mark McGrath. Together they make the city of angels sound purely angelic thanks to jingling bells, textured vocals and a chorus so catchy that you'll be singing it way into new years. Another singalong moment in the middle 8 draws you right into the song and resistance is futile as that hand clap beat rushes with giddy abandon towards the thrilling conclusion. Wishlist sees Natasha Bedingfield take the main vocal on her own this time and the results are as delicious as a Praline Mocha. She imbues the song with a big pop feel that's been missing from radio for far too long. Her seductive and charming vocals wrap themselves around the indelible melody with a mellifluous ease and though she claims her wish list may be selfish, it's a magnanimous gift for everyone else. This is followed by ...And To All A Good Night (featuring Dan Wilson & Kevin Griffin), which starts with an impish piano solo before the shuffling percussion kicks in and Dan & Kevin sing with a vivid glee that really helps the message of the song resonant longer than that full feeling after your Christmas day dinner.
Christina Perri & David Hodges team up to tell us what Christmastime means to them. And it's pretty darn marvelous. "Take all your cares, leave them behind" they sing with insightful wisdom that is enlivened by fa-la-las and a frivolous but essential tambourine shake. Their list of all the things that herald the arrival of the greatest time of year is nothing less than glorious musical poetry at it's finest. Natasha Bedingfield pops back again, this time with Jason Wade on Gather Round. It's perhaps the most melancholy track so far on the album yet it never really lets you get to wistful or gloomy about the sad memories because it urges you to create new, happy memories with those you love and celebrate the times gone by. It's full of hope and optimism and leaves you with a warm glowing feeling inside. Ooo, and then comes Must Be Christmas - last year's excellent introduction to BOM (featuring - DEEP BREATH - Charles Kelley, Tyler Glenn, Fitz, Nick Hexum, Kevin Griffin, Smallpools, The Mowglis, 3oh!3) It remains one of the best contemporary Christmas songs written, a modern day Band Aid for the masses. Still time to fall in love with this and play it incessantly for 7 more weeks :D
It's Jingle Bells but not as you know it. A funky vocal riff opens the song as Bebe Rexha & Alex & Sierra give a contemporary sheen to a decades old favourite. It reminds ever so vaguely of when TLC re-made Sleigh Ride for the Home Alone 2 soundtrack (what a movie). It's fun, mirthful and youthful. It's knocked years off me just listening to it - and of course I couldn't help but singalong to the kids choir bit at the end. Lift your voices everyone because the end result is utter euphoria. Alex & Sierra stick around for O Holy Night and are joined by David Ryan Harris & Streetcorner Symphony. Together the artists craft a vocal tour de force that is necessary for the most solemn and reverent song on the album. The blended vocals accentuate the gravitas of the song and it's a spiritual revelation - that militant drumbeat that kicks in as the song (and lyrics) crescendo is jaw dropping, spine-tingling stuff. GORGEOUS. Joy To The World shuffles up the tempo again and is as intoxicating and liberating as anything you've heard thus far. It's another epic all-hands-on-deck moment that is utterly radiant in it's sheer happiness. Similarly, Auld Lang Syne closes the album with the gang enjoying each other's voices and making those promises to do it all again next year. We can only wish upon a star that they do.
**Ghosts of Christmas Past**
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