PopSyndicate.com

If you’re an artist with any sort of lasting career, you’re eventually going to dip your hands into the cash well and produce a Christmas album. An artist or group can take the standards and make a left turn off a cliff like A Brutal Christmas, making you rip the CD out and burn it; they can take a right turn and make Christmas music fun again, like Harry Connick; or they can just mail it in. Like James Taylor.

Bette Midler’s already made her mark this year, and now her generational compatriot James Taylor has thrown his mistletoe into the ring with James Taylor at Christmas. The album starts on a mid-point, peaks with a wonderfully bluesy take on “Jingle Bells” that saves the album and then descends into mediocrity. Aside from one or two tracks like a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “River,” you never hear the real James Taylor come out. Instead of reworking songs to give them new life, for most of the album Taylor drives right down the straight and narrow snow-covered path, covering standards note for note, aside from the occasional swing or syncopated note. Other songs like Taylor’s original “In the Bleak Midwinter” are just a cause for insomnia. At some point, you just expect more from a legend like Taylor.

I’ve been sober of my Starbucks addiction for twenty-four months now (aside from the occasional hit) but I’m sure James Taylor at Christmas is being hawked in front of every register and in regular rotation on the coffee giant’s version of Muzak; it’s just that kind of album. It’s great background music for a snowy day and for taking the sting off of yelling at your kids when they cried while unwrapping presents, because the brats just didn’t get everything they want.

Genre: Easy Listening
Sounds like: Simon & Garfunkel
Best songs: “Jingle Bells”, “Baby It’s Cold Outside”, “River”

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