Jamie Cullum - The Pianoman At Christmas (2020) {Japanese Edition}

With his first holiday-themed album, 2020's The Pianoman at Christmas, Jamie Cullum strikes a festive balance between swinging traditional pop and heartfelt singer/songwriter introspection. It's a balance the singer and pianist has been perfecting ever since breaking through in the early 2000s, moving between urbane re-interpretations of jazz standards and his own lyrical pop/rock originals. It's also a formula that has helped him remain a Top 20 chart regular in the U.K. with albums like 2014's Interlude and 2019's Taller. The Pianoman at Christmas makes the most of these skills as Cullum brings all of his varied experience to bear on a set of original holiday songs. Produced by Greg Wells, the album is a fittingly lush production, recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios with a varied mix of big band, orchestral, and small group arrangements. Tracks like "It's Christmas" and "Christmas Never Gets Old" are big swinging numbers that capture a Frank Sinatra fireside sparkle. Similarly vintage-sounding, "Hang Your Lights" is a snappy, minor-key jump blues rhumba in the Louis Prima tradition, while "So Many Santas" crackles with a Las Vegas high-kicking chorus-girl energy. We also get the bluesy, Ray Charles-sounding "Jolly Fat Man" with its wry, nightclub sense of humor. While much of the album evokes the 1950s and '60s golden age of traditional pop, there are more introspective moments as Cullum settles gently into the Billy Joel-esque title track, the ebullient '70s soft-rock anthem "Turn On the Lights," and the dusky, cinematic string romanticism of "Beautiful Together." The Pianoman at Christmas isn't just a great holiday album, it's a great Jamie Cullum album.