Disco de Charlotte Church: “Dream a Dream”

Just when I thought she couldn't sound better. She releases Dream a Dream and proves me wrong. This album is destined to be a classic. If you only buy one Christmas album this year you can't miss with this one.

I have been a fan of Charlotte Church since I caught her concert on public television. She amazed me with her talent and her childlike outlook that was so at odds with her powerful voice. I have been following her voice through her albums and could not pass up the chance to pick up her Christmas album both as a fan of Church and as an avid fan of Christmas music.

Charlotte Church will stun you with the brilliance of this album. The title song alone is darkly beautiful and includes the talent of Billy Gilman. The combination of these two voices is heartstopping and they blend wonderfully together. In addition to many traditional Christmas songs, Church also includes ones that are lesser known and for that I am thankful. Too often, a Christmas album contains holiday classics with different inflections produced by style alone. Church outdoes these other artists by including songs like "When A Child Is Born". Prior to this album, I had resigned myself to a musicbox rendition of it. But the lyrics are powerful and stirring and I am glad to finally have a version of it that does the song justice. Also, the catchy and moving song "Mary's Boy Child" is a song that initially caught my attention because the beat and style of the song was unexpected from the artist.

This is probably the best album I've heard from Charlotte Church in terms of the quality of her voice. Like many young artists, Church has been blessed with an extraordinary talent. The advantage of this is that she has years to cultivate her talent and to improve her technique. Though she is far from perfect, I respect her talent and am amazed at her gift. I look forward to hearing more from her in the future and to observe her development as a vocal artist.

Don't get me wrong, I love Charlotte. I fell in love with her voice when I first saw a commercial about her advertising "Voice of an Angel" and hearing her sing "Pie Jesu". However, this Christmas album is not quite what I expected...first of all, Dream a Dream isn't even a Christmas song and it's the title song. And then the other songs on the album, while beautifully sung, are sung by the choir with Charlotte only doing a verse or two on them and descants on some of them. There are some jewels on this album however, such as O Holy Night, which is done beautifully, and not-so-familiar pieces such as Draw Tua Bethlehem, but for the most part, the album is a little boring with a choir singing the same old Christmas songs (Oh Come All Ye Faithful, etc.) Bottom line: a good Christmas CD overall, but I'd rather listen to her self-titled album or Voice of an Angel instead.

I'll be really honest. I like this cd. I like it a lot. And no, I'm not a Charlotte fan. This is the only album of hers I own, or care to own, for that matter. Nor am I a classical music fan. I'm just an average guy who likes to listen to Christmas carols at Christmas time (imagine that). I think the girl has a beautiful voice. The classical music nuts are ranting that her voice is untrained, that she tries ...(too) hard on one hand, and is unemotional and flat on the other. I think they're missing the point. Quite simply, you don't create best selling albums if you suck. And since her albums routinely top the charts, I think that says something. Okay, so maybe her voice doesn't measure up to the top sopranos out there. That's okay, I don't like most of the top sopranos out there. I LIKE the fact that her voice is untrained. It sounds more honest for the effort. I think she did a fantastic job on my all time favorite carol "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". And I've listened to a lot of renditions of that particular song.

The field of classical music has become like so many others: too insular for its own good. Whatever happened to just listening to music for the fun of it? Why not just appreciate it for what it is? After all, if you can pick out every little fault in Charlotte's singing, I think maybe you are listening to way too much music. Sure, it's not perfect. Even I can hear little errors in her performance, and a music afficionado I am not. But again, it sounds all the more honest for it.

Ah well, enough of my ranting. I guess this is like most other things: if the so-called "experts" (ie critics, etc.) hate it, I'm almost sure to love it.

This is one of two Christmas records (George Winston's "December" being the other one) that I enjoy listening to even in July.

Charlotte Church brings out the classical sound in many of the familiar favorites, such as "O Come, All Ye Faithful", "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing", "Joy to the World".

Her "Ave Maria" is especially affecting for sheer spiritual feeling in her rendition. "Stille Nach, heilige Nacht" also has a spiritual quality, its being sung in the original german emphasizing a deep, heavenly beauty which the familiar English fail to convey as well. And again, "Cantique de Noel" is given the sacred treatment it deserves.

There are ageless favorites here that lend themselves well to Charlotte's voice, and to the choral arrangements such as "Ding Dong! Merrily on High", "Coventry Carol", "What Child Is This" (Greensleeves), "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" and "Gabriel's Message".

I did consider the title duet, "Dream A Dream", rather unfortunate...Her voice and Billy Gilman's do not blend well. Also, those who are Classical Purists, self-appointed experts, and such won't be happy with this album as a whole. But for those of us who maybe don't have "well-trained ears", but know what sounds good to us, this is a natural for our collections.