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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Christmas classic reissued at last!, November 24, 2002
After three or four years out of print, My Gift To You is finally available again - and with the original cover art restored - thanks to the folks at reissue label The Right Stuff. And it's about time, too.Some fourteen years after its original release, My Gift To You still ranks as the best Christmas album I've ever heard. It's a fine mix of contemporary and traditional songs and arrangements, all tied together by the best vocalist that Jam & Lewis have ever worked with, Alexander O'Neal. The Jam & Lewis-composed originals are concentrated mostly during the album's first half, with modern-day classic "My gift to you" as the opening track. The funky "Sleigh ride" (not the classic tune, but a new song) comes next, followed by the romantic "Our first Christmas" and Christmas tale "Remember why (it's Christmas)". The album's second half consists mostly of Christmas standards. The first of these is "The little drummer boy", in a funky arrangement produced by Denzil Foster & Thomas McElroy, who are probably best known for their subsequent work with En Vogue. Mel Torme's "The Christmas song" is next - this one in a more traditional arrangement (think Nat King Cole). O'Neal's version of Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas" is still my favorite; every other singer's take on it seems either thin or overwrought in comparison. "Winter wonderland" (probably my favorite track on the album) is performed with full orchestra - and it swings! Another Jam & Lewis original, "Thank you for a good year", and a reprise of "Remember why" close out the album. One of the really nice things about this reissue is the restoration of the original cover art. When Tabu switched distribution in the early '90s, the album was inexplicably given a cheesy new cover, which it was stuck with until going out of print a few years later. The Right Stuff have corrected this by bringing back the original cover, adding only a border around the edges. In fact, the newly restored cover looks slightly better than the original, which looks sort of dull in comparision. A minor complaint: The song lyrics are no longer included in the booklet. However, the new liner notes, while a bit thin, are entertaining. This edition's remastered sound was a happy surprise. Mastering engineer Bob Fisher deserves more than a few compliments for his work here. Rather than follow the pack and use loads of compression and limiting to make everything sound loud for the sake of loudness, he used the 24-bit processing to ensure the best possible reproduction of the original master. So, rather than sounding louder, the remaster simply sounds better - slightly warmer, with improved definition. In short, this is still the best Christmas album ever.
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~ Alexander O'Neal
~ Alexander O'Neal
~ Alexander O'Neal
~ Whispers
DVD ~ Michael DeLorenzo
by Alexander O'Neal 
