Different. Obviously, the voice changes over the years and decades. Octave’s change, lower tones come forth. Some artists can adapt to that with great ease. The likes of Marianne Faithfull did so. They found new experiences through a major change in the vocal range she lost and gained. Cliff Richard does not. If anything, it corners him even further than the last few albums he has released. Christmas with Cliff borders somewhere between cover and novelty but cannot be battered against too harshly for it sounds both ever-so-slightly autotuned and feels like a project that will be stuffed into the deepest, darkest of Christmas stockings.
Opening track It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year is a completely inoffensive cover. It is fine. Not exactly a Michael Bublé or Andy Williams-level performance, but it is fine enough for those that enjoy the new range Richard offers. The same cannot be said for the vaguely janky, tech-focused mixing of Sleigh Ride, a piece that marks an exasperated cover interjected with “giddy up, giddy up” too many times for comfort. It is a stark dip in quality that Christmas with Cliff never quite recovers from, even if it does hide brief glimmers of hope deep in the heart of the album. Richard has a solid voice, neither wavering on awful or reaching the heights of a great artist. His universal appeal as an artist with little personality is established with a series of vaguely acceptable covers.
Christmas with Cliff is hard to get all that enthused about. First Christmas is a very dull piece that puts Jesus Christ at the heart of the festive season. Joy to the World is as flat and dull as it gets for Richard. The key to unlocking the quality of any cover track, festive or not, is that the artist adapting the original has something new to offer. Richard has nothing new to offer these tracks apart from a weak and sloppy production that feels better suited to budget bingo halls. Jingle Bell Rock is so left of field with its Limmy-like production values that it does bring out a wry smile. Is that not what Christmas is for? A bit of the good stuff, lightening the mood? Definitely not. Richard needs to get his act together if he thinks Christmas with Cliff is an acceptable piece of work.
How Christmas with Cliff ended up in the same chart position as Suede’s Autofiction and Yard Act’s The Overload speaks more of the average listener and those that use the charts than it does for those that rattle through Richard’s latest album. 24,358 units shifted in the first week, and a lot of questions raised about the future of art across the globe. If this can sell more than the unsung talents discovered years later, Donnie Emerson’s Dreamin’ Wild and Post War Glamour Girls’ Pink Fur, then all is lost. Only a villain could smile and release Christmas with Cliff. That’s the smile of a man who wanted another chart-topper. Festive wastelands are easy to conquer when the concept of a Christmas album is no longer on the mind of anyone relevant. Enjoy your winnings, Cliff.
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