(courtesy Verve Records/Republic Records)
Granted it’s not a hard and fast rule, but like so much else when it comes to Christmas, the music of the season is supposed to have buoyant joyfulness to it, as if all the weight of the past year, soaked in banality and adulthood and commitment, can be lifted away never to be seen again (well, not until Boxing Day anyway) by jaunty tunes, merry lyrics and voices raised in light and bright wonder.
It’s an appealing idea and one that powers much of Christmas as a whole but especially the music that soundtracks the most wonderful of the year, and nowhere is it on better display this year that on We Wish You the Merriest by Seth MacFarlane & Liz Gillies, which sounds retro cosy festive wonderful and which does make everything feel lighter, more lovely and content in a way that the usual everyday struggles to manage.
Sure it’s ephemeral and only lasts as long as the album runs – 39:13 to be exact but remember the joys of the repeat icon! – but what a wonderful state of escapist bonhomie while it endures and lets you feel like life is all flirtatious quips, sleigh rides and warm and fuzzy well wishing.
We Wish You the Merriest gets things going from the get-go with the light and frothy delights of “Happy Holiday” (introduced in 1942’s Holiday Inn) and finishes with the vivacious effervescence of the title track, We Wish You the Merriest”, written by jazz musician Les Brown who bottled the giddy celebratory nature of the festive season in one perfect 2 1/2 minute giddy gem.
In-between the album takes us through iconic tunes such as “Frosty the Snowman”, Here Comes Santa Claus”, “Sleight Ride” and the wistfully hopeful melancholy of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, all of them delivered with the sort of retro ’50s Big Band sound vivacity that come to be all but synonymous with Christmas music.
Some people attempt this sound and fail dismally, offering up a pale imitation of a sound that sounds like every happy Golden Years of Hollywood movie scene you’ve ever seen, but MacFarlane, who previously graced us with the similarly superlatively festive music of Holiday For Swing, and American actress and Broadway singer Liz Gillies, absolutely bring it home, offering up an album that ticks all the festive boxes and embraces every trope going but does in a refreshingly fun and buoyantly original way.
It’s clear from the word go that they are having FUN delivering these tunes, evidenced most particularly on “Frosty the Snowman”, where much is made of the thumping sound of the eponymous character running, and the frenetically gleeful delivery of “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer”, and that likely stems from the close working relationship and friendship between the two.
“After collaborating for nearly a decade, I was beyond thrilled when Seth came to me with the idea of recording a holiday record. Our first official record. There is no one I know who possesses a deeper knowledge and appreciation for this era of music than Seth.” (Liz Gillies, uDiscover Music)
“Liz and I have been singing together for a number of years now, between studio recordings and traveling around the country performing live with some of our favorite symphony orchestras. We’re both fans of the classic Bing Crosby-Rosemary Clooney duet albums, and their exquisite, expressive orchestrations contrasting with a fun, casual vocal style. We’ve done our best to honor that tradition with our new Christmas album, and we hope it adds some extra charm to your holiday season.” (Seth MacFarlane, Variety)
There is charm aplenty in every song on We Wish You the Merriest which manages to summon that most intangible of sensations by feeling like Christmas.
That’s not easy to do since while a thousand motherhood statements and cosily festive words are used to describe the season but it’s rare that the rhetoric actually meets the reality.
But on We Wish You the Merriest, which is like a big tinselly hug, full of joy to the world-ing and deck the hall-ing, all with a gorgeously retro edge, it’s like Christmas has found perfect sonic form and you will glory in how good it makes you feel and how wonderful it is when what you have been hoping for actually comes into festive existence.
Here’s the announcement semi-way back when which elicited an excited thrill in me that there’d be another Seth MacFarlane Christmas album out in the world!