popsrocks's Full Review: The Christmas Collection by Il Divo
My wife was drawn in by the good voices and attractive looks of this foursome brought together after an international search by Simon Cowell. He also brought us American Idol. The four men are from Spain, Switzerland, France, and of course the United States. They are packaged as a young "Four" Tenors (not all are tenors) but with the looks of runway models. What better present could I bring home as a Christmas for my wife.
For the most part this album enhances the Christmas spirit we have in our home complimenting the decorations and being the perfect background to lounging in front of our fireplace, watching snow gently falling outside and inhaling the aromas of Christmas cookies baking in the oven.
OK, perhaps not every day is like that but this album does fill in the background music we like to hear during the holidays and adds nicely to our eclectic choices in Holiday music.
Oh Holy Night
This is a fine opening song and happens to be my favorite Christmas song. Unfortunately, not this arrangement. It opens with one of the guys starting the opening lines and then he gives it off to another. The beauty of the song is interrupted though. What happens is that they all start singing together and the orchestration seems to be in competition with the voices as the build into a crescendo. Every time the orchestration shuts down, I once again hear the lovely words and spirit of the song.
White Christmas
I happened to like the simple, single, and sweet sounding voice opening this song. That said I found it disconcerting when they switched to another language. Perhaps that's just the emotion of a US citizen listening to a very American holiday song. The song goes way off when they all sing, no lets say shout out the end going into boisterous befuddlement. That ending takes away all the White Christmas spirit of gently falling snow and I feel like I'm huddled in cold damp blanket shivering in a tent with a blizzard blowing outside the light veil of canvass.
Ave Maria
Once again a song comes in with a sweet clear voice with just a bit of piano scaling cords in the background. Like White Christmas this song also is met with all the voices singing the lines together. This time however there is much more harmonizing and sharing the song rather than trying to out do each other. This is one of my album favorites.
When A Child Is Born
This is a song I was unfamiliar with. The lyrics are tender in this Irish sounding song that fills in the album well. It's a pleasant one that is nicely followed by...
Adeste Fideles
If only the foursome stuck more with singing a cappella. This one opens that way and it's a pleasure to hear just their voices without the traditional orchestration that blares by songs end. Even though I don't care for the orchestration I accept this as the most heartfelt song on the album. They start in English and end in Latin.
Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Huh! What's this doing here? Did someone just plug my headphones into another mp3 player with tracks from the Wizard of Oz playing? Sorry it didn't belong BUT if they did White Christmas in the same style they did this one, they would have sold me on that one. Do you get what I'm saying? Hope you do. Anyways, this song just didn't belong, as stated by a Christmas junkie.
Panis Angelicus
Perhaps hearing these boys sing their pop opera style using Latin fits well with me. This came through as a tradition sing of this song. Lovely.
Rejoice
Another song that was not familiar to me. Again the boys hand of lines to each other with a gentle piano in the background. It's funny to me that a song that says "Rejoice!" is one of the few on the album where they don't go for huge ending that distorts many of the songs they do. I liked this one.
Silent Night
Silent Night, Holy Night,
All is Calm All is Bright
Thankfully the boys keep this feeling throughout this beautiful and sweet Christmas tale. Well they almost did. I'll accept three bars of blare but...overall it's a fine interpretation.
The Lord's Prayer
I don't take this song to be included as part of a Christmas Collection but it works for these guys in that it's the only song where their style of singing out together to finish a song belongs. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever, Amen
And Amen I say to this album, "So be it."
Even though a walk through each song may have me beating up this collection as an album I like it for how I listen to some Christmas music during the holidays. There are a few albums I put on to "listen" to but many, like this one, are set up for background.
My wife seems to enjoy the album a bit more than I do as she tells me which voice is singing a particular part. That's something that I don't do and to be honest I don't know Carlos from David, Sebastian and Urs. I lied Carlos's booming voice I know, it's the other three that I can't differentiate.
All in all I like the album but I wish the guys didn't feel they had to outdo each other at the end of most songs. Enough with the crescendo.
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