"Christmas in the Heart" album review

Dear Readers,

I just got Bob Dylan's latest album, Christmas in the Heart. It's the first Christmas album he's ever done, and it's really really good. I just got it yesterday, and I've already listened to it three times all the way through. I think you’d like it, too.

I like the way that Bob Dylan doesn't take himself so seriously as a poet/musician/trapeze artist that he sees himself as being above doing a Christmas album. A snooty, serious, artsy artist wouldn't do a Christmas album, since Christmas albums can be seen as being overdone, commercial, and accessible to a wide range of people.

(Maybe that’s what prevented Bob Dylan from doing a Christmas album before… but I wonder why he didn’t do one during his heavily Christian phase, when he was putting out albums like Empire Burlesque and Slow Train Coming… it certainly would have been commercially successful, but who can know the mysterious ways of Bob Dylan?)

I'd say it's more characteristic of Bob Dylan to do a cover album of obscure folk songs, like he did with World Gone Wrong.

I also like the way Bob Dylan has no problems mixing secular songs like "Must Be Santa" with religious songs like "O Little Town of Bethlehem." Dylan is certainly not the first one to mix secular and religious Christmas songs, in fact it’s done all the time, but it was nice to be reminded that Jolly Old Saint Nicholas and our Savior, Jesus Christ are not mutually exclusive.

One of the big things that sets Christmas in the Heart apart from most other Bob Dylan albums is that people can actually understand what the lyrics mean. Contrast some typical Bob Dylan lyrics from "Chimes of Freedom":

“Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales for the disrobed faceless forms of no position”

to the lyrics on this new Christmas album:

“Here comes Santa Claus here comes Santa Claus here comes Santa Claus right down Santa Claus lane”

And I like the way Bob Dylan doesn’t sing the Christmas songs in a sarcastic way, as if he's playing a joke on his audience. No, Dylan gives the songs the respect they deserve, he commits to the songs, and he sings them in a really nice way. The album is straightforward, simple, and great.

I'm not sure if I have a favorite song. They’re all good. But I particularly like "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "Must Be Santa." I had never heard "Must Be Santa" before, so I thought maybe Bob Dylan wrote it, but no, the liner notes say that some guys named William Fredericks and Hal Moore wrote the song... but one of the cool things about the song is that it's got an accordion in it. It’s fun!

Ha! I just went to Rolling Stone.com and read some of the reviews of Christmas in the Heart. This one is a riot!

thefinerthings writes:

5 of 5 Stars

In this brilliant masterpiece of an album, Dylan puts a mirror in the face of American culture... and what America sees is not pretty. His gravelly voice implies a harsh new reality facing the nation. His rapidly increasing age is obvious in his voice, and through this he highlights the shameful rush towards progress, and bemoans the leaving behind of what were once treasures. With so many bands today focusing on materialism, Dylan takes the road less traveled by in portraying the sweat of the worker, the greed of the owner, the dreams of the children, the love of the parents, and the common hope for a better future, all under the guise of Christmas Carols. And in the end, this makes all the difference.

Some people take Bob Dylan much too seriously. And some people take themselves much too seriously. Like that reviewer, thefinerthings. Did you catch the pretentious allusion to "The Road Less Traveled By" by Robert Frost? I put it in bold.

And uh... were I and that reviewer listening to the same album? Where did he (she?) hear Bob Dylan singing about the "sweat of the worker" and "the greed of the owner"? All I heard about was the little drummer boy and the baby Jesus.

Certainly thfinerthings must be a Marxist, twisting Bob Dylan's innocent, American, wholesome Christmas album into communist propaganda!

Hmm. Thefinerthings must be more enlightened than I am. He can hear the true meaning of Bob Dylan's deep parables. Whatever.

I think Bob Dylan just wanted to sing some nice Christmas songs, and I’m glad he did. Bob Dylan did a good job. Oh, and all the profits from the album go to feeding the hungry, and so that's great, too.

What I’m wondering is, where will Bob Dylan go next? I hope he puts out more albums like Love and Theft. Well, wherever Dylan goes, I want to go too.

Thanks, Borris, for giving me the album for Christmas. I hope you don’t mind that I opened it early.

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa