Customer Reviews

Christmas E.P.

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

 

 

The miserly ratings given by other reviewers demand some counter-balance! The music on this CD is intimate, sweet, warm, joyful, cool, jazzy, country, ethereal, melodic, divine. The only Christmas music I could ever imagine buying, from one of the best singers I've ever heard in my life.

This is being written on Christmas because the record needs a corrective AMAZON review since that knucklehead who gave it one star hadn't, apparently, even heard it. Look, anyone who has heard O'Hara's "Miss America" ranks it with the elite pieces of music in their collection, I promise you that. The voice is ethereal, heartbreaking, otherworldly, and the music veers from haunted country atmospherics, to Crimson like guitar workouts punctuated by the guttural cries of a woman on the edge of madness. Accessible, though, and thrilling. This Christmas EP is what you seek out when you simply must -- must -- have more of her, since for various reasons she has been silenced as a lead recording voice for years now. This is by all means warm and harmless. It is not relavatory, people, it is Christmas music, a bouquet to fans.

[...]

This reason is simple. This EP by Mary Margaret O'Hara is just about the most perfect slice of Christmas I have ever heard and is, I have no doubt, better than any other Christmas recording I have ever heard.

MMO sings in her own inimitable style and gives a quite fabulous rendition of Billy Hayes's brilliant "Blue Christmas". "Silent Night" is a surprise because of the subtle use of a lap-steel guitar which is exquisite and adds a new dimension to the song. "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" is a gentle and tender version which works beautifully (I love the bass clarinet), but could have been a little longer. As for "Christmas Evermore", this is an original MMO and typical of the keening beauty which she effects so well. It's a beauty and gives an alternative message to Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" with the wish for war to be over - quite pertinent at the moment.

So, even if, like me, you dislike Christmas and act the old killjoy, the humbug, you could not help but to love this 16- minute gem - if you can find it!

Her Christmas songs are lovely, as are all her songs. I love her sassy take on "Blue Christmas," though usually her songs are very austere, perhaps in keeping with her Catholicism (?). I don't know why she has recorded so many Christmas songs, comparative to her very slight overall output, but I'm grateful for all that she does & certainly enjoy it all.

Vraiment, people! Do you have ears? Miss O'Hara is a brilliant, defiant, original talent with an exquisite, sweet Irish soprano voice. Just listen.

(see title for reference.)

(Truthfully, I couldn't rate the Christmas CD, as I haven't actually heard it...)