The Independent from London, Greater London, England • 95

32 ARTSFILMMUSOCBOOKSTELEVISION THE INDEPENDENT FRIDAY 11 DECEMBER 2Q09 KEW IMIiSMM) Reviewed by Andy Gill THEAGILMORE Strange Communion Fullfill which DJ Mark Radcliff plays the Shane MacGowan part brusquely sharing anticipation of laughter and tears over Tia But it's another obscure cover, of Yoko Ono's "Listen, the Snow is which provides the album's most magical moment, Gilmore's delivery a hushed murmur over a shimmering synth-pad sparsely iUuminatedby the occasional chime Elsewhere, "Old December" is another non-denominational celebration of the season "whoever you praise, raise a glass to these days" while acoustic guitar and an intimate shiver of strings lends an Astral Weeks ambience to the lovely "Drunken which carries much the same message in more evocative language, promising that "Winter tells its truth to anyone who'll listenIt will whisper to you slowly when the light is Christmas: it's not just for Christians, thank god. DOWNLOAD THIS Listen, the Show Is Falling; That'll Be Christmas; Sol invictus; Drunken Angel Decent Christmas albums don't come along that often it's ten years since Low's remarkable Christmas, while the last unqualified success, Aimee Mann's One More Drifter in the Snow, arrived in 2006 so we should celebrate an undertaking as poised and thoughtful as Thea Gilmore's Strange Communion, the best of this year's batch of seasonal offerings. Following the recent trend towards more non-denominational celebrations, Gilmore opens the album with "Sol a pagan hymn to winter solstice, sunga cappella with the Sense of Sound Choir, before offering "Thea Gilmore's Midwinter Toast" in agnostic manner. "I don't believe in many things, but here's my hymn to you she admits, facing the uneasy prospect of the new year with hope but no illusions. TS Eliot's "The Journey of the Magi" provides the opening image to "Cold Gilmore's folk-rock rallying-cry celebrating Jesus as outlaw revolutionary, "the old reunion of the rebel with the and finding fey.

7' t. STRANCjE COMMUNION'-- i 'w TOM AMOS VARIOUS ARTISTS an even colder coming in "the ringing of the while later, Louis MacNeice's "Autumn Journal0 furnishes the litany of unflinching images narrated over guitar, piano and evocative vinyl crackle in "Book of Lest her Christmas slip too far towards the cautionary and sober-sided, Gilmore offers her own unabashed attempt at a Christmas single with "That'llbe Christmas" and makes abetter fist of it than most, mingling sharp coinages like faith, hope and gluttony" with unusually fresh, evocative images over a rolling pop groove streaked with slide guitar This album's "Fairytale of New meanwhile, is not so much her melancholy separation song "December in New as the celtic-flavoured duet St Stephen's Day Murders" an obscure Elvis Costello oddity on JULIAN ROSTER The Singing Saw at Christmastime Merge If there's a danger of the Pet Shop Boys' glass-half-empty attitude putting a bit of a damper on the kids' Christmas spirits, then this could completely creep them out. Julian Koster, former accordion-botherer with US lo-fi indie combo Neutral Milk Hotel, here offers versions of seasonal classics played on the musical saw, which has a genuinely haunting quality its wavering, organic timbre suggesting that the instrument is actually alive, or inhabitedby a ghost in this case, ofa rural Christmas past. When used effectively, it imbues songs such as "The First Noel" with a strange, distinctive dignity; though plastering a random jangle of sleigh bells behind the saw's eerie whine doesnt help "Hark! The Herald Angels Koster struggles to make the more light-hearted material work: call me old-fashioned, but I don think "Frosty the Snowman" is improved by a sinister undercurrent of unease; while the subtle melody of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" tends to dissipate on the saw. But it can bring something extra to the more classic carols, with "Silent in particular, boasting beautiful, tremulous harmonies; and even that hoary old crooner's favourite "White Christmas" is lent an almost unbearable poignancy DOWNLOAD THIS Silent Night; White Christmas? The First Noel PET SHOP BOYS Christmas EP Parlophone Given the over-subscribed portfolio of possible song choices usually involved, you can hardly blame the Pet Shop Boys for cutting their artistic losses and settling for a Christmas EP rather than a full album.

After all, can you imagine Neil Tennant summoning up either the sincere piety required for a convincing "Silent or the jolly bonhomie to drive a decent We Wish a Merry Even so, the only bona fide Christmas song featured here is "It Doesn't Often Snow at Christmas, a 1997 fan-chto stogie re-tooled for the 21st century whose exquisitely downbeat title hook offers a typically slightly-disappointed take on the usual meteorological cliche. A brief burst of chimes and choir leads into ghim social-realist depictions of "families fighting around a plastic tree, nothing on the that you want to see" and the like, rescued from Grinch-hood at the last moment by the company of one's beloved. A new version of "AU Over the from their Yes album, restores to Tchaikovsky's familiar melody a touch of the dignity jettisoned by "Nut Rocker" while elsewhere a medley of "Viva La Vida" and "Domino Dancing1' lashes Coldplays tune to a pounding PSB drum part, and two remodelled electropop versions of Madness' ''My Girl" drape moody string pads around twitehy synth lines. A short and sour offering more lemon sorbet than figgy pudding. DOWNLOAD THIS It Doesn't Often Snow at Christmas; My Girl NEIL DIAMOND A Cherry Cherry Christmas Columbia The bulk of these 14 tracks were originally leased on previous Nell Diamond Christmas albums from 1992 and 1994 neither of which, one imagines, bore such a cringing-ly terrible titular pun.

Mostly produced by Peter Asher, they feature a range of ill-fitting stylistic strategies, fromacheesydoowop "White barbershop quartet medley of wDeck the Halls" and "We Wish YouaMerry to the heavy-handed choral treatment meted out to "Joy to the The best by far is a "Winter Wonderland" done as a swingy rockin' blues groove, complete with honking baritone sax, which at least sounds like fun. The title-track's terrible string of puns is made woi by their self-serving nature, with brazen references to more than justafewof Neil's previous hits though mercifully, they should ensure it doesnt get covered too often. Of theother new tracks, "Meditations on a Winter Night" is a glum but brief piano and flute instrumental, "Christmas Dream" an uninvolving rehash of seasonal imagery, while a version of Adam Sandler's "The Chanukah Song" celebrates the Jewish provenance of famous celebs, from David LeeRoth to Captain Kirk: "Paul Newman's half-Jewish, Goldie Hawn is too -put them both together, what a fine-looking JewJ DOWNLOAD THIS Winter Wonderland; The Chanukah Song Midwinter Graces Island Like Thea Gilmore, Tori Amos broadens her approach to Christmas here to include pre-Christian celebrations, though the mood remains comparatively more religious. It starts well, with the traditional "What Child, NowelF arranged for piano, harpsichord and strings, and Amos's vocal harmonies picking out the most moving aspects of the melody; and gets better with "Star of in which the pointedly Middle-Eastern flavour of the strings and percussion sets one up perfectly for the warm, epiphanic glow of the familiar refrain. But things start to go awry with "Candle: Coventry Carol which seems too studied and pedestrian, and an arrangement of "Harps of Gold" which appears to be aiming for the jaunty momentum of "Solsbury HUT, but over-punches in the drum department.

And it's probably best to draw a discreet veil over the ghastly big-band blues ballad "Pink and Glitter" But overall, the pluses autweagh. the minuses, with further highlights coming courtesy of Amos's own "Winter's Carol" and "A Silent Night with You" the former blessed with stately, hypnotic grace, while the letter's undulating melody evokes the warmth of a reverie triggered by seasonal radio fare. Elsewhere, Jeanette, Isabella" is accompanied by a delicate snowfall of piano notes, a lovely touch of aural imagery. DOWNLOAD THIS What Child, Nowell; Star of Wonder; Jeanette, Isabella; Winter's Carol In the Christmas Groove Strut Not even James Brown could convincingly make Christmas funky, so it's no surprise to find that most of the tracks on this rare-groove funk compilation lack the requisite sparkle. Titles like "Soul Santa" and "Funky Funky Christmas'' are perfunctory exercises in sleigh-bell cynicism, and JD McDonakMs "Boogaloo Santa Claus just incoherently energetic, while Jimmy Juless "The New Year" boasts the bogus geniality of Phifly-soul tainted by disco.

Most of these tracks date from the early-1970s era of foregrounded Larry Graham-style strutting bass, the addition of which simply ruins an otherwise perfectly acceptable Jimmy Reed slouch groove on "Christmas Present But two or three cuts are exceptional, with Milly Silly's "Getting Down for Xmas" boasting a neatly interlocking clockwork groove and two of the greatest guitar parts of all tuna But the real standout is "Home on Christmas Day" by Captain Elmo McKenzie the Roosters, a strange, beguiling piece in which the Barbadian Captain's plaintive but noble delivery, allied to an innocently sincere organ groove, could have come from anywhere across two oceans, from West Africa to the Caribbean to the Caroli-nas, and even parts of the South Pacific; it has the haunting authenticity of outsider folk-art, as opposed to the manufactured musical pleasantries that dominate the season. DOWNLOAD THIS Home On Christmas Day; Getting Down for Xmas.