Various Artists
The Hotel Café presents Winter Songs

Campus Correspondent CD Review By Chad Comello
North Central College

Every year a plethora of Christmas songs invade the radio. Most of the time they are the same songs—the same freaking songs—so when they start to get redundant even before Thanksgiving arrives, there is a serious need for a new batch of holiday ditties. Luckily, the folks at Hotel Café have put together a compilation of holiday songs sung by female singer/songwriters that are considerably more chill and creative than the sugary standards that have taken over the holidays.

The big names kick things off: Sara Bareilles (“Love Song”) and Ingrid Michaelson (“The Way I Am”) share the microphone in “Winter Song,” a tender duet that is the best song of album. The Australian actress-turned-musician Lenka turns in “All My Bells Are Ringing,” a track that belongs in a Gap commercial. Another interesting original is the vampy “Maybe Next Year (X-mas Song)” by Meiko. After that the classics take over: KT Tunstall tries out “Sleigh Ride” but can’t do much with it, Fiona Apple twists “Frosty the Snowman” into a folksy delight and Priscilla Ahn gives The Beatles’ “Because” treatment to “Silent Night.”

The benefit of letting more than one artist do a Christmas album is the diversity; each song has its own personality—some sullen, others saccharine—but they all fit together into one big, functional family. Winter Songs will sound to some like a walk through a snowy forest; to others, a romantic fireside snuggle. Some may still hear the same old inescapable Christmastime tunes, but that’s the beauty of the holidays: new and old can come together for the one purpose of holiday goodness. We can thank Santa that Winter Songs does just that.