Review:

Christimas in the heart

Like all great rock stars Bob Dylan has led his faithful fans a merry dance. But what are we to make of his latest effort – a CD of Christmas songs? What we can say is that all the classics are here... but not as you know them.

This choice collection is delivered in a voice somewhere between Shane McGowan and Tom Waits. And even after wading through the whole thing the shock doesn’t quite wear off.

‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ crackles with odd and possibly unintentional menace, adding a new and surreal edge to what had always been an exercise in sugar sweetness. ‘Hark the Herald’ sounds as though a comedy drunk has wandered into the recording studio and made a nuisance of himself.

And then I begin to get it. This isn’t the worst and most hilarious Christmas album of all time; no, it’s a deliberate and quite brilliant subversion of the fake consumerist Christmas we’ve been gradually suckered into. Dylan simply takes the confection of Christmas and adds a morbid and painful depth.

This is a Christmas album for people who hate Christmas albums. It is for those who refuse to slip quietly into the long good night. Forget asking for a Harley Davidson and an old Motorhead album this Christmas, choose Dylan instead.

HIGH: The voice is perilously miraculous.

LOW: The picture of the semi-clad woman on the sleeve.

Published by: Columbia Records