Julie Andrews - Christmas With Julie Andrews

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Music reviews of Christmas With Julie Andrews

Music Review: Quite possibly the most beautiful Christmas album ever made.
Rating: 5 Stars

Simply put, "Christmas With Julie Andrews" is a serious contender for the title of "the most beautiful Christmas album ever recorded", if not the hands-down winner right off the bat. And one of the reasons why is not just because of the obvious talent singing it; this isn't just some mere "famous singer performing beloved standards" offering like all the others recorded by everybody else under the sun. It's mainly because this album is so PASSIONATE and filled with genuine HEART for the material, both from Andrews herself and Ian Fraser's amazing arrangements.

It's not often these days that you come across a Christmas album that makes the music sound so emotionally stirring and powerful that, even after our hearing this stuff sooooo many times before in everything from commercials to a gazillion elevator renditions, single-handedly makes the compositions sound every bit as powerful and awe-inspiring as they must have been when first composed.

This is one of them.

It is not "just a Christmas album". It is an experience. It is a miracle.

Wisely, Julie and Fraser have worked together to create renditions of less popular classics, therefore introducing them to a whole new audience, including myself when I first heard this recording. If any of the songs threaten to steal the show they are the near-the-beginning emotional double whammy "In The Bleak Midwinter" and "The Holy Boy", which are so delicate and beautifully handled, lovingly polished like fine diamonds, that they sparkle like Christmas Eve stardust and innocence to the point of reducing many whom I played them for to tears. And her rendition of the much-covered "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" sounds just as triumphant as its lyrics say; sounding like the event itself really is happening right before you in front of your own eyes, it just takes your breath away.

And I've found that this is one of the few Christmas collections that is so wonderful that it works and appeals even beyond the holiday season. I adore it enough that I've even found myself playing it in the middle of July simply because it's so comforting, peaceful and powerful. It really is THAT good.

I cannot begin to recommend this treasure enough for any music collection. Only the coldest Scrooge-like heart of stone could scowl at this one. Buy it for your date, your parents, your children, your grandmother. And especially remember to buy it for that lonely someone you know who's feeling unhappy this year and needs a pickup to get their Christmas rolling happily.

It truly is divinely inspired. And I mean that in the most literal sense of the term.

Description of Christmas With Julie Andrews

Broadway & Vocalists CDs

• Music > Styles
• Classical
• Miscellaneous
• Pop