Two more holiday CDs, Manilow and Sting

It never fails.Countries might be at war. Nature might be wrecking havoc. But then December comes and the world takes on a magical glow. All of a sudden, there is hope in the midst of catastrophe. Hey, it’s Christmas. Man is really good at heart and will be kinder at Christmas. Besides there is the new year to look forward to, which we hope will be better. So it is time to make wishes again and if possible to indulge your most desired fantasy.

That is just what Barry Manilow and Sting did this year. These two giants of pop music recorded albums that bring to fore their favorite images of Christmas. I know Christmas 2009 has been over for days but I got these two CDs late and they are just too good to ignore. In fact, these two are among the best of this year’s batch.

So indulge me, please because what images these two great artists evoke with their music are unbelievable. Manilow’s is big city cosmopolitan, very sleek. Think walking on icy 5th Avenue on a shopping spree. Sting’s is wooded glades during bleak winter in an olden time. Who knows what spirits are lurking around? The settings are as different as their styles but what is so amazing is how they so successfully conjured up the Christmas mood they wanted.

Manilow is clear about what he wants in his short note on the cover of In The Swing Of Christmas. “My favorite holiday memories are of the music — all those great Christmas classics that filled our small Brooklyn apartment.” And when you mention Brooklyn, you get New York and it is here in every song.

Picture “City sidewalks, busy sidewalks” as in Silver Bells, perfumed, bejeweled ladies as in the standard Violets For Your Furs or the kiddie wonderland that is FAO Schwartz in Toyland. These are all here and more. Manilow swings and he is good at this. Likewise The Matt Herskowitz Trio and The Randy Kerber Trio who provide the jazzy, pared-down accompaniment. Buy and keep to enjoy next year.

Also included are Carol Of The Bells/ Jingle Bells, Joy To The World/ It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, O Tannenbaum/ Winter Wonderland, Christmas Time Is Here, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire, Count Your Blessings, plus bonus tracks, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer and Christmas Is Just Around The Corner, a new Manilow original.

I see Sting in If On A Winter’s Night as a druid in animal pelts with a coronet of mistletoe. He is roaming the forest in a sleigh pulled by a large reindeer. Somewhat like Father Christmas, but young and virile. As he goes around he tells stories, hopeful that those who hear would pass these to others and remain alive up to future times.

Do you want to know how Joseph came to believe that Mary’s Child is of the Holy Spirit’s? Sting tells the legend in Cherry Tree Carol. Do you want to know how to free souls from Purgatory? The answer is in the All Soul’s Day song Soul Cake. There is the story of the Annunciation in Gabriel’s Message, a tribute to the Blessed Mother in There Is No Rose Of Such Virtue and classic poetry set to music like The Burning Babe by the English martyr Robert Southwell and Christmas At Sea by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Oldtime lore is not all that Sting’s If On A Winter’s Night has to offer. The album is also a musical masterpiece. He has pared this down to a guitar, harp, pipe and fiddle. Occasionally he uses a horn or a violin. But for the most part, he only has the basics playing along as his low tones set the mood of the piece. The listener gets lost in this forest and only an intelligent, highly intuitive, very spiritual musician could have accomplished this. That is Sting and this must be his best album ever.

Get this one to enjoy, learn from, analyze and lots more for future Christmases. Best of the lot are the chiding You Only Cross My Mind In Winter with music by Bach and lyrics by Sting, Hurdy Gurdy Man, an old Schubert melody adapted by Sting from the original German poem by Wilhelm Muller and Lo How A Rose E’er Blooming. Other titles included are The Snow It Melts The Soonest, Cold Song, Now Winter Comes Slowly by Henry Purcell, Balulalow and Sting’s The Hounds Of Winter and Lullaby For An Anxious Child.

Here’s wishing you a blessed, peaceful and prosperous 2010.