Wintersong

Yesterday I was delighted to discover that a little parcel from Canada had come containing my new Sarah McLachlan Christmas cd.

Sarah McLachlan is one of those artists I have a lot of history with. I discovered her music as a young teenager who suffered abnormal amounts of teen angst. She has such lovely poetic songs full of so much, so much....sadness. Her voice is absolutely angelic and seems to capture great depth of feeling. Apart from The Cure, as a teenager suffering through the ups and downs of life, friendship, and love there is no better soundtrack. Thankfully, her music stands the test of time and remains a staple of my music collection. It also seems that she does not release an abundance of music (remember that long spell in between Surface and Afterglow?) so each new cd from her is a bit of an event to me.

And as has already been said in this very blog, I love Christmas music. So one of my favorite artists with the voice of an angel releasing a Christmas cd is by far cause for happy times. I listened to the cd this morning on my way to work. Christmas music is kind of funny in that Christmas is such a happy joyful time but a lot of traditional Christmas music has a sort of haunting quality to it. "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," "O Holy Night," "Greensleeves," "Carol of the Bells." You know what I'm saying. Who better than Sarah herself to embrace so much of that? I was struck by how beautiful the album is, yes, but also how sad. It's exquisite, lovely, and seems to embody the darker and sadder side of Christmas. Through the song choices, through the arrangements, and through Sarah's voice.

Anyway, it's a keeper. I recommend it if you love Sarah McLachlan and maybe even if you don't. Now if only Christy Nockels would release a Christmas cd, I would be one happy camper.