Holly Cole - Baby It's Cold Outside (Christmas Album) [Import] - [CD]

Import edition of the popular Canadian Jazz vocalist first full length Christmas album includes 13 tracks, 'Christmas Time Is Here', 'Baby It's Cold Outside', 'The Christmas Song', 'Santa Baby', 'I'll Be Home for Christmas', 'Zat You Santa Claus', 'If We Make It Through December', 'Christmas Is..', 'Wildwood Carol', 'Sleighride', 'What Is This LovelyFragrance', 'Never No' & 'What About Me'. Despite the bustle of shopping, parties, and eating binges, the holidays should be a time for mellowing out, as Toronto singer Holly Cole seems keen on reminding listeners. Whereas many Christmas albums become showcases for divas to holler their guts out in the name of seasonal cheer, Cole's Baby It's Cold Outside is a very sleepy-eyed and likeable contribution to the genre. (It's also her third Christmas disc, after the 1998 EP Christmas Blues and the Japan-only Santa Baby: Live in Toronto). Cole and her longtime pianist, arranger, and coproducer Aaron Davis have created a set of light, mildly jazzy renditions of holiday standards, including "I'll Be Home for Christmas," "The Christmas Song," and--with the Barenaked Ladies' Ed Robertson making a cameo as vocalist--the title track written by the great Frank Loesser. The orchestra swells and surges for exuberant versions of "'Zat You Santa Claus" and "Christmas Is," but for the most part, the proceedings are adamantly low-key, giving Cole plenty of opportunity to show off her range without having to compete to be heard. She playfully scats her way through "Sleigh Ride" (accompanied solely by bassist David Piltch), gets low and sultry for "What About Me," and gives soft, delicate performances on "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "Never, No." The last song was Mary Margaret O'Hara's contribution to Count Your Blessings, a 1994 holiday album also featuring Cole, and its reappearance here is most welcome. Baby It's Cold Outside could have used a few more selections that were equally esoteric--like the Pretenders' "2,000 Miles" from Christmas Blues--but Cole and Davis are to be commended for their smart and subtle approach to some oft-abused songs. --Jason Anderson