By Stephen Twentyman (February 22, 2004)

What you see is pretty much what you get: 62:30 of Mario Lanza crooning a bunch of Christmas standards to a sappy Hollywoodish string backing. That sounds like a pretty nice proposition at first. However, there are two drawbacks that really sink this album. The first is sheer monotony. It's perfectly understandable (and probably a good thing) that this disc isn't a thrill-a-minute romp. However, it's not much of an exaggeration to say that this album never changes over the course of the entire hour-plus running time. Every song is played veeeery slowly and as majestically as possible. The tempo isn't that big a problem; it's the latter bit that continuously walks the line between appropriate and overbearing.

Mario Lanza's voice is very strong and usually quite good, when he can keep it under control. Sometimes, however -- "O Holy Night", in particular -- it's just too much. That song mixes Lanza's vocal histrionics, Constantine Callinicos' orchestral flourishes, and some backing choir into an overbearing mess that builds up and up and up and up to Spielberg-like heights (that is, too much is never enough) and then just sort of collapses under its own accumulated weight (but not before a painfully prolonged cadence). It sounds like the Polyphonic Spree and it makes for lousy listening. 

A song called "Pieta, Signore" is also included on this disc. It's in Italian and, to the best of my knowledge, is not a Christmas song. It's on the level of "O Holy Night": Lanza's performance is about equally as bloated, although the over-the-top frills that made that song bearable are replaced by a rudimentary piano melody and nothing else. After this point, thankfully, things look way up.

"The First Nowell" is a highlight of the disc. Lanza keeps it in his pants, coming to a tastefully dramatic crescendo among discreet orchestral embellishments. Everything about this track is fantastic. Later in the disc is an almost-as-good triptych of "We Three Kings" (unfortunately with a voice-over before each verse: "AND BALTHASAR SPOKE..."), "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (which boasts perhaps the best vocal performance of the disc, dragged down by the pointless choir), and "Silent Night". Other material on the album varies from quite good to quite awful (none reaches the nadir of "Pieta, Signore").

Although Lanza melodramatically belts out every note as if every breath were his last, the true power of his voice is ironically kept to but a few tracks. "Guardian Angels," through Lanza's remarkable use of restraint and loud-soft dynamics, is more powerful than any of "O Holy Night's" wasted energy could ever hope. The ever-needless chorus keeps itself to a few split-second "oohs" and "aahs" so that the attention is kept squarely on Mario. He deserves it: this track blows away even "Nowell" to claim the crown of the album. "Guardian Angels" is just a hell of a song in its own right, aside from the album's extreme camp factor.

If you've got a fondness for kitsch at all, you need this album. Legitimately great performances are mixed with deliciously gruesome assaults on good taste in an intoxicating combination of the maudlin and melodramatic. It would benefit a lot from better editing (a good half of this stuff is just barely this side of worthless), but as it is, Christmas With Mario Lanza is a fun diversion if you're looking for an hour or so of old-people-music pop crooning with a holiday twist.

Track Listing:
1) Deck the Halls
2) Hark! the Herald Angels Sing
3) God Rest You Merry Gentlemen
4) Joy to the World
5) O Christmas Tree
6) I Saw Three Ships
7) It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
8) Ave Maria
9) O Holy Night
10) The Virgin's Slumber Song
11) Pieta, Signore
12) The First Nowell
13) O Come, All Ye Faithful
14) Away in a Manger
15) We Three Kings
16) O Little Town of Bethlehem
17) Silent Night
18) Guardian Angels
19) I'll Walk With God
20) The Lord's Prayer