Wednesday, 23 November 2016

Harriet - Maybe This Christmas (2016 Re Sparkle)


31 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!

Buy Maybe This Christmas here (iTunes UK)
Read my review of Winter Stories here
Read my review of Harriet's stunning debut album here (MyFizzyPop)

I love a gift that keeps on giving - and that is what the finest Christmas music is. From the moment you discover that special seasonal song, it intrinsically becomes part of your Yuletide experience - a soundtrack to the memories you are creating. Each year you tuck it away safely so that when you bring it out for many Christmases to come, it not only elicits recollections of Xmas past but becomes the companion to a whole host of new adventures and emotions. The rather gorgeous Maybe This Christmas is just such a song. Originally released by the talented Harriet in 2014 (see Ghosts of Christmas Past below), it was also part of one of last year's finest collection of winter stories, appropriately titled Winter Stories. This year, it has been dusted off again, polished up like the shiniest bauble and released as a 2016 re-sparkle edition. Having written a significant amount of words about Harriet, and in particular her Christmas music (and this song), I've tried to approach this with fresh ears (so to speak). It is still a song of incredible aching yearning with lyrics that highlight the greyness of this time of year that seems to inevitably creeps in between the silver, red and gold when we have those quiet moments of rumination. Harriet brings a sense of melancholy to her poetic ponderings. She has a gift for stirring emotions within the listener, as if she has reached into your soul and sung your own secrets in her graceful, elegant tones. It becomes a mesmerising experience due to this - and the elegiac piano that provides moments of haunting beauty, conjuring up images of a stark white winter landscape. It isn't all melancholy and pathos though. Harriet clings to the child like wonder that is all too often lost at Christmas, driven by the hope that going through the motions of Christmas will cocoon her in sentiments of believing the impossible and that wishes can come true. Again, the music swathes her voice with shimmering bells and an angelic choir that accentuate the optimism that drives the human spirit. I remember listening to this when I drove down to visit my mum (who has advancing dementia) last Christmas. It can be a heartbreaking experience, yet my mum can have these moments of glorious clarity and awareness that the whole family cling to. Maybe This Christmas made my heart soar and focus on those moments, rather than what has been lost, and it made for a far more uplifting and wonderful visit. So whatever life throws at you, particularly at this time of year when lows seem even lower, keep this song close because Harriet's gift is mellifluously nudging you towards making believe the season will be merry and bright. A magical song for the ages.

**Ghosts of Christmas Past**
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