Ten 2017 Christmas Albums Worth Checking Out

It’s been proven that a good Christmas album, even though it contains songs that have been covered hundreds of times over the years, can sell very well. As the folks who celebrate the holiday yearn for fresh interpretations by their favourite artists to listen to while they wrap gifts and decorate the tree, we present 10 Canadian artist Christmas albums released in the past couple of months. These are listed alphabetically by title. Hopefully one of these will appeal to you.

Christmas Caravan by Sultans of String

A trio of JUNO nominations grace this Ontarian string quintet. Beyond string arrangements, the world music group combines shards of traditional Arabic, Cuban, French, and Spanish styles: everything from Flamenco to Gypsy jazz. Christmas Caravan includes a number of prominent vocalists: Crystal Shawanda, Nikki Yanofsky, and Alex Cuba among them. Well-known holiday treats include “Little Drummer Boy” and “Jingle Bells”. Also find Turkishified “Greensleeves”. A culturally rich masterwork. iTunes

Christmas Together by The Tenors

Triple platinum JUNO winning group The Tenors originated from Victoria, BC. The trio is comprised of humble gentlemen with pristine, handsome vocals. This is the second Christmas album to appear from the group. The disc includes two originals and eight classics, the latter including “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”. A beautiful production.  iTunes

Coconut Christmas by The Lost Fingers

For something more on the upbeat side, comes this world-flavoured pop charmer. The Lost Fingers struck platinum and attracted a pair of JUNO nominations. It’s interesting listening to the Christmas songs done in tropical style but remember that many people celebrate the holiday in the tropics. It’s only about snow and cold weather in the north. There’s also some Indian folk; check out “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”. Find “Sleigh Ride” and “Blue Christmas” but also some comical tracks like Austin-Powers approved “Santa’s Lost His Mojo”. Enjoy as well a cover of U2’s “New Years Day”. This is a fun one. iTunes

Les Gars Du Nord by Les Gars Du Nord

The Acadians are coming! The Acadians are coming! Four popular singers from New Brunswick band together to form this group and create a Christmas album in Acadian folk style. The singers are 2003 Star Academy winner Wilfred Le Bouthillier, Maxime McGraw, Jean-Marc Couture, and Danny Boudreau. Find John Lennon’s “War Is Over (Happy Xmas)” and “Minuit, chrétiens” (“O Holy Night”). Get down to earth in the heartland with this one.  iTunes

Imagine by Heather Rankin

While in the Atlantic, let’s swing over to Nova Scotia to find the hometown of Heather Rankin, a JUNO nominee. With candy cane vocals, she gifts us with this very soothing and peaceful holiday record. The album contains lots of originals and a few covers. “Once in Royal David’s City” and “Picture Perfect” are very well done. Also find an exquisite cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine”. Relax and let this album remove all stress away.  iTunes

Lumieres d’hiver by Emilie-Claire Barlow

This two-time Ontarian JUNO winning jazz vocalist dresses up jazzy piano driven songs with her sumptuous vocals. Find nice string and percussion arrangements on “Le dernier Noël”. Popular singer Ingrid St-Pierre joins her on “Hey Santa” and Mitsou (of “Bye Bye Mon Cowboy” fame) on “As-tu vu le Père Noël?” The latter track has a righteous saxophone solo. If nothing else, this album is the female counterpart to Michael Bublé’s Christmas record. Invigorating.  iTunes

Lux by Choir of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, Jonathan Oldengarm & Jean-Sébastien Vallée

For those who like their Christmas music more on the spiritual side, this work should do the trick. Gorgeous human voices in choir with a church organ is always magical. The album impressed staff at iTunes who put it best: “Imagine a large snow-covered church at Christmas, lit only by candles, the voices of a well-trained choir curling up into the roof.” The album reminds us that the world’s most beautiful instrument is the human voice. “What Child Is This?” just may make you cry. Warm and glowing with cushions of comfort.  iTunes

Noël Ensemble by Mario Pelchat and Les Prêtres

Gifted vocalist, platinum recording artist, and four-time JUNO nominee Mario Pelchat scored a gold album this year when he teamed up with Les Prêtres on Agnus Dei. This holiday season, he presents Les Prêtres in Christmas album Noël Ensemble. A legion of popular singers, besides Mario, guest including legendary Joe Bocan, Cindy Daniel, popular folk duo 2Frères, and Tocadéo. The album has a nice blending of classical and folk flavours.  iTunes

Old School Yule! By Matt Dusk

Triple JUNO nominee Matt Dusk has a gold record among his achievements. The Ontarian serves a swing jazz Christmas album that should do it for fans of old blue eyes and the rat pack. It’s bright and cheerful. Enjoy the perky “Sleigh Ride” and smooth “Do You Hear What I Hear?” For those who like old school adult pop vocal, Matt’s the man – forthright and confident.  iTunes

Peace, Love and Opera by Julien Brody

Twelve-year-olds rejoice! One of your own has become a star. Julien Body’s dream is to become an opera singer, and he’s off to a splendid start. The dapper fellow with the assistance of Giancarlo Scalia drops a real winner that will inspire desires for peace on earth. This is a sweet one.  iTunes

Selected New Releases 5 April 2015

Hologramme is a very cool electronic outfit from Montreal, and its self-titled album kicks off this week’s new releases. Vancouver’s fabulous songwriter Daniel Wesley releases his summery seventh album I Am Your Man which we strongly recommend checking out. Edmonton’s Michael Rault follows up last year’s EP with full-length Living Daylight, somewhat of a retro psych-pop effort. Montreal’s Boogat gives us a fine world beat Allophone work, Neo-Reconquista, reggae-inflected music in Spanish. Micah Barnes is carving out a reputable solo career after his endeavours with The Nylons. New York Stories is a wonderful vocal jazz LP.

For those who enjoy their music noisily pumping, Toronto rock group METZ has the perfect album for you, II. The high-profile album this week comes to us from Victoria JUNO-winning, multiplatinum vocal group The Tenors; Under One Sky contains both covers and original compositions from the members themselves. Wouldn’t Be This is a beautiful country album from Whitby, Ontario’s The Stellas we also encourage checking out. EPs this week arrive from Toronto’s Midday Swim (self-titled), a debut indie pop-rock affair. Also, St-Basile-le-Grand, Quebec’s Gabriella gives us sweet, Anglo, folk-pop in EP While the Oak.

New Gold/Platinum Certifications 15-25 Jan 2013

New certifications have been announced by Music Canada including awards to The Tenors, Massari, Marianas Trench, and Fefe Dobson.

Toronto’s 2-time JUNO nominee Fefe Dobson has been awarded 2 platinum certifications for her hits “Stuttering” and “Ghost” from 2010 album Joy.  “Stuttering” was the 45th biggest song of 2011 according to the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 year-end chart, while “Ghost” was 47th biggest hit of 2010.  Fefe’s “Can’t Breath” off the same album was previously certified a gold single.

The (Canadian) Tenors have scored their third straight platinum album certification for last year’s Lead with Your Heart.  The group which was formed in Victoria was previously awarded with platinum certifications for The Canadian Tenors (2008) and The Perfect Gift (2009).

Ottawa’s JUNO-nominated Massari has nabbed his second gold certification.  The first was for his eponymous debut album in 2005.  “Brand New Day” which came so close to being a Top 40 single in 2012 (it peaked on the Hot 100 at #41) has just been awarded a gold certification for 40,000 units sold.

Finally, highly successful, 2-time JUNO-nominated Vancouver pop band Marianas Trench has been awarded platinum for its single “Desperate Measures”, the 62nd biggest hit of 2012.  This follows a long line of certifications for the band, “Cross My Heart” and “All to Myself” being the highest to date, both attaining double-platinum sales.

First Canadian Album Released in 2012 to Be Certified Triple Platinum

Some new certifications were awarded in the past few days which are very encouraging for Canadian artists.  First off, Ever After, last year’s exquisite album from Vancouver group Marianas Trench, has been declared Platinum.  As far as this year’s albums go, a trio of Gold awards have been given to Diana Krall for Glad Rag Doll, The (Canadian) Tenors for Lead with Your Heart, and Carly Rae Jepsen for Kiss.  Billboard has just handed Carly the Rising Star Award of 2012.

Canadians are showing heartwarming support for Francophone artists, as the contestants of Star Academie have, just 17 days after its release, received a Platinum award for their Christmas album, Noel.  Their previous disc earlier this year became a double-platinum release.  That disc, along with Justin Bieber’s Believe, were the best-selling albums of 2012 until today when it was announced that a Canadian album had gone Triple Platinum, another French language release.  Can you guess whose?  Below is a table of the recent certifications.

New Album Releases, Batch #12-1105

Psychedelic Pill by Neil Young and Crazy Horse

Neil Young needs no introduction. The man’s a legend. And we’re not even going to try determining what chronological ordinal gets placed with his new album (Wikipedia says it’s his 35th). Crazy Horse is an American rock band from Los Angeles (currently 3 members) and has released a number of albums with Neil Young over the years. Earlier this year, the collaboration released the album Americana which contained grungy roots rock reworkings of a number of traditional folk songs. Psychedelic Pill contains original compositions. Young has won 8 JUNO awards and has scored a quintuple platinum album. The Winnipegger was also the first Canadian artist to have a #1 album in the U.K., back in 1972.

iTunes     Official Website

Roll by Emerson Drive

Although originally forming in Grand Prairie, Alberta, in 1995, this country band, originally known as 12 Gauge, is now based in Nashville, USA and are 3-time JUNO nominees. In recent weeks, their single “She’s My Kind of Crazy” broke into the Top 40 on the Canadian Hot 100 which is a remarkable feat for a country tune. In fact, this is their highest charting single to date. Roll, the 5th studio album under their current monicker, was released last week. The album opener is “Let It Roll”, a collaboration with Manitoba’s Doc Walker.

iTunes     Official Website

Everything Is Expensive by Esthero

Perhaps known best for her mid-2000s hits like “Fast Lane”, the 2-time JUNO nominee from Toronto has released her 3rd studio album, Everything Is Expensive. Many of Esthero’s songs have been featured in Hollywood movies and TV series, and Nelly Furtado counts her as a big influence in her music. Moreover, because of her great vocals, she has been featured in songs by a number of popular international artists. In 2010, Esthero was one of the artists invited to be a soloist in the charity single for Haitian earthquake relief “Wavin’ Flag”. After working with Toronto’s Dylan White in his Cedar Park project, she began work on a new album. The first single was “Never Gonna Let You Go” which made the Canadian Hot 100. The album also contains “Walking on Eggshells” written by Jon Levine and Anjulie.

iTunes     Official Website

Lead with Your Heart by The Tenors

The (Canadian) Tenors is a quartet consisting currently of Remigio Pereira, Victor Micallef, Fraser Walters, and Clifton Murray. They perform classical pop of a mixture of covers and original songs. They are becoming quite well known internationally. Lead with Your Heart is their third album. Their first two achieved platinum sales. The Tenors were assembled by Jill Ann Siemens who sought exceptional male vocalists, not only sounding good individually but as a mix in singing together. The first group formed in Victoria in 2005, and they began going through a number of lineup changes. The Tenors’ first self-titled album was released in 2008, their rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” becoming the most popular track. A Christmas album followed in 2009, The Perfect Gift. They toured with David Foster and performed with Céline Dion. The new album contains with songs in English, French, Italian, and Spanish, and features a contribution by internationally renowned trumpeter Chris Botti.

iTunes     Official Website

R.E.V.O. (EP) by Walk off the Earth

Who can forget that cool one-guitar cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know”? It peaked at #13 on the Canadian Hot 100 and was certified a platinum single. Burlington, Ontario is famous for its Spencer Smith Park Ribfest. And now it’s becoming known for its mouth-watering 5-member folk-reggae outfit Walk off the Earth that has released an EP called R.E.V.O. with 4 new songs. The band is known for playing musical instruments seldom used in pop music. Their first album came out in 2007. This is their third release and was produced by the eminent Tawgs Salter.

iTunes     Official Website