While Tracey Thorn is best known for her work with Everything But The Girl and Massive Attack (their hit “Protection” features her rich, resonant voice), Tinsel and Lights, her fourth solo album, shows how truly talented she is. The Christmas album features darkly sweet covers of songs by Dolly Parton, White Stripes, Aimee Mann and Joni Mitchell (which is fitting, because as a whole the album is reminiscent of the bittersweet beauty of Mitchell’s Blue). Through the songs, Thorn explores the emotional highs and lows of the holidays, with sadness and glee thriving side by side on the album. Standouts include a melancholic, honeyed cover of Low’s “Taking Down the Tree,” featuring Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside, “Joy,” and the title track, “Tinsel and Lights.”
9 Christmas Albums That Won’t Make You Want to Punch an Elf
Music that won’t make you cringe, cry or stuff your ears with sugarplums
Tracey Thorn, Tinsel and Lights
Full List
Christmas Albums
- Giving Hope to the Genre
- Tracey Thorn, Tinsel and Lights
- The Beach Boys, Christmas Album
- Various Artists, We Wish You A Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year
- Sufjan Stevens, Silver and Gold
- Arcade Fire, A Very Arcade Xmas
- Various Artists, A Motown Christmas
- Low, Christmas
- Various Artists XFM It’s A Cool Cool Christmas
- Various Artists, A John Waters Christmas
