Lady Antebellum released their first Christmas album on 22nd October, ‘On This Winter’s Night’, their fourth studio album and one largely of covers, with the exception of the title track. However, the only original on this album is nothing new, as, along with five others, it has been taken straight from Lady A’s 2010 Christmas EP, ‘A Merry Little Christmas’. The others totally transplanted from here are ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’, ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’, ‘Blue Christmas’, ‘Let It Snow’, and ‘Silver Bells’. So in effect fans are only getting six new songs. They might as well have released another EP.
That aside, this isn’t the only thing that’s kind of a cop-out. Their lead single off this new release is ‘This Christmas’, not previously included in an EP or album, all well and good, you’d think. Except it sounds EXACTLY like the Donny Hathaway original from 1970. The only way it sounds different is it uses modern production techniques so it sounds cleaner, louder, and is mixed properly, with Lady Antebellum’s vocals on top. Not to mention that it’s not even an original idea to record a cover of this song, as it seems every big act ever has recorded it, including Cee Lo Green on HIS 2012 Christmas album.
So, fans are paying full price for half an album of new songs, all of which are covers, with the big single so similar to the original that a fan could probably have mocked it up with an editing programme without Lady A even recording their vocals. Of what I’ve heard of the rest of the album, it all sounds pretty same-y to me, in regards to similarity to the originals.
It’s a shame because a lot of country stars nowadays release a mix of covers and originals on a Christmas album, and increasingly the focus is on originals. There was a lot of potential not realized. The recordings are good, their vocals are good, and it’ll probably be a good jam around Christmas, particularly for Lady Antebellum fans, but I just expected more from them.
