Gloria Estefan: Christmas Through Your Eyes
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This came out in 1993. Not sure if I first listened to it then or sometime later, but I'm listening to it again in 2021 to write a review.
1. "Overture: Silver Bells": This actually starts with some instrumental music, and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and more instrumental music before getting into "Silver Bells" about a minute and a half through the track. And it ends with more instrumental music. Anyway, it all sounds okay, but not among my favorite renditions.
2. The Christmas Song: Again, just okay. Eventually starts to drag a little.
3. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas: This is nice. And I like the background vocals. But I'd say it's twice as long as it needs to be.
4. Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow: Not bad.
5. This Christmas: It's never been one of my favorite songs, possibly because I haven't heard it as often as most other Christmas songs, so it's less familiar to me. And this certainly isn't my favorite rendition of it. I prefer the original, by Donny Hathaway. But this isn't bad.
6. I'll Be Home for Christmas: This one has a background choir, which is interesting, but quite distracting from the foreground vocal.
7. White Christmas: This is nice enough.
8. Silent Night: It's almost a minute before the singing starts, and I'm not sure how I feel about the background music. It almost feels to me like it's for a different song. Still, the song itself is nice enough. And toward the end Estefan sings it in Spanish, which is a welcome difference from most renditions I've heard.
9. Christmas Through Your Eyes: We finally come to the title track, which is an original song. It's not bad, but it doesn't sound particularly Christmasy to me. And it's not something I find memorable, I'm afraid.
10. Arbolito de Navidad: This one's entirely in Spanish, so I don't understand any of it. Before the track started, I used Google Translate on the title, and it said "Christmas Tree". The song doesn't sound at all Christmasy to me, but I expect that's just because I'm used to English songs. Anyway, it's not bad.
11. Christmas Auld Lang Syne: I prefer the familiar New Year's version, but it's an interesting idea to make the song with new lyrics for Christmas.
So, I want to say that back in the day, Gloria Estefan was one of my favorite singers, so I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't like this album more than I did. But I did like it. It just doesn't feel essential.