I was slightly nervous this evening as I gave a spin, my annual airing, to Bob Dylan's Christmas In The Heart. After all, I was expecting magic and, as we all know, magic has a way of wearing off eventually. Fortunately the magic worked and for forty or so glorious minutes I relived Christmas as it used to be, the innocent one of the heart.
Why and how the magic works is beyond analysis - and, though it seems strange to me, I'm very much aware of being in a fairly small minority of even Dylan fans for whom it does. But it does so, completely. I suppose it's partly to do with the playing - impeccable - and partly the imaginative arrangements. This time round though I was more aware than ever of the extraordinary quality of Dylan's voice on this material. He sounds like he's having great fun, and feeling great joy and, in the traditional carols, a nostalgic kind of reverence.
It also helps that this is not overplayed Christmas music, though I suspect it might survive a mall or two.
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