Description
How Can It Be is a Christmas by the American singer and songwriter Lauren Daigle, released on Centricity Music in October 2016. The album was co-produced by Paul Mabury and Jason Ingram and offers soft jazz arrangements of a variety of holiday standards inspired by the jazz sounds of Daigle’s hometown of New Orleans.
Those who follow Nashville CCM will know that Lauren, thanks to a huge debut album hit, is a Christian music star and this 2016 release was the followup to her mega hit. If, like Cross Rhythms, you missed it last Christmas, you may want to note the existence of ‘A Christmas Collection’ for the 2017 holidays. It’s a classy project without a hint of a Christmas cash-in which tend to clog up the release schedules each year. This set grabbed me from the very first track – an inventive jazz-style rendition of, would you believe, «Jingle Bells» and thanks to Lauren’s rich vocal it works. Then comes the moody «Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas». But fear not. It’s not all secular Christmas standards. «What Child Is This» and «O Come All Ye Faithful» are given the Daigle treatment, with her husky contralto underpinned by some fine playing. We also have an attractive Daigle original, «Light Of The World» (“A child prays for peace on earth/ And she’s calling out from a sea of hurt/ O come O come Emmanuel”). The chorus is particularly haunting – “Glory, to the light of the world.” Lauren’s version of «Silent Night» was too slow and moody for my liking but apart from that the production, by Paul Mabury and Jason Ingram, is fine throughout [Brendan O’Regan, Cross Rhythms, April 2017]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/behold/1560662720)
CD tracklist:
01. Jingle Bells – 1:49
02. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – 4:27
03. What Child Is This – 3:15
04. White Christmas – 3:47
05. O Come All Ye Faithful – 4:26
06. Light of the World (Behold Version) – 4:40
07. Christmas Time Is Here – 3:49
08. O Holy Night – 4:52
09. Little Drummer Boy – 3:50
10. Silent Night – 4:38
Note: Re-issued as a Deluxe Edition in November 2018 featuring three bonus tracks; “Winter Wonderland”, “Away In A Manger” and “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”. Also released as a 12-inch vinyl LP in 2017 by Centricity Music.
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