Nick Lowe
Album: Quality Street
Label: Proper
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.nicklowe.com

Christmas records this far ahead of the season are always going to struggle to convince, but Nick Lowe's actually made this old grump long for the sound of Santa's sleigh. Ever the stylist he could have ramped up the jingle bells and laid on the children's choirs, but from the outset it's clear that Christmas round (St) Nick's gaff is a much cooler Yule than it is at your nan's place.

Who else would decide to open his festive album with a rockabilly-gospel-swamp rock reading of Children Go Where I Sent Thee, then reset Silent Night in New Orleans? It closes with a big band R&B take on I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day that just tickles to toes of ska and offers a wistful version of Roger Miller's Old Toy Train.

Christmas Can't Be Far Away is a quiet-time whisper that's perfect for Christmas Eve and Ron Sexsmith gifts the project a peach in the shape of Hooves on the Roof before Nick weighs in with a selection box of his own work that includes the sublime I Was Born In Bethlehem in which he imagines sitting next to Jesus Christ on a plane while Mary's Boy Child shares his original Christmas story.

Musically, everything is beautifully delivered - vintage Americana being the order of the day - and Lowe make s decent fist of the vocals.

Quality Street (named after the ubiquitous choc box of course) is well worth passing round this Christmas.

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk