There’s no other way to put it: Anne Murray is a national goddamn treasure. She’s the Canadian Ambassador of Goodwill and Melodic Country-Pop. With apologies to Rush, Celine Dion, Neil Young, Shania Twain, and Alanis Morissette, Murray embodies the true spirit of Canadiana. Sure, many of us praise the anti-establishment anthems of Young, or like to imagine that Rush’s complex progrock represents a certain humble superiority inherent in all Canadians; “we might be mild mannered, but nobody constructs a bass line like we do.” It’s Murray’s earnestness, coupled with her unobtrusive melodies, that really embodies what Canada is all about though. We can try to portray ourselves as the tough guys and gals as much as we want, but really, we just want to vibe out to “Snowbird.”Few musical endeavours are as reliable commercially these days as a Christmas album. They’re one of the few pieces of music, outside of a Taylor Swift record, that sell consistently and manage to shoot up the charts. Thus, it can be hard to objectively review a Christmas album. By nature, a Christmas album is meant to be a commercial success. Otherwise, why record a bunch of songs that everybody has heard thousands of times before? A holiday-themed album is hardly an exercise in artistic innovation, but to judge an album by the same criteria we use to critique the most recent Kanye release would be pointless. The Christmas album seeks to achieve something different: to work within a specific songwriting tradition while mimicking the tone, mood, and atmosphere of the holiday season. By that standard, Christmas Wishes is fucking Dark Side of the Moon.Murray’s aesthetic is one we often associate with the Maritimes–a bit of a Celtic tinge, a little country, and a solid folk foundation. On Christmas Wishes, she fuses that sound with contemporary (at the time) pop, resulting in a Christmas album that shimmers like sunshine reflecting off the crisp surface of that first substantial snowfall. Album opener “Winter Wonderland” sets the tone, a laid-back, piano-and-string laden version that’s remarkable in its serenity. The string section plays an important part throughout the record, often building to a crescendo at the end of each song and guiding the listener into the next. This gives the album a sense of continuity, and makes for perfect background listening while opening presents on Christmas morning, the good cheer running contrary to any family strife or gift-related disappointment.Despite the album’s layered arrangements, Christmas Wishes succeeds through an almost overbearing simplicity. Murray’s voice is unobtrusive, just powerful enough to lend an emotional anchor to songs that completely rely on evoking feelings of nostalgia and good cheer. She’s perfectly unremarkable on “Joy To The World” and wonderfully undistinguished on “O Holy Night” while also adding a sense of sadness (but not too much; this is the holidays, after all) to the already melancholy “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.”Christmas albums should be mediocre, they should be vanilla. They don’t need to comfort us, but they also don’t need to push the envelope. Christmas albums can be considered a success when they find that sweet spot between evoking feelings of holiday-themed goodwill while also remaining background noise. Christmas albums should be a soundtrack to the season; present, but never overbearing. Christmas Wishes is one of those albums.
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