In the opening number, Kacey and James Corden attempt to sing “Let It Snow” but are continuously bombarded by a blizzard pounding them through flimsy windows. A redundant laugh track kicks in as the scene sets the corniness bar for the rest of the 45-minute special. During Fred Armisen’s spot on “Silent Night,” the two are interrupted by a carpenter doing obnoxiously loud work in the same room. The gags are rather lame and predictable- after the guy hammers a wintery landscape painting above the fireplace, you know it’s gonna come crashing down while Kacey and the Portlandia star perform the gentle carol.

However, it can’t help but feel on-brand for Kacey. The cheese is much more stomachable coming from someone known for silly yet clever songwriting. Remember, this is the woman who told us on one of her best singles to “mind your own biscuits and life will be gravy.” She’s already got viewers in a suspension of belief for seriousness, so the lowbrow jokes fit in- including the ones delivered by Dan Levy’s banal narration. 

“The covers opt to instead throw in another one of Musgrave’s celebrity friends instead of putting a spin on the originals.”

The best songs are easily the ones Musgraves wrote herself. “Present Without a Bow” with Leon Bridges appeared on 2016’s A Very Kacey Christmas and is easily the angel on top; it’s a cute and much less controversial replacement for “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” The covers, on the other hand, toss in one of Musgraves’ celebrity friends as their main selling point instead of putting a spin on the originals. Basically, if you like the guest artist, you’ll like their number only because it has them on vocals. It’s a missed opportunity that they chose not to rework a single classic to match the featured artist’s subgenre. For Lana Del Rey’s “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” the pair duets nicely, but there are no spacey harmonies or Hollywood sadcore to truly make it a Lana track. A Latin pop-twist akin to “Havana” could’ve been an exciting direction to take Musgraves and Camila Cabello’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” but we’ll never know.

While the special may be saccharine at times, it never goes full-on Hallmark Original. The “Christmas Makes Me Cry” sequence is another present from Musgraves, a track for those spending the season alone. It’s handled with her usual empathy, contrasting with the persistent red and green twinkle to keep the sappiness in check. It comes in as just the right time, too, directly following the tacky comedy from Armisen’s bit. 

The album version of the special is identical to the show itself, the audio broken up into LP format. The only thing that would get you to watch the special over listening to the record is the visuals, which fail to add extra tinsel to the songs. Despite the large Amazon budget, the sets aren’t any more magical than your local theater group’s production of A Christmas Carol. In most scenes, we’re treated to typical mistletoe-decked living rooms, save for that gaudy pink mess in the “Glittery” segment with Troye Sivan. The concluding “Ribbons and Bows” is an exception, with The Rockettes and many other dancers delivering the explosive sendoff we knew Musgraves would live up to. Unfortunately, that’s the only part with plenty of choreography. The other numbers fail to reach the same energy, with Musgraves and her guest mostly stagnant for the duration of each song. By the time you get to the finale, you’re ready for New Year’s.

The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show is a sweet little special, but not one that’ll become an annual household tradition. It doesn’t do enough to expand on the music, and the jokes don’t hold a peppermint-scented candle to Christmas Vacation. It’s by no means coal in your stocking, but it’s better suited in album form to pop on during your Christmas Eve drive to grandma’s house.

The post ‘The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show’ is Very Campy, But Very Kacey appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Elvis takes every element of Christmas you could ever want or need and creates the bluesy holiday baby that I listen to yearly. It’s impossible to resist the catchy tunes and scratchy vocals, especially during the first track “Santa Claus Coming to Town.” The faint “Christmas” cooing in the distance brings back the excitement we used to feel straining to hear sleigh bells on Christmas Eve.

Both carolers and Christmas-cranks alike can find something to enjoy in this collection. Songs like “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” Blue Christmas,” and “Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)” inject some of the snarl from rock and roll into the typical holiday cheer, while the latter half of the album appeals to the traditional masses.

The genuine emotion behind each vibrato in “(There’ll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me)” and “I Believe” could make the most stoic shed a tear. While the remaining ballads are a little slow for me, tracks two, three, and four balance them out in silliness, so it doesn’t feel like much of a loss when you turn the album off two songs early.

To say the album is perfect would be an exaggeration, but no one can deny that it lacks diversity. Where one song falls, another picks up the slack. When it feels the album takes itself too seriously, a song like “White” turns on. Just try to sing that song with Elvis’s intonation and not smile. You can’t. No matter how long the party, or how loud the family, Elvis will always make you smile — even when you’re absolutely miserable.

And at the end of the day, isn’t that what the holidays are all about?

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