Customer Reviews

Christmas Is Almost Here

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This is a beautiful c.d. It's simple and understated in some ways and in some ways it's bigger and bolder than any other Christmas recording on the market. Carly Simon makes music that is "stripped back" and intimate. The miracle, the mystery, the seeking and the celebration are all components that Carly Simon has put in front of the listener.

The spiritual Christmas songs like "Silent Night", "O Come, All Ye Faithful", are treated with grace and tenderness. The soulful, "Twelve Gates To the City" is a song you'll find yourself singing over and over. Carly Simon's arrangement of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" is just great! The reggae beat along with Ben Taylor, her son, make this a classic remake.

The Christmas standards "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" and "I'll be Home for Christmas" are just beautiful. Carly knows how to take a standard and put her stamp on it without taking away from the song. "White Christmas" with Burt Bacharach, again has her stamp on it.

"The Land of Christmas (Mary)" is a song that Carly wrote and is probably one of the best songs she has written in years. It has all the qualities that you expect from a self-penned song by Carly. It's a great song with lots of emotion and soul. She also wrote "Forgive" which is very simple and beautiful. Andreas Vollenweider plays harp.

"Christmas is Almost Here" written by Livingston Taylor, "Pretty Paper" a duet with Willie Nelson and John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over) are all well preformed by Carly and very enjoyable.

"Heaven" is the song on this c.d. that brings it all together. Written by Lucy Simon (her sister) and Carly, it sets a tone that puts a "yearning" in the listener's heart to experience the miracle, the mystery, the celebration, the search and the Savior.

If you're looking for a "over produced" c.d. with all the "whistles and bells" then this may not be the c.d. for you. If you're looking for something that seems like Carly is singing in your living room while music is being played by Willie Nelson, Billy Preston, Burt Bacharach, Andreas Vollenweider, and other great musicians then this is the c.d.!!

This is a c.d. that will be played and enjoyed for years to come.

In the liner notes, Carly Simon discusses how the album was recorded in a hotel room in LA during January 2002. She adds how the basic tapes were produced, mastered and ultimately released over the ensuing nine months. I am normally a devoted fan of Carly Simon, but the sound quality of this album suffers from the original sessions having been recorded on a notebook computer. No amount of remastering could overcome the flawed basic tracks. This album would have benefited from studio recording, which may have precluded some of the harshness that is readily apparent in first listening. Carly, please, rerecord this album. We miss your "signature" quality sound. And shame on Rhino for passing this off on the public at full price!

Carly's peak years were in the seventies, but she still sings as good as she ever did. This is a lovely album, with a mix of slow and mid-tempo songs, including some standards which everybody knows, together with some wonderful new songs.

Carly and Willie Nelson sing a duet - Pretty paper, which Willie wrote and Roy Orbison had a hit with back in the sixties.

Carly wrote The land of Christmas (Mary), while Heaven is a song originally written by Carly's daughter Lucy, which Carly and Lucy rewrote as a Christmas song.

Twelve gates to the city is apparently a very old song, but I don't ever remember hearing it before despite having a large Christmas music collection.

All these songs are brilliant, but perhaps the title track is the best of the lot - it certainly sets the mood of the album.

This is a masterpiece, as anybody familiar with Carly's music would expect. It's probably not one to play during the height of Christmas festivities (there are plenty of other, more upbeat, Christmas albums that serve that purpose well), but rather, this is one that you play when things have quietened down, and you can just relax.

Now that Christmas is approaching I have been listening to Carly's Christmas album with renewed interest and appreciation. The lyrics on her own compositions are heartfelt especially "Forgive" which should set a humbling example to us all. Of the popular covers my favourite is "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" which is one of the best versions of this gorgeous song that I have ever listened to, the vocal arrangement is beautiful and Carly's voice soars in purity. Sadly, I won't be able to see Carly in New York later this month, but any of these songs will work wonders live. I can imagine what a gas seeing "Twelve Gates To The City" would be like performed live, especially if Billy Preston was on the keyboards. A considered album with something for everyone, spiritually and tradtionally as well as the more popular covers.

I never thought I would buy a Christmas CD in my lifetime. That's how much I dislike Christmas music.
However, when I first listened to this CD at a friend's house, it just marveled me.

And I think this album is so wonderful due to a combination of factors:
1) Carly's voice, even if she is 57, must be envied by many of her younger colleagues.
2) Simple but beautiful arrangements.
3) Fantastic selection of songs.
4) First-rate musicians, like Jim Keltner, B. Trench, Arnold Mc Culler, Ben Taylor and producer Don Was.

Among the many jewels this CD has, there are two that are noticeably outstanding. Carly's original "Land of Christmas", and a spectacular and dramatic version of J. Lennon's "So this is Christmas (War is over)". If instead of contracts and money arrangements, radio producers cared about real music, this last song should be played 3 times a day in all adult contemporary stations. But of course, this is not how the music industry works today.

Having said this, I understand a little more everyday why Carly Simon is always in my CD player together with Rachmaninoff, Bach and Chopin. Thank you for reading.

Carly Simon has made some incredibly brilliant albums over the years - 1971's "Anticipation", 1972's "No Secrets", 1981's "Torch" and 1990's "My Romance". She has also single-handedly written the words and music for some pop-music masterpieces - "Legend in your Own Time", "Anticipation", "You're So Vain", and "Touched by the Sun". With that amazing voice, there's no doubt that she's a very talented lady. In the liner notes for this album, "Christmas is Almost Here", Carly says that during its recording, "Spontaneity was the name of the game", and admits "Some things may sound a little too gritty". Much of the material was recorded in a slap-up studio in a hotel room, although top musicians were used. There can be no argument that Carly can carry things off with perfection with a raw live band, as a viewing of the concert videos "Live at Grand Central Station" and "Live at Martha's Vineyard" prove. But somehow the forays on "Christmas is Almost Here" just don't come together. Maybe it's because we're used to hearing Carly's material polished and pristinely presented by such producers as Richard Perry, Ted Templeton and Arif Marden. Most of the tracks on "Christmas is Almost Here" sound clumsy, lack-lustre , and self-indulgent, and on some of the vocals Carly sounds as if she should have done a few more takes. I have been a big fan of Carly for twenty-seven years, and I must say with this effort she has reached a (hopefully) all-time low. I have all her albums, and this one's the pits, (along with the Piglet Movie soundtrack, her other most recent offering). So Carly, Christmas is almost here.....well, if this is the tone of Christmas this year, we might as well skip it. The most worthwhile message in this Christmas package is "Happy Christmas, (War is Over)". Maybe our world leaders - (U.S.A., Britain, Australia and elsewhere) should give this song a listen and really consider its sentiments.

Carly Simon has created a holiday masterpiece to delight for years & years to come!!! This is a gorgeous reflective holiday CD to listen to while watching the snow gently floating down & dreaming of holidays past & the ones you love. This is a holiday CD to listen to during those quiet moments of the season when you need to catch a beautiful moment to yourself & remember what the season is truly about.

The duet with fellow legend Burt Bacharach is quite astonishing!!! (Check out the legendary recording of Carly Simon & Burt Bacharach from many years ago entitled 'I Live in the Woods', recorded with an entire orchestra - if you can locate this much-sought-after recording from an early Bacharach masterpiece)!!! It's about time these 2 joined talents again & the result is fabulous!!!

Happy holidays indeed!!! Carly Simon delivers the warmth, joy, & tenderness to this classy holiday masterpiece!!!!!! Let the holidays BEGIN!!!!!!!!

At first I was reluctant to buy this CD based on some of the tepid reviews here and the casual manner in which it reportedly was recorded. Boy am I glad I got it. It is very intimate and cozy. Just loved the informal feel to it. Like a good friend singing to you with spirit to spare. I would highly recommend this one.

Carly stays true to form with this FABULOUS seasonal album. A mixture of standards and original works, "Heaven" and "The Land of Christmas" are heartbreakingly beautiful--Carly's voice is in top form. The spontaneous making of this album is apparent with the somewhat "raw" sound (although it has been sort-of 'mixed'), but you can tell it comes from Carly's heart to ours. :-)

This is a Christmas album for people who do not normally like Christmas albums. It has none of the false cheer or sentimental schmaltz usually found in albums of the season. Instead, it offers new and amazingly original versions of classics songs, interpreted with a musician's love of the songs themselves. My favourites are the upbeat, reggae-ish version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"; the wonderfully re-worked "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"; and Carly's original, the acoustic "Mary". Her voice sounds great, and it is prominent throughout this wonderfully pared-down and intimate album.
If you like the idea of Mariah Carey singing "Jingle Bells", then this probably isn't the album for you. If you don't, you might want to give this a try.