Description
Composer, showman in slippers and a bathrobe, he has a deep dedication to his craft: hes an Entertainer. His humble service to this calling lends a certain inevitability to this announcement: Chilly Gonzales has made a Christmas album. From feudal oldies to newer holiday pop canon, A Very Chilly Christmas surveys a broad scope of seasonal repertoire and sentiment. Theres grandeur and solemnity, theres austerity and merriment, and theres Mariah Carey. With his unabashed loyalty to melody, Gonzales approach deftly navigates the myth of one shared songbook with a collection that opts for nuance over pomp. From Wenceslas to Wham, the great revelation of this collection is the restrained, distilled beauty of Gonzales signature minor key interpretations. A Very Chilly Christmas finds its star in The Banister Bough, the albums sole original song. This tinseled, sugar-plum collaboration with Feist, complete with miniaturized Jeunet-esque stop-motion animated video, balances delicate whimsy with an ecological message in disguise as a home decorating tutorial. The song gently encourages us to reimagine traditions, those we claim and those we inherit, for the generations to come. Another album standout is the cover of Snow Is Falling In Manhattan by David Berman, a fellow Christmas-loving Jew. Jarvis Cockers fireside vocals and Feists ember-afterglow chorus are nestled amongst Gonzales piano and a flute. From solo arrangements to intricate, delicate additions of strings, bells, choir and more, A very Chilly Christmas also features Gonzales frequent stage and studio collaborator, cellist Stella Le Page. As a whole, the albums gift is the space it creates for quieter moments amid the flurry and noise of the season.
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