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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sing,sing... and wait for the Arrival of this great album, 27 May 2009
Sarah`s brand new album is really great. From beautiful ballads to more up-tempo songs,this album brings light in your home at Christmas time. From Arrival,Ave maria,In the bleack midwinter to amazing When a child is born,I`ve been this way before and many other songs,this album is a must have,just as her previous one,Symphony. All i can say about her work is that she is the goddess of music.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best, 24 Dec 2008
This is one of the bests Christmas CDs.
Buy it because you won't regret it!
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant semi-Christmas album, 6 Sep 2009
Although I was very keen to buy this album as soon as I could, I must declare that there was a time when the very thought of buying Sarah's music was unthinkable to me. My different attitude to her music may partly be due to my more varied musical tastes these days, but my hearing is also not what it once was. As I remember, I always felt that Sarah's very high voice was too piercing for my liking, but I am no longer able to hear the top end of the range, so the part of her voice that annoyed me no longer does so. As such, I am now able to recognize her true brilliance as a singer. If you are unfamiliar with Sarah's voice, maybe you should listen to some samples, particularly to see if you like her voice when she hits those very high notes.
I suspect that there are too many Christmas songs here for people to play when they don't want to hear Christmas music, but it's a great album that includes several songs that aren't heard too often, as well as several famous songs, though they aren't always what you might expect.
The opening track is a cover of Arrival, the Abba semi-instrumental in which the original versions features the women humming and singing la-la along to the music. But Sarah's version features proper lyrics. The credits only mention Benny and Bjorn as co-writers, so whether they wrote these lyrics in the seventies but didn't use them, or whether they wrote the lyrics later, I cannot say, but I've never heard them before and this fully-fledged song makes a great opening track.
Next comes a cover of a Vince Gill ballad, Colder than winter, which is great to find here. I'm a huge fan of Vince's music, but although he once recorded a duet with Barbra Streisand, I wouldn't necessarily expect to find one of his songs on a Sarah Brightman album. Of course, Sarah does an excellent version of it so I'm definitely not complaining.
More predictable repertoire for Sarah follows, with a duet version of Ave Maria (written by Luehrs) with Fernando Lima, which I don't remember hearing before, though I may have done; there are several different songs called Ave Maria and the most familiar one cones later. Meanwhile, this duet is followed by the classic Silent night. Next comes In the bleak midwinter, a wonderful carol (originally just a poem) that sometimes appears on American albums but which seems to be more popular in Britain. After that comes a Neil Diamond song, I've been this way before, followed by a rarely-covered traditional carol, Jesu, joy of man`s desiring. Much more familiar (at least melodically) is Child in a manger. The traditional lyrics may be unfamiliar, by the unmistakeable backing tune is Morning has broken.
This album features covers of two seventies Christmas pop-rock classics, the first of them being I wish it could be Christmas everyday. I was pleased to see this song included but I wondered how well it would work. Of course it was never going to match the original Wizzard version, but Sarah does a fine job with the song. I'm not sure if the original song is familiar to most Americans, so it may be that for most Americans who buy this album, it'll be the first time that they hear this song. In Britain, it is one of the songs that you can't avoid hearing in December, but I don't mind as it is one of my all-time favorites.
Next comes a solo version of the most famous Ave Maria (the Bach-Gounod song), followed by the even more famous Amazing grace. I didn't really need another version of either of them, but Sarah is in top form on both and her versions are better than most versions that you`re likely to hear.
The second cover of a seventies Christmas pop-rock song is I believe in Father Christmas, originally performed by Greg Lake, which is a great way to close an outstanding album. It contains no original material (unless this album marks the debut of those Arrival lyrics) but there is plenty of variety here, mixing the familiar music with some well-chosen obscure material.
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