[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_FBwG5KUHE]
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.”