COURTNEY COLLINS & JEREMY YLVISAKER WITH JT BATES & MICHAEL LEWIS – Welcome to Christmastown

If you like your Christmas music a bit unorthodox, you will love this album. Welcome to Christmastown has quickly assumed the top position in my all-time favorite seasonal recordings.  

For those who remember, Courtney Collins was one of the best female singers in town, fronting the rock outfit Arena Venus before joining forces with Red Eye Records. Collins has released a solo album, Violet Night, and now does most of her recording in the Twin Cities area. Collins is also the producer of the madly popular Chad Vader video series. Welcome to Christmastown is not Collins’ first venture into holiday music; Arena Venus also released a Christmas album entitled Yuletide Swank.

Collins’ voice is a dark, sultry cocktail of sensual tease and she loves to experiment with arrangements that ultimately suit her style quite effectively. Teaming up with Minneapolis’s Jeremy Ylvisaker has proven to be a good move on her part. The two construct sophisticated yet playful atmospheres that use electronics as an undercurrent, creating a perceptible uneasiness. Matching this approach to Christmas music is most effective. Who else would make the Island of Misfit Toys (“The Most Wonderful Day of the Year”) sound so hypnotically inviting? Here Collins and Ylviskaer share a rare vocal.  The two also harmonize wonderfully on “The Peace Carol,” a song written by Bob Beers, a member of the Beers music family of traditional and folk music fame.

The range of styles is especially enjoyable. From the electronic dirge of “Song of Mary” to the old-style mood of “Christmas Time Is Here” to the electronic jazz of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” to the inclusion of Ron Sexsmith’s “Maybe This Christmas,” Neil Young’s “Winterlong” and Greg Lake’s “I Believe in Father Christmas,” the album is a surprise at every turn. The group, which also includes drummer JT Bates and bassist/clarinetist/saxophonist Michael Lewis, also includes “A Marshmallow World,” a 40’s Christmas tune that Collins must surely have heard on A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, a holiday album from 1963. Equally surprising is the classical-meets-country instrumental of “Welcome Christmas,” sung by the Whos of Whoville in Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Weirdly and beautifully demented, this album sums up nicely the twisted abomination that Christmas has become while simultaneously preserving the childlike sense of wonder it invokes.

COURTNEY COLLINS – Violet Night

(2005   Self-Release)

The eclectic ability of Courtney Collins to adapt to a style is uncanny.  First it was the power-pop and rock of Arena Venus. Then it was the dark electronic and psychoanalytical sounds of Voltress.  With both of those bands on hiatus, Collins took the opportunity to record her first solo CD. 

Late last year, Arena Venus shocked their fans with a Christmas CD of traditional carols done jazz-lounge style.  That CD was, surprisingly, one of the best of the year and Collins’ fans wanted more.  So she called on Andrew Thomas and Jeremy Ylvisaker who, in addition to playing guitars and keyboards, also recorded and produced Arena Venus’s albums at their Minneapolis studio, Soliton.  Ylvisaker recruited drummer Brett Bullion and the fundamental lineup for the album was complete.  Violet Night was recorded last fall and released in December.

Though Collins set out to record more lounge rock, reinterpreting some classics, what she and her fellow musicians wound up with is an engaging, varied set of tunes that don’t fall squarely into any one category.  Arthur Hamilton’s standard “Cry Me a River” opens the disc and gets a futuristic treatment with sequencing, blips and a brilliant yet sparse interplay between the guitar and bass.  “Off Ramp,” a moody piece of indie rock written with Arena Venus guitarist Dan Hicks, follows but then the tempo veers dramatically again with Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me,” a brilliant rendition performed at a dirge pace with ghostly steel guitar.

Other covers include “Thirteen Men,” (originally “Thirteen Women”) written by Dickie Thompson and transformed into the ultimate “atomic sex” song by Bill Haley and His Comets and later gender-reversed by Dinah Shore and then lounged-up by Ann-Margret; and “Al Di La,” recorded by Emilio Pericoli in 1962  and re-recorded by Dean Martin, Al Martino, Jerry Vale and by the Ray Charles Singers.  Collins sings it in both Italian and English.  Also covered is Idlewild’s “Roseability,” Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark’s “So in Love” done Motown style, and Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita” with a spare acoustic accompaniment. This is a creative adaptation as well, with double-tracked cello, upright bass and fingerpicked acoustic guitar.

The originals are just as varied as the cover selections.  “Don’t Forget” mixes a classic pop-lounge melody with a punchy chorus and Brian May-style guitar solos.  “Used To,” also written with Hicks, is totally Blondie while “Away From Me” blends 80s keyboards and song structure with contemporary drum sounds.  “Anthems” closes the album with another dose of moody indie rock.

Through it all Collins establishes herself as a singular, flexible and powerful vocal presence.  She doesn’t over-emote or add too much “crying,” giving the music a heightened sense of realism and artistry.  Collins has successfully synthesized all of her loves and influences into a compelling and original whole.  Violet Nights is an excellent recording that should be sought out by all musical thrill-seekers and by those who appreciate the injection of some mystery into their rock.  It will sit very nicely next to your favorite Tom Waits recordings.