Christmas CDs: Carole King, She & Him and Michael Buble

CAROLE KING
A Christmas Carole
(Hear Music/Universal )
***
A staggeringly successful songwriter alongside ex-husband Gerry Goffin before she found her own singing voice, Carole King's creative fires burn less brightly as her 70th birthday approaches. Hence A Christmas Carole, her first studio album in 10 years and, more revealingly, the first where she has taken no part in the writing, choosing instead to mix standards with new songs that her daughter and producer Louise Goffin has written with various partners. Understandably, King's voice lacks the tones of youth - she struggles on Irving Berlin's I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - but there's a warmth to the arrangements and to Goffin's production. The result is an expertly crafted slice of seasonal joy.

More accurately, if less Christmassily, titled A Holiday Carole in the US (there's no mention of Jesus and King acknowledges her Jewish heritage on the traditional Chanukah Prayer), it's more a smorgasbord of jollity, hence a twinkle-toed skip though Rodgers and Hammerstein's My Favourite Things; a heroically uplifting choral version of Carol of the Bells and an imaginative take on the evergreen Do You Hear What I Hear? Elsewhere, the rather lovely New Year's Day (written by Goffin with Britain's Guy Chambers) is the pick of the new songs.

It's hardly a cutting-edge reinvention of the Christmas album, but sometimes cutting-edge is not the right way forwards. As an alternative to the Wham!/Slade/Wizzard axis of over-familiarity and ghastly carols, this particular Carole might just be the tasteful and sophisticated festive option.
JOHN AIZLEWOOD

SHE & HIM
A Very She & Him Christmas
(Double Six)
***
A take on the old Christmas chestnuts by trendier types who won't over-sweeten the pudding. "She" is Hollywood actress Zooey Deschanel, while "Him" is singer-songwriter M Ward. They strip the classics (Blue Christmas, Sleigh Ride, Baby, It's Cold Outside) down to bare bones. Like Deschanel's voice, the whole is pleasant but forgettable, picking up slightly when husky Ward joins in the singing on Christmas Wish. It's the polar opposite of Noddy Holder screaming, but shouldn't this be the time when we welcome a bit
of excess?
DAVID SMYTH

MICHAEL BUBLE
Christmas
(143/Reprise)
***
This is far from the worst Christmas album ever made. It's not in the Phil Spector league, nor even the Dean Martin, but Bublé's effort is classy, well arranged and impeccably performed with some decent jazz inflections. Think of it as a secular Christmas in a lounge bar near you.The old favourites are out in force. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town is uplifted by great gusts of brass and Holly Jolly Christmas has a sharp guitar break. Needless to say, schmaltz is not completely kept at bay but the collection, overall, can be consumed after a hearty lunch without the prospect of throwing up.
PETE CLARK

EMMY THE GREAT & TIM WHEELER
This Is Christmas
(Infectious)
****
Trendy indie types Emmy the Great and Ash's Tim Wheeler offer up nine self-penned, festive tracks - complete with knowingly naff titles such as Zombie Christmas - and a Phil Spector cover, Marshmallow World. It works a treat. Christmas Day (I Want to Go Surfing) is The Beach Boys gone punk; Sleigh Me offers a slew of single entendres ("Sleigh me, take me for a ride"); and if there's something of the Band Aid about the Eighties-indebted Snowflake, you suspect they know it. Essential listening for those in search of a cool yule.
RICK PEARSON

KEITH JARRETT
Rio
(ECM)
*****
Sign off 2011 with a great pianist giving one of the finest performances of his career. Jarrett is an introspective artist who leaves marketing decisions to his label, but he reportedly felt so excited about his unaccompanied solo concert in Rio de Janeiro that he rang ECM producer Manfred Eicher from the airport to request immediate release of the tape. The session contains six pieces of inspired invention, all spontaneously composed yet satisfyingly structured. Raise your glass to an artist who can make free jazz energetic and unpredictable without descending into dissonance.
Jack Massarik