The drive home for Christmas has ended for most. For Chris Rea, it’s just beginning. For a man with so many cracking songs to his name, Driving Home for Christmas remains his most persistent. It’s not a Shakin’ Stevens situation where it’s all you’ll be remembered for, more a Wham scenario. It’s a defining moment, but one of a handful, rather than the only track that’ll get you on the radio. Still, the royalties around this time of the year must be wonderful indeed, and for Rea, the sweet smell of cash and Christmas proves irresistible. So too does his album, aptly titled The Christmas Album, for all its festive sincerity. A welcome return to the recording studio for Rea, too. Putting a project out, compilation, scattered pieces, or a full-blown masterclass, it doesn’t matter too much. There’s a lot of goodwill and a sincere wish for Rea to continue creating that will overwhelm the actual quality of The Christmas Album, which opens with Driving Home for Christmas.
It’s a never-ending drive, then. It begins again for all as Rea deems it not yet finished. To be fair, it’s a fantastic song. One of the very best because the lighter instrumental flourish paired with Rea’s gruff, charming voice gives the message a grounded appeal. Sentimentality reigns, and heavy is the burden of those driving home for Christmas. What follows are a few fascinating songs, the likes of Rudolph’s Rotor Arm suggesting Rea will use reindeer in a military coup on Santa Claus’ compound. For Rea, driving home for Christmas is not enough. He must venture into the heart of darkness that only Elf and Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men, have dared to in the past. Christmas may be the most wonderful time of the year, but it’s also a time of padding out a single with leftovers, already released tracks, and instrumental jams to make a “new” album. The Christmas Album is new in the sense that it’s just been released. These songs are all available elsewhere, though.
Those who purchased the deluxe Dancing with Strangers release will already know a few of these songs, and those people are missing through the understandable ignorance of songs beyond Driving Home for Christmas are hardly going to be blown away. Instrumental riffs like Footsteps in the Snow rely on a personal connection to Rea which can only, truly, be established by that one episode of Gone Fishing. A Leonard Cohen-like drawl on Joys of Christmas saps away at the joy part of the title, but it’s a rare gem, a real classic overshadowed by Rea’s other festive efforts. A moody blues guitar and a slowed tempo, it’s that essential flip of Christmas not as the most wonderful time of the year, but a day of reflection like any other. Winter Song, too, captures that instrumental bliss.
Not every Christmas classic has to be a jolly occasion. LCD Soundsystem, John Lennon, and The Pogues managed to blur the line between festive cheer and the troubles of life still affecting the day. We often see holidays as a pause to problems but that is far from a sincere read on how life works. Some may be let down to see The Christmas Album is more a rehash of old tracks, but then there is some goodwill not reserved for a relisten of Christmas in the Heart. What Rea has done is what many artists see is the purpose of compilations, to smuggle their lesser-known but still loved songs into a loftier place. It works wonders for Winter Song and Footprints in the Snow, bookended by the perpetual state of driving home for Christmas. Starting and ending the album on Driving Home for Christmas makes it a cyclical album, a never-ending loop, much like Christmas itself.
