Customer Reviews

To Drive the Cold Winter Away

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For lovers of traditional Celtic music like me, there never seems to be quite enough of Loreena McKennitt to go around. This particular album is devoted to what might best be described as solstice music, that is, as music best suited to the moods, atmospheres, and settings we most usually associate with winter solstice time, including the high holidays of Christmas and New Years. So, while this is not an album exclusively oriented to Christmas music, it is quite intentionally a celebration of both the winter season in general and the joy of the birth of the Christ child in particular. This album always finds its way onto my CD come the holidays, where it is played again and again. I never get any complaints or requests for anything else. It is music that wears very well.

Of course, Our lady Loreena has a special vocal magic to enchant even the coldest of winter's travelers toward the warmth of her solstice fire, and this album showcases her remarkable voice. No one sets a mood or creates an atmosphere quite like the ethereal McKennitt, who after years flirting on the margins of visibility has finally gained some greatly deserved public attention. For those of you familiar with her, no explanation as to the special vocal magic she so lavishly displays or the clarity of her accompaniment or arrangements is required. For everyone else, this album is a singularly splendid introduction to this rarest of talents, who will certainly continue to rise in public esteem, and who will hopefully continue to add to her stable of albums of eclectic, esoteric, and enduring Celtic music

Most of the songs on this album are traditional 18th and 19th century Christmas songs, sparingly produced and backed by harp, viols, and accordion, and feature Ms. McKennitt's soaring, breathtaking vocals. I couldn't imagine a better voice to perform these songs. If you'd like a break from the hustle and commercialism of a 21st century Chrismas, this disc is perfect.

All right let's get started. I was first introduced to Loreena's angelic voice with her 1997 album THE BOOK OF SECRETS which I quickly followed up with THE VISIT. When I heard she was doing a "Christmas" album, I thought, "Okay, back to the store we go."
Let me make this clear. If you are expecting your typical and normal Christmas carols thay you hear on every radio station and in every major shopping mall starting at November's end and going on through the New Year's holiday, forget it. What you get here is a lovely assortment of older carols and songs that seem to divide their time evenly between celebrating the winter solstice or winter seaon in general AND the coming to Earth of Jesus.
This record is absolutely captivating for me and I could listen to it year-round even thought it is classified as holiday music. Loreena's primary instruments here seem to be her harp and her BEATIFUL voice with light percussion on a song or two. One song is totally a-cappella and even has church bells rining through it. It's a very simple and down to earth instrumentation, but it doesn't NEED a grand orchestra or a full opera choir. In this case less truly is more. The marriage of Lorenna McKennitt's exquisite singing and her gentle but lovely harp is easily enough to make this work. Pennywhistles and other instruments make a nice supporting appearance here.
I cannot stress Loreena's voice enough. This assortment of songs really makes you feel as if you are stepping back in time and someone is waiting for you "on the other side" It is as if that someone is inviting you to share a holiday in a time when life was simpler, and it was the little things that mattered more. There was a real sense of wonder and awe and joy in the Prescence of God and in the beauty of Nature and God's handiwork. We didn't need the biggest house or fastest car on the block. All we needed was the warmth and love of hearth and home, the joy of family and friends.
This album gives me a sense of all that and more. It is full of ethereal beauty, tender passion, and fills me with a sense of longing and fulfillment at the same time. I have yet to hear a lovelier album of holiday music. Thiss will make any and all stress disappear so quickly you might even forget the MEANING of the word stress for as long as you have this album playing. Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, then give it a try. I loved it and I have a feeling that you will love it too. Go ahead... take the journey. Experience a holiday in a simpler time of life. You may wish you never had to leave. BUT the melodies will stay with you even when the record is off. Want to go back to that simpler time? Turn the player on again and Loreena will be there to guide you back, and set your heart on gentle fire all over again.

Forget "Frosty." Forget "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town." Forget the ever dreaded "Grandma Got Run over By A Reindeer." THIS is the Christmas music you need.

The first half of this CD are songs that deal with the celebration of the winter solstice. Songs such as "The Seasons," "Snow" and the startlingly captivating instrumental "Banquet Hall" virtually define long dark nights by the fire.

The second half of this CD is made up of songs celebrating the birth of Christ. Songs such as "Let Us The Infant Greet" the lovely instrumental "The Stockford Carol" are the perfect cure for the horrid versions of "Christmas" songs played ad naseum in shopping malls across America, while the final cut "Let All That Are To Mirth Inclined" is among the most haunting things ever recorded. No mater what you think of the season now, this CD just might make winter you favorite time of year.

Most Christmas albums sound tailor-made for mall muzak -- bland and recycled, with the same ol' songs about bells, Santa Claus, and snow. Loreena McKennitt breaks the mold with "To Drive the Cold Winter Away," an enchantingly wintry collection with muted instrumentation, and a classic feel.

It opens with the ethereal "In Praise of Christmas," a languid little harp ballad, and the rich "Seasons," which sounds like a solo performance at a medieval banquet. "Come all you lads and lasses, I'd have you give attention/To these few lines I'm about to write here,/'Tis of the four seasons of the year that I shall mention,/The beauty of all things doth appear," McKennitt sings in her rolling voice.

Those songs set the tone of the remaining songs -- pretty, airy wintry ballads accompanied mostly by harp. A few exceptions are sprinkled through it, such as the icily pretty instrumental "Banquet Hall," languid harp music in "Snow," and a few songs like "Let All That Are to Mirth Inclined" are done without instrumentation at all.

It's not hard to get sick of the endless repetitions of "Jingle Bells," "The Christmas Song" and "Let It Snow." It comes to the point where people get violent at mall loudspeakers. Loreena McKennitt's "To Drive the Cold Winter Away" is an antidote of sorts -- she dips into traditional Christmas and winter ballads from England, Scotland and Ireland, sometimes going back hundreds of years.

On the other hand, the sound quality is worse than McKennitt's other albums, particularly her a capella songs. While her singing cannot be faulted, she sang them in an old Irish abbey, which causes a weird echo effect in some songs. Her voice doesn't sound quite on top form in these.

However, the instrumentation often covers this effect -- it's much more minimal than in most of Mckennitt's work, often with her merely playing harps, and occasionally a tin whistle or accordian. The ethereal, minimal instrumentation gives the feeling of chilliness and beauty in a winter forest.

It's a bit hard to sing some old ballads, especially since many do not have specific tunes assigned to them. McKennitt does well at this; despite a few awkward moments, she sings richly and soulfully. "The King," her duet with Cedric Smith, is not so great, however since Smith's mediocre voice often blots out hers completely. Aside from that, her voice lilts lightly over the songs about Christ, snow, and firesides during the winter.

"To Drive the Cold Winter Away" is a truly beautiful collection of traditional Christmas songs. Despite the occasional echo problems, McKennitt's sweet voice and music bring out an older, richer side of Christmas.

As I write this, we have well entered the season of Advent, the time of preparation for the Christ child, and I can think of no more lovely collection of carols than "To Drive the Cold Winter Away" (as well as her "The Winter Garden," which might be viewed as this album's companion piece).

The majority of these sung carols are traditional to the Celtic, Welsh and English areas, although Ms. McKennitt also incorporates a few of her own songs, such as "Snow" (soaringly beautiful). The entire "feel" of the album is one of entering a Medieval Banquet Hall, strung with misteltoe and complete with harper. The highlight of the collection, though, is "Let All That Are to Mirth Inclined," sung a capella in an echoing monastary whose bells, quite Providentially, began tolling the hour during the final few verses.

"To Drive the Cold Winter Away," along with "The Winter Garden" are gorgeous reminders of the mystery of the Birth of Christ - a mystery that is all too often obscured by jingle bells rocking and snowmen frosting - and a mystery that while quiet, like her music, is also awe-inspiring.

The best word I can come up with for Loreena McKennitt's voice is "haunting". I almost said ethereal and that would have been correct too but I chose haunting because it is one that keeps coming back to me. It makes me wonder if I really heard some of the things it said. In this context, that is a good thing.

This is a collection of "Christmas" songs but it is definitely not a collection of carols. They are songs of midwinter and the voice and instrumentation conveys that theme as well as the lyrics. They would not be out of place in a medieval hall.

This is not a somber collection but it might well be perceived as such by someone expecting ditties about reindeer with red noses or jolly old elves. It is a joyous collection with the joy is sedate, as is the whole album. That does not stop it from being a masterful work of art.

Try this one and let it haunt your memories through the winter and the rest of the year.

More gentle, clear-voiced beauty from vocalist/arranger/multi-instrumentalist Loreena McKennitt--this time a collection of rarely heard seasonal songs from England, Ireland and Scotland with a few original compositions thrown in for good measure. As with her prior album, "Elemental," McKennitt's arrangements here are filled with a spare but striking magic--in this case, reminiscent of the quiet stillness of a snowfall as it blankets the world in soft, crystaline white. The music was recorded in Annaghmakerrig, Ireland; Glenstal Abbey, England; and the Church of our Lady, Guelph (in Canada). In the album's liner notes, McKennitt writes, "as a child, my most vivid impression of music for the winter season came from songs and carols recorded in churches or great halls, rich with their own unique ambience and tradtition. In that spirit I have ventured into several similar locations that I have come to cherish in my travels ... The arrangements are sparse but somehow I felt that reflected the dynamics of the fall and winter seasons, and that their can be much beauty in such simplicity." I can't say it any better. Some of the songs are performed by McKennitt alone as harp-embellished vocals. Others feature understated harmonies and accompaniments by guest artists Shannon Purvis-Smith (viols) and Cedric Smith (vocals). If track #5, "Snow," sounds familiar, that might be because it also appears on one of McKennitt's later albums, "A Winter Garden." Loreena McKennitt's next album is "Parallel Dreams." Compare her work with that of rich-voiced singer Susan McKeown in "Lowlands" and the haunting a cappella ballads of Niamh Parsons in such albums as "Loosely Connected."

This album has affected me personally in many ways. Dante's Prayer stirs the "soulmate" search in any listener. . . Loreena's imagery and historical references have created a colorful link between our cultural history and desires for the future . . . She is one of the most intellectual and creative voices in our times and an inspiration to any artist wanting to express their passion

This album, which deeply stands out from the rest of Loreena McKennitt's albums, is one that expresses the singular beauty of Christmas. Unlike her other albums, this recording was not done in a studia or with many musicians. All of the music was recorded on location in churches at Canada and Ireland. This gave the music a very close and real sound. Loreena played most of the music herself, except for the occasional presense of Cedric Smith or violinist Shannon Purves-Smith. The music was entirely unsynthesisized and often Loreena had only the harp or accordian as her back up. But she also beautifully sang a cappella(something she should do more often; there's a lot of melody in her voice). All of these songs do well in bringing beauty and simplicity. Loreena has revived many old carols, most of which are traditional English, but she also brought much Celtic beauty in "Balulalow" and "The Wexford Carol". I also find it amazing how well the instrumentals "Banquet Hall" and "Stockford Carol" came out. You might find "Banquet Hall" to be very comparible to Enya's "Bard Dance", because it sounds so ancient and Celtic. Even with even the slow rythm, the music brings a sense of happiness and cheer, in both the melody and lyrics. I especially loved the joyful quality of "The Seasons" and "Balulalow". The last track shows how well Loreena can work her voice and adapt to her surroundings. There is so much beauty in the harp music, like in songs "Snow", "Let Us The Infant Greet", and "Stockford Carol". Loreena is one of those artist whose music is often said to be "Enya-like". This album sounds more Enya-like than any of her other albums. Enya fans who hear this album may think, "Did she meet Enya in Ireland or something?" But this is Loreena's own style and a very clever style, I must say. If you loved this album, you may also like Charlotte Church's "Dream A Dream". It's an incredibly different style, but another good example of good Christmas music. I also recommend Enya's "Oiche Chuin" single, the "Home Alone" soundtrack, and any Christmas album by Mannhiem Steamroller. Oh, and don't forget "A Winter Garden", which is also by Loreena. Enjoy Christmas with music, for you will never regret it.