Customer Reviews

Christmas Album

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have to admit to being an absolute sop and say I LOVE CHRISTMAS and Christmas music. I am manic at this time of year. This is one of the most beautiful Christmas albums I have heard. Aled Jones has a beautiful soothing voice and being a traditionalist I love the songs he has chosen. It is worth buying this CD purely for the most haunting versions of the `Coventry Carol' you will ever hear. His duet on `Silent Night' with Hayley Westenra is also magnificent, along with my favourite carol `The Angel Gabriel'. He also sings a duet with himself on the bonus track `O Holy Night', himself as a boy soprano which will take your breath away. If you want a haunting, beautiful and soothing traditional Christmas album don't miss this one because it is a real Gem.

I stumbled across this album quite by accedent and it hasn't been off my CD player since. Aled Jones really has the most beautiful male voice I've ever heard. His beautiful renditions of some of the most well known and loved christmas carols, as well as some of the less well known is a delight to the ears. His versions of The Covantry Carol, The Angel Gabriel and God Rest You Merry Gentle men gave me goose bumps and his duet Silent Night sung with Hayley Westenra is really too beautiful for words to do it justice. This album really is not to be missed.

I like Aled Jones' treble voice well enough, which this album showcases, the cover notwithstanding. However, I REALLY like his mature voice, but unfortunately his new-in-2004 album, for which the cover art is displayed as of 12-20-2011, is only available on amazon.co.uk, and is not available to US residents. (Compare the song lists and the musical samples at the UK and US sites.) Curiously, I can't find the earlier album even on Jones' own web site. I discovered the confusion of albums when trying to purchase tracks I had heard on Pandora. com.

Aled Jones originally found fame as a boy singer of a British hit single titled Walking in the air, a cover of a Christmas song that Peter Auty recorded for The Snowman. Aled recorded a whole Christmas album built around that single. With this second Christmas album, Aled showcases his very different, warm adult baritone voice. He chose not to re-record Walking in the air, but has subsequently put together a new version of the song, creating a duet with his two different voices.

Without any versions of that classic song, this is still a brilliant album. Aled is supported by the English Session Orchestra, who provide tastefully restrained instrumentation, together with Libera, a boys' choir who are more prominent on some tracks than others but who, like the orchestra, never overpower the album's star singer. Hayley Westenra, the brilliant singer from New Zealand, joins Aled for a duet version of Silent night.

Aled noted in the credits that he set out to record a stylish and heartfelt collection of Christmas classics and believes he achieved it. It's certainly stylish and heartfelt , while most of the songs are indeed Christmas classics. There are some less obvious song selections here that, it may be argued, have not achieved classic status. Candlelight carol (a John Rutter song), The little road to Bethlehem and Whence is that goodly fragrance? Are all excellent and deserve to be better known that they are. With the exception of Candlelight carol, which Neil Diamond also included on one of his Christmas albums, I don't remember hearing these songs elsewhere, but I'm glad that Aled chose these rather than three more famous classics.

Of the familiar songs, I was particularly pleased to find that Aled included In the bleak midwinter, which is one of my favorite carols. Given that Aled set out to record a heartfelt album, this song was an obvious choice and it suits him ideally.

This is a great album from start to finish. Although Aled is officially regarded as a singer of classical music, you don't need to enjoy classical music to love this album. It is more of an easy listening album that would sit comfortably alongside Christmas albums by Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis, Perry Como and the aforementioned Neil Diamond.

On Amazon website I listen to a preview of a song on this album. I liked it so I bought the album. Turns out the song isn't even on here, but it gets better. The song I wanted was when Aled was just a boy, this album he is a full grown middle aged man.
Anyway the album is so boring I have never listen though it in it's entirety as I have fallen a sleep each time. That being said if you are looking for a something to fall a sleep to, buy this.