After the success of his debut full length album 'View from the Bath' the Brigadier (Matt Williams) turns his hand to the festive season with this 6 song E.P., crafting a whimsical collection of sentimental and nostalgic pop songs about the many facets of Christmas.
This is the perfect E.P. for anyone you know who loves Christmas and wants an accompaniment whilst decorating that tree or wrapping those presents! Check this review from CDbaby out - and you thought I wrote long, run-on sentences! ;-) But it does inform! " 6 wonderful tracks, except that with '6 Christmas Tales..' we are taken on a journey... most Christmas songs dont have many good things to say, usually too many obvious lyrics, sleighbells and obvious chord progressions, here though, words and music stand out very well, and we begin our journey here starting with 'Santa Claus' which is a jazzy themed track, a song of excitement and childhood suprises, which is reaffirmed and married well with the second track 'Christmas aint just for kids' which is a pop style song which to me sounds like a Christmas day from my childhood, dont ask me how or why..it just does! nice use of percussion, guitar and harmonies, which carrys on to the next track 'The day before Christmas' which could have been written by Ray Davies after a ride out in a Christmas lit London street, I love the fairground quality it enthuses into the listener, this song could also be sitting quite comfortably in the Christmas charts in my opinion.. a credit to Matt's abilities in songwriting as an artiste. 'The Christmas List' follows on with a similar theme, very Vaundeville in style, Matt gives us all a reality check with the lyrics in this track.. we all do what he sings about here every year! great guitar solo for good measure too, which follows on in 'Merry Christmas to me' our penultimate stop on The Brigadiers Christmas journey, a slow rock ballad, with great use of wordplay in this song, also great production, which is evident throughout all his music.. and again those famous harmonies...then there is our last stop, herewith the ultimate 'Yule Lullaby' which is my personal favourite, (if I was tortured into choosing one!) This track is superb, a rare Brigadier instrumental, of which I would be proud of writing, (being a new age composer) ..here, in my imagination, we are looking into a Yuletide Victorian toyshop window through the tearful saddened eyes of a poor waif, open jawed at what might be, an inspiration to do better with his/her life in their future, there is a lot of hope shining through in this track, which happens to round off the album perfectly..Christmas is all about hope isnt it? Do yourself a favour, dont just think about buying this cd, just buy it..you will be in for a great journey, a special Christmas experience well spent in the company of The Brigadier."DaveMountain.
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