A Christmas Album

Long a star in his native England, Michael Crawford originated the famed title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's smash musical The Phantom of the Opera - for which he earned an astonishing catalogue of critical recognition on both sides of the Atlantic. A collection of holiday music with three superstars producers, Arif mardin (Barbara Streisand, Bette Midler), Michael Omartian (Wynonna Judd, Shania Twain), and Greg Nelson (BeBe and CeCe Winans, Dusty Springfield, Sand Patty), in Nashville and New York.

Backed by lush orchestration and a choir of quite formal carolers, Michael Crawford's A Christmas Album plays as an elegant concert rather than a random collection of seasonal ditties. An entertainment embracing the good news of Christ's birth, A Christmas Album is thankfully not something we'll hear booming all over town as we shop till we drop. Instead, this is precisely the type of recording one might enjoy at home with family while making an advent wreath or preparing holiday goodies to be shared with loved ones. Crawford's rich theatricality and classical arrangements invoke a joyful sense of spirit in readiness for the Holy babe who came to light the world. There is comfort here. Following ritual and tradition in this timeless mode of celebration, one is both warmed and delivered by the heralding tones of Crawford and his army of singing angels. --Paige La Grone