Snow Angels, Over the Rhine (Red Eye)

This 2007 CD is actually the Cincinnati band's second Christmas album; they made one called The Darkest Night of the Year a decade ago. Going back to 1990 as a typical four-piece band, the current incarnation is married couple Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist plus a changing cast of supporting players playing alternative folk-pop. This album is all about the songwriting, mostly Detweiler with help from Bergquist, relying only upon "One Olive Jingle," a jazzed-up "Jingle Bells," and "Little Town," a revised melody and reimagined lyrics based upon "O Little Town of Bethlehem," from the canon. Holiday melancholy is the name of the game here, as the title song tells of a spouse lost to an unnamed war at Christmas, "All I Ever Get For Christmas Is Blue" and "New Redemption Day" being self-explanatory, "Little Town" a meditation on the strife in the historic cradle of Christmas, "Here It Is" offering the singer's love to someone who may not deserve it, and more like this. More hopeful thoughts are nestled into "Snowed In With You" and "We're Gonna Pull Through." The vibe is not too dissimilar to Low's Christmas album, though without that group's primitive approach; these guys stress musicianship and show more obvious influences from folk and jazz. Nothing uptempo here, but that's to be expected since this disc is all about its message of the holiday and its effects on people.