Christmas Songs By Diana Krall

It was inevidable that Diana Krall’s new album, Christmas Songs would make it’s way into our collection. Combining Diana Krall’s jazz stlye, the best of Verve’s production values and a host of old favourite Christmas tunes was sure to be a winner. As L put it, “what’s not to like?”

Well I guess I can imagine at least three reasons why someone would dislike this album. First, some people have a really strong aversion to Christmas music. This could be a general dislike, though I do know some people of faith have a particular aversion to the kind of secular songs featured on this album. People who flat out reject Christmas, or the version of Christmas these songs allude to would find little solace in Krall’s latest offering, but would find no more soalce in any other similar collection either.

I can also imagine some paople may dislike the album because of a general aversion to Jazz, no matter how accessible the presentation. We all have genres of music we struggle to relate to, but I’ve never quite known what to say to people who outright reject jazz. The church of jazz music is so broad that it always seems like there must be something to appeal to everyone. However, there are those who would not have a bar of anything related to jazz and such people would, of course, pass on this album.

There is also a thankfully small demographic whom I could also imagine disapproving of this album. I’m referring to the kind of people who revel in being antagonistic towards artists like Diana Krall because their music is too “accessible.” These people tend to live in a murky world of online and “academic” debates about what jazz is (which, I accept has some limited value) and general resentment towards anyone who tries to make jazz “enjoyable.” For them Jazz should only be fraught, conceptually obtuse, and appreciated by a tiny cognescenti. These kind of folks will hate Diana Krall’s album almost as much as the way they hate being disagreed with on the various tiny internet fora that consume their life.

But if the tracklist for this album interests you, if you like jazz and in particular like jazz when it is presented in an upbeat, enjoyable and swinging way, then there is nothing to dislike in this album. In fact, it might well be one of the best albums of the year.

[tags] Diana Krall, Christmas [/tags]