Christmas with you --- Clint Black --- 2004 (Equity)
I guess in many ways you could say Country music is almost uniquely suited to the Christmas market. I don't claim to be any sort of an expert, but it seems to me that Country relies a lot on sentimentality, memories, traditions and has a real connection with religion, all relevant and important factors when constructing a Christmas album. Of course, there are so many Country artists out there, and whose record do you find the most repugnant, from a Christmas point of view?
Well, Clint Black (NO!
CLINT! C-L-I-N-T! Don't be dirty!) comes close. Now I don't know the guy, have no experience of his music, but the sheer oversentimentality and cheesiness that drips from every groove on this record (ask yer parents, I'm sick explaining! Well, ask yer grandparents, then!) definitely puts him in my crosshairs. Add to that the fact that this album is a reissue of his original Christmas outing, back in 1996, and you really have to ask yourself why he's bothering unleashing it on us again? I know that's probably the label's call, but still, you'd imagine he would have some input.
Every song here is an original. That could be good, or it could be bad. It's bad. There are, admittedly, no angels having been heard singing on high or nights without any sound, and not a snowman to be seen, but these songs are so bad I almost wish there were. From the dreary and sickening opener "The finest gift", where Clint talks about his woman's love as being, you guessed it, to the terrible "Santa's holiday song", which mercifully closes the album, this is mawkish schmaltz from the word go to the word please stop. Yeah, I know that's two words!
In fairness, there are a few decent tracks. "The kid" is an interesting idea, where the singer remembers being a child and all excited about Christmas, then is grown up as a parent and watching his kid do the same thing, and "Looking for Christmas" is a nice look at the arrival in Bethlehem two thousand and some years ago. Trouble is, it's the title of the original '96 album, which kind of reminds you you're paying for recycled product. But the bad definitely outweighs the good, which tracks like "Milk and cookies (Til Santa's gone)" and "Under the mistletoe" particularly puke-inducing, though "The coolest pair" is a bit of fun. That fun does not however last very long.
TRACKLISTING
1. The Finest Gift
2. Under the Mistletoe
3. The Kid
4. The Coolest Pair
5. Looking for Christmas
6. Christmas for Every Boy and Girl
7. 'Til Santa's Gone (Milk and Cookies)
8. Slow as Christmas
9. The Birth of the King
10. Looking for Christmas (Reprise)
11. Christmas with You
12. Santa's Holiday Song