You wouldn't expect Rodney Crowell to do a Christmas album that is
sentimental and saccharine, and he doesn't disappoint. At times bemused,
biting, sad or lovelorn, Crowell calls out the hype and phony ho-ho-ho,
and refuses to view the season through holly-coloured glasses. In other
words, he approaches it just like a great singer-songwriter should.
Crowell
doesn't even sing on the opener, Clement's Lament, but instead lets a
couple of angelic voices lull us into a false feeling of Christmas,
before hitting us with the payoff, "Peace on Earth, good will to one and
all/The season starts in August now, we'll see you in the mall." His
Christmas Everywhere has all the cliches flying in rhyming couplets, a
mind-boggling collection of gift hopes from the smallest child (a ball
and bat) to the biggest power grabber ("Donald wants to rule the
world"), an apt description of Christmas mania. Then there are the songs
that look at the dark side, characters pining for great loves lost,
Christmas triggering their sad memories. In Merry Christmas From An
Empty Bed, the character faces an artificial tree once purchased and
left behind by his ex, "The evergreen seems pointless for a tired old
fool like me/The fake one more resembles now the man I've come to be."
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