1st November, 2007
JUSTIN MICHAEL
Album: James Morrison Christmas
Artist: James Morrison
Year: 2007
Label: KI Entertainment
Enhanced: No
In a word: Smooth
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"It’s smooth, it’s classy and it’s our very own, world-renowned Aussie muso. What’s not to like?" |
This is Mr Morrison at his smooth 'n grooviest. Difference? It’s been seasoned.
For those who have had the privilege of seeing JM live, you will know that there is rarely a bad night and when there is, there’s a joke to go with it. Here, you won’t get any wrong notes, but you will hear the cheekiness and fun that JM and the band bring with them when they jam.
The titles are familiar: Away In A Manger, Silent Night, Joy To The World, and so on. The difference is now you can swing, samba and shuffle your way to the presents on Christmas day.
I think my favourite is the latin take on Mary’s Boy Child. The virtuosic playing we’ve come to expect from Morrison is laid on and there’s a drum solo the Buena Vista Social Club would be proud of. It’s two-and-a-half minutes of fun that’ll have you shaking your presents to find a percussive sound rather than figuring out what they are!
Emma Park’s vocals are as smooth as ever. She seems to give these songs her own colour by way of underplaying the details. It’s one of those vocals that simply draws you into the song, and even though you’ve heard these sung a 1,000 times by a 1,000 singers, you’ll want to hear them sung again by Ms Park, so hit repeat.
There must be a certain fear of trying to find a new way of doing it when recording Christmas music. With this group of musos it’s simply worth the listening just to hear them play. I honestly don’t think it would matter what they played, they just do jazz good!
I must admit, I was hoping for some big band treatments of some of the tunes, but hey, when one guy makes up most of the band (JM has credits for 10 instruments!) and you’ve only got a few days to make a record, I’m happy to have what we’ve got here.
It’s smooth, it’s classy and it’s our very own, world-renowned Aussie muso. What’s not to like? This just might be the sonic elixir you’ve been needing for Christmas day with the noisy cousins.
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