News: Ye Olde Midwinter Graces Reviews

Apparently there was an unspoken embargo on reviews of Midwinter Graces in the UK press as The Guardian, The Independent and The London Evening Standard all didn’t get around to reviewing the album until this past weekend. Granted, the album was released one week later in the United Kingdom than in North America but still!

Nevertheless, none of the three reviews are particularly long — and The Evening Standard’s is just a paragraph in David Smyth’s article addressing this year’s batch of holiday records — so we’ll just plop them all up here for you at once.

Thanks to Mark-Alexis and Mike for the links!

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Tori Amos: Midwinter Graces (Universal Republic) 4 out of 5

Caroline Sullivan
The Guardian, Friday 11 December 2009

A sticker on the CD case advises that this is Amos’s first “seasonal” album – presumably, the piano-based gothic sprite doesn’t make conventional old Christmas albums. Midwinter Graces is surprisingly straightforward, however: some new songs, some traditional carols (adapted by Amos, who has excised some of the Christianity from the lyrics and added words of her own, as on A Silent Night With You) and a minimum of eccentricity. Accordingly, it’s her most touching album in years: centre stage is given to her voice and the simple arrangements, which feature harpsichord and flugelhorn (Pink and Glitter, a blaring big-band number with vamped-up vocals, comes as a bit of a shock, albeit a pleasant one). Amos sounds so tranquil she could almost be floating, but the stateliness of the orchestral backing keeps the songs grounded. You’d never know this was recorded last summer, so vividly does it evoke crunching snow and frosty nights.

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Tori Amos, Midwinter Graces (Island) (Rated 3/ 5)

Reviewed by Andy Gill
Friday, 11 December 2009

Like Thea Gilmore, Tori Amos broadens her approach to Christmas here to include pre-Christian celebrations, though the mood remains comparatively more religious.

It starts well, with the traditional “What Child, Nowell” arranged for piano, harpsichord and strings, and Amos’s vocal harmonies picking out the most moving aspects of the melody; and gets better with “Star of Wonder”, in which the pointedly Middle-Eastern flavour of the strings and percussion sets one up perfectly for the warm, epiphanic glow of the familiar refrain. But things start to go awry with “Candle: Coventry Carol”, which seems too studied and pedestrian, and an arrangement of “Harps of Gold” which appears to be aiming for the jaunty momentum of “Solsbury Hill”, but over-punches in the drum department. And it’s probably best to draw a discreet veil over the ghastly big-band blues ballad “Pink and Glitter”. But overall, the pluses outweigh the minuses, with further highlights coming courtesy of Amos’s own “Winter’s Carol” and “A Silent Night with You” – the former blessed with stately, hypnotic grace, while the latter’s undulating melody evokes the warmth of a reverie triggered by seasonal radio fare. Elsewhere, “Jeanette, Isabella” is accompanied by a delicate snowfall of piano notes, a lovely touch of aural imagery.

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Soundcheck: Bleak midwinter just got brighter 11.12.09

[…]

Tori Amos has a similar idea on Midwinter Graces (Island), which the pianist fills with harpsichord and subdued strings as well as her crisp, icicle voice. There’s an equally ancient sound to tracks such as Candle: Coventry Carol and Holly, Ivy and Rose and again, a deliberate avoidance of anything cheery enough to be played over the Asda tannoy.

[…]