The Brian Setzer Orchestra: Christmas Comes Alive!
AllMusic; Amazon; Discogs; iTunes; official website

This came out in 2010. I'm not sure if I got it that year or sometime later, but I'm reviewing it in 2021. BSO have had a number of Christmas albums, but this is the only one I've got. (Most of the songs here have appeared on previous albums.) And all the songs are live. I don't really care for that. I mean, the songs sound fine, but I could do without hearing the audience. They are, of course, a swing band (among other, similar genres), and I do like swing music, but I'm not sure how good of a fit it is for most familiar Christmas songs. And I don't really like how many instrumental solos there are in all the songs. Not that they're not good, they're just not what I'm here for. (Honestly, though, I'm not sure what I'm here for.)

It starts with what I assume is an original song, "Dig That Crazy Santa Claus". It's okay, I guess. I don't exactly like their rendition of "Sleigh Ride". Then there's "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus", which at almost 7 and a half minutes feels too long to me. I have mixed feelings about "Winter Wonderland". I didn't like "Santa Claus Is Back in Town". But "(Everybody's Waiting For) The Man with the Bag" was decent. "Stray Cat Strut" isn't even a Christmas song, but it leads surprisingly well into "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch", so I kind of liked that mashup. "'Zat You Santa Claus?" works alright with their style, but I still prefer Electric Mayhem's version. "Angels We Have Heard on High" isn't bad, but the first half of it's purely instrumental, which I was starting to think was a good idea, when suddenly some women started singing the song, and that was nice, too. "Run Rudolph Run" was alright. I think their style probably works best on "Jingle Bell Rock", but that's also the one track that's done in the most familiar way, without too many flourishes. "Blue Christmas" was alright. Then there's a rockabilly song called "Fishnet Stockings". I didn't really care about that song, and it's another long one. Next up is the longest track on the album, at almost 8 minutes: "The Nutcracker Suite". But it only intermittently sounded to me anything like that piece is supposed to sound. There's just a lot of swing in this version. Still, it wasn't bad. The final track is "Jingle Bells" Some of the lyrics were altered, but mostly it sounded familiar enough. It was alright.

Well, I feel like overall I've been too hard on the album. I think it's just the kind of thing I have to be specifically in the mood to listen to, but the only reason I listened to it today is because it was the next album up alphabetically that I needed to review. But I don't think I'd often be in the mood to listen to it, anyway. It's a decent album, though. Just not quite my bag, today.