As a huge Nessaholic, I thought it'd be a great honor to publish the first review for this amazing holiday EP. "Hear the bells" contains four tracks, 1) Do you hear what I hear? 2) Hear the bells (acoustic version) 3) Happy Xmas (War is over) and 4) A thousand miles (acoustic). Her cover of "Do you hear what I hear" is beautiful and enjoyable to listen to for the holidays, having background vocals and dreamy-string like sounds. "Hear the bells" is kinda confusing to be mixed in a group like this because it sounds more like a halloween song. No complaints though. The song was taken off of her most recent album "Rabbits on the run" and to be honest, I prefer this acoustic version more. Vanessa Carlton's cover of John Lennon/Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War is Over) is nice-sounding like "Do you hear what I hear?" and I can't help imagining that the ending chorus of the song was done by the Children's choir that was present throughout "I don't wanna be a bride." This is probably one of the top highlights of the EP. Finally, we get to wax on nostalgia as Vanessa performs an acoustic version of her classic one-hit-wonder "A Thousand Miles." Now this version of the song is something I'd really like to call a "Rabbits on the run" version of it, because of it's almost absent percussion, dreamy, string-like fantastical sounding version of it and her new voice. It really is a treat to be able to hear her classic song in "Rabbits on the run" style.
I hope this EP will have a solid CD release even if its just a 4-track EP, because I collect all of Vanessa's albums, but I'm happy just downloading these songs. Something I'd like is if she'd release a full holiday album with these four tracks. I also remember she did a cover of "Greensleeves" and I think this EP would have been even better if it was included. Thanks for releasing more songs Vanessa! I've been waiting since 2007 for your 4th album, so don't ever stop making songs for us fans out there!
#1 Nessaholic