Some believe that jazz is dying, but that can’t be completely true when artists like Norah Jones are still making music and getting paid. Jazz may never be mainstream, but Jones’ record sales are still impressive and she racks up awards like she’s collecting them. Like many artists who achieve her level of success, she has now deemed it prudent to release a Christmas album. I Dream Of Christmas debuted in October and is already adding up the monthly listeners, with I Dream Of Christmas (Deluxe) likely to jump out in front in no time after getting its release this month.
Jones’ Christmas album is similar to any musicians that’ve decided to release one. It’s a mixture of new tracks and classics with Jones like every other artist, putting her own twist on the older songs. Her classic renditions include favorites such as White Christmas, Winter Wonderland, Blue Christmas, I’ll Be Home For Christmas, and What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? The classic Christmas songs are performed in her signature style of course, slow and smooth, but she also adds her unique spin on holiday tunes in her original songs as well. Tracks like Christmas Calling, Christmas Glow, It’s Only Christmas Once a Year, and A Holiday With You are songs that she wrote and produced with her team, some of which may become classics in their own respect.
I Dream Of Christmas is still vintage Norah Jones.
Note again that there are two albums, the deluxe version adding three more songs with about ten more minutes of listening time. Although, between the two releases there’s no real difference in sound or quality. Just the same, even though the album is a holiday themed project, I Dream Of Christmas is still vintage Norah Jones. The jazzy slow tempo rhythm for which she is known for is very much alive in her first Christmas record. There is no lack of musicianship on her part, nor is there for the band that helped her record the tracks. Jones still uses her lower registered rasp in every song, singing along to a piano accompaniment and a quintessentially paced drum kit. Real instruments, real vocals, little to no added effects on the production side, and festive holiday vibes make Norah Jones’ I Dream Of Christmas an ideal choice of music for the Christmas season. Her versions of the older songs are a refreshing and welcomed change, where her original works are more modern and similar to her usual songs.
Norah Jones coming out with a Christmas album was bound to happen sooner or later anyway. Christmas songs don’t normally qualify as ‘pop music’, so it’s actually more abnormal when mainstream singers do it and it usually comes off as more of a money grab than anything. Jones is in this for the music, and it shows in I Dream Of Christmas. Though not at all a test of her musical mastery, her new Christmas album is an extension of her and all that she’s already accomplished as a career musician. Now streaming!
