Face it, most Christmas albums are crap. How many lame versions of “Little Drummer Boy” do we need? (Yes, I’m talking to the band Chicago.)
Typically, artists on the long steady decline of their careers get the brilliant idea to do a Christmas album (again, the band Chicago). Every once is a while, however, some has-been puts out a Christmas album and I immediately say, “Thank you, Jesus!” Bob Dylan’s Christmas in the Heart, which I reviewed a few years back, is one such great album.
William Shatner’s recent release Shatner’s Claus is another album that I can get behind. Granted, it won’t stand up to the greatness of the Ben Folds-produced Has Been album – or even the Billy Sherwood-helmed Ponder the Mystery, but that’s OK. Producers Adam Hamilton and Jurgen Engler surrounded Shatner with an eclectic group of musicians, such as Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins and Billy Gibbons. They even gathered former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman to tickle the ivories on a version of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”
As usual, Wakeman’s able to infuse a song with his immediately identifiable stamp. William Shatner’s delivery, meanwhile, is reliably dead panned and brilliant as he makes no attempt to sing the venerable Christmas staple. Samantha May provides a tasty backing vocal over the producers’ contemporary backing track, and then “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” is all done.
If you must listen to Christmas music, William Shatner’s Santa Claus makes it almost pain free.
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