cd reviews holiday: pOP/ROCK
Bob Dylan, "Christmas in the Heart" (Columbia)
I've never even listened to -- let alone reviewed -- a Christmas album in October. But then Dylan has never put out a holiday disc. Going to him for a yule collection is like going to White Castle for a chicken sandwich. Dylan isn't regarded as an important interpretive singer (except of his own songs) and, frankly, his increasingly guttural, harsh voice is an acquired taste these days.
In concert of late, Dylan has sounded as if he doesn't bother to warm up his nicotine-stained voice. It usually takes him several songs to get the phlegm out, and then it's a question of: How parched does he sound tonight?
Similar issues plague "Christmas in the Heart." At times, it's painful to listen to, especially when he's singing loud and forcefully, as he does on several tracks. Some of the sustained notes make it sound like he's gargling while singing.
On the other hand, the quieter, more intimate songs -- "Have Yourself a Merry Christmas," "I'll Be Home for Christmas," "Silver Bells," "The First Noel" and "The Christmas Blues" -- will please Dylan fans. Sure, his voice is gravelly, but so was Louis Armstrong's. And Dylan aficionados love their Bob.
This casual-sounding, 15-song package contains no Dylan compositions. His arrangements of familiar holiday tunes (he produced under his longtime but apropos pseudonym Jack Frost) generally aren't adventurous or even original. The female backup vocals sound like something from a Perry Como or Nat King Cole December disc.
The most interesting approaches are a lazily jazzy "Christmas Song," the jaunty Tex-Mex polka of "Must Be Santa" and the Hawaiian-flavored "Christmas Island," which is as cheesy as the classic pinup photo of Santa's buxom helper (the fabulous Bettie Page) that graces the liner notes of this CD. By contrast, the cover painting of a two-horse open sleigh suggests Norman Rockwell and the Saturday Evening Post.
One suggestion: If you buy this Dylan, it's more enjoyable listening on speakers than headphones/earbuds.